Lulu, my Spending Planner Coach is very pleased with my progress. Three weeks on and we are gradually getting a better picture of my personal budget. With the SPI system there are graphs and charts (who doesn’t love a pie chart!?!), and I can see clearly where and when we will come unstuck. It’s somewhere around March 13, 2020. In our modeling, my ins and outs are outta sync, and in about 9 months it’ll all come crashing down.
The past few days I’ve been reflecting on my work and personal time (and lack of it). And I’ve been wondering if I should do what Lulu and I have done for my finances. What if I could allocate my time to specific categories. Where am I spending too much? Where am I spending too little?
There are non-negotiables. Sleep, for instance should be given generous room in the budget. Exercise too should be non-negotiable. It’s not, but it should. This year I didn’t find the time to train for the Bloody Long Walk and my 52 Hike Challenge is barely limping along because of my lack of weekends available. Like my finances in March 2020, will my wellbeing come crashing down?
This story is not unfamiliar to small business owners, particularly those working on growing. But while it’s familiar, it’s still not easy and I (maybe stupidly optimistically) think it could be better.
Like my financial budget most of the problems are my own fault. Just like I didn’t really need to buy those two new pairs of shoes, so too I didn’t need to say yes to the meeting I said yes to just because I couldn’t say no. I also didn’t need to volunteer for more things. And I didn’t need to start working on a new business idea that needs me to invest more time so it can grow.
Like my personal financial budget, my time budget is seriously stressed, and if I’m not careful I’ll be heading towards bankruptcy.
What am I going to do?
I’ll start with the modeling. Because Lulu and I crunched the numbers I’ve worked out that I’m outta sync. It’s not a feeling, it’s the truth because the numbers are clear.
I can either increase my income or decrease expenses. And given I can’t literally make the days longer, it looks like it’s time to cut the expenses.
What’s the time equivalent of taking your lunch to work instead of buying it? If I can do that, hopefully that will free me up to then try to knock off some of big time expenses.
That’s what I need to find and implement. Keep you posted.