Time is a resource

We have to budget out time the same way we budget our money. With prudence. We have so much time in our day and so many activities we can accomplish. Of course the only way to budget our time is to keep track of it, which means we’re using our calendars, Outlook, Act!, iCal are some of the most popular ones.

In the October 2009 download there is a bonus video showing you how you can set up a calendar and build in projected earnings so that you can anticipate your earnings at the exact same time that you are managing your time. None of the calendar programs provide for you to calculate what you are earning in a given day. I use both – my excel template and my Outlook calendar. They work hand in hand. The outlook is better visually when I am on the phone making appointments. Then I go into my excel template and update what I had anticipated at the beginning of the month or the beginning of that week and replace the info with what I’ve actually scheduled and based on that, what I will actually earn. This is all tied together. Time is a resource, a commodity. We have to balance it out and also make sure that a reasonable amount of it is allocated for personal and down time. This is an area where I myself still need a lot of work because I am so passionate about what I do, so I spend an inordinate amount of time doing it. It’s ok, if it ever got unhealthy I can back off – I know this because I have experienced points where it felt too much and trust me when I say that I am very clear on one thing – I can take time off absolutely guilt free because nobody on this planet can ever accuse me of not working hard.