Don’t you just love it when you think something and then it happens. Well that very nearly happened to me this morning. I woke up at 5:30am, nearly 3 hours before my train to London and firstly decide that as its cold outside I won’t go on my morning run. Then I wonder what would happen if I fall asleep and miss my train. The good news is that I didn’t fall asleep but the bad news was that I nearly missed my train. I got on the train with just 20 seconds to spare. Now I wish I had had better thoughts this morning than missing my train!!!.
Reflecting on the situation I am reminded of this great quote from Roger James Hamilton. “if we waste money, we can always make more, but if we waste time, it’s gone forever”. This is exactly what happened to me this morning. I wasted time checking my email, catching up on facebook and looking for my misplaced mobile phone, and as a result I nearly missed my train.
Time is actually the most valuable commodity we have in business. We all have the same 24 hours in each day but it is how we use this time that determines our success. Do you spend hours cleaning your house and running errands, or do your outsource these activities so that you can spend your time on high, income generating activities that grow your business?.
All the successful people I have ever met or studied have mastered the art of leading their time. They treasure every second they have and use it wisely. They invest their time rather than spend it. Now that’s an interesting thought. Investing in time rather than spending time. Typically when I work with business owners to help them grow their business, their wealth and time mindset are two areas that we start with, because until you value time you will always be chasing your tail.
When you master leading time your days become more effortless, as you are crystal clear on what you are doing when. You make better decisions and don’t get distracted by the bright shiny object syndrome. And when you value time, others around you start valuing their time too. They recognise the implications of being late for meetings and you start not tolerating behavior that in any way under-values your time.
I would like to invite you to track your time for an entire week. Create a spreadsheet or grab a sheet of paper. Draw seven columns – one for each day of the week – and then break each day down into 30 min segments and then track what you do during each 30 min segment (You can change this to 10 or 15 mins increments if you prefer but 30 mins works well for me). Make sure to note the times that you eat, sleep, bathe, work out. In fact everything that you do. At the end of a week you will some great insights into how you spend your time, and then you can assess how much of your week are you investing your time and how much you are spending your time.
When I did this exercise the results were illuminating. So don’t delay start today by really valuing your time and stop wasting it. If you need any assistance with mastering your time mindset then please book in for a complimentary chat and let’s explore what is possible
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
