You can always make money, but you can never make time.
We talk about money here ALL THE TIME with good reason. Yet, the root of our problems was never the lack of funds. We know how to make money. We already do it every day.
You might not like how you it, but you get up, work and bring home an income. Some people earn more, some less but everybody earns something.
If we had more time, we can always make more money.
Oh I can hear the naysayers already. “Oh I have time. I’m just too tired to earn a side income.” No, you aren’t. You are just lazy.
But let’s forget about laziness for a second too. If you had more time, you can nap every day, and if you STILL had time, you can then work on your side income.
But only if you had more time.
Now, why is this important? Consider how we spend our time. Just off the top of my head, I can think of at least six ways that people waste their time. Here they are, in no particular order.
- Work on Their Weaknesses – This starts young. Imagine coming home with a report card and having all “A”s except English, which you got a C in. Guess which subject your parents and teachers are going to tell you to work on? By all means, work on your weaknesses so it doesn’t interfere with your success, but we are ultimately judged on our strengths. If I ended up a scientist, is my English skills that important as long as I could communicate my theories?
- Commute – The census bureau reported in 2005 that Americans spend, on average, more than 100 hours commuting to work each year. 100 hours.. That’s $725 even if you work at minimum wage. Get a job that pays $50,000 a year and 100 hours quickly amounts to more than $2,400. And that’s not all. There are people like me who work at home, which means there’s someone else spending more than 200 hours on the road each year. Never mind the gas and extra maintenance on your car. Take your life back and stop spending it on the road.
- Watching TV – If you do it for entertainment purposes, then fine, I can respect that. But don’t just sit there because you have nothing to do. Think of something productive to spent your time in, so you won’t be worried about how you are going to pay for your next impulse buy.
- Waiting in Line – I can’t even possibly imagine how much time we spent waiting. Just waiting for food probably costs us hours upon hours every week. Why not try to minimize some of that? Call ahead and order beforehand, make a reservation or eat a little earlier (or later) is all that’s needed to save you oh so much time.
- Day Dreaming – We all do it, but it’s not because we are lazy. We want to focus, but it’s difficult when we are overweight. Watch your diet and exercise, and I assure you that you will regain much more than the half an hour you spend at the gym every day.
- Multi-tasking – I will keep saying this until you believe me. Stop trying to do two things at once. Work on one task, finish it, then move on to the next.
Change your habits, and save a ton of time. Then, the choice of more money is yours.
{ read the comments below or add one }
“If I ended up a scientist, is my English skills that important as long as I could communicate my theories?”
I’m not sure if this is supposed to be a joke, but do you mean ARE my English skills that important? 😀
Great post.
I’ve saved alot of time by simplifying my lifestyle…
No high tech gadgets (except computer), spend time with the family. Try to do things around the house. I’ve actually cut out too much and I have more time than I need right now… which isn’t good either… but it’s the right concept.
One other huge thing that saves me time is outsourcing. If you can calculate how much your time is worth and then spend your time doing the things where your time is most valuable and outsource the rest then you can save a lot of time (and make more money in the long haul).
Time is money. I think the key here is being productive. Don’t aimlessly waste your time lounging around, but instead have tasks and reward yourself when you complete a few tasks. Things will get done much faster.
DVR has really helped me save time. I always watch a show or two in the background while getting ready in the morning when I have more time. Allows me to watch on my time and faster.
Thanks for sharing an unique way to save time. I’m sure the lack of commercials save you even more time too.
I do the same thing as I very rarely watch live TV. The only time I ever hardly watch live TV is when I watch sports but other than that I use my DVR and fast forward through the commercials.
There is more time always available if we reduce our television time.
Ah, we all have time, and I cannot agree more on the laziness. Do all that you can now so that you can be free later. Stop the whining and begin working more. If you don’t have enough money, go make some more.
I love the advice on weaknesses. Most people don’t realize that trying to strengthen their weakness is really a lost cause unless you can really get good at it, but they keep trying.
Work on your strengths to become the go to person for something and you won’t seem as dispensable at work anymore.
Unfortunately, EVERYONE is dispensable, which you already implied. However, you are totally correct that you will beat the odds of being fired if you have an asset that’s tremendously valuable to where you work.
It’s easy to focus on the easiest tasks and get them out of the way, but quite often that leads to getting nothing important done. By splitting up the small tasks throughout the day and focusing your energy on the important tasks, you’ll be much more productive.
I commute 25 minutes each way to work (200+ a year). I recently read an article that said that was just below average. I wish I could find a job next door, but sometimes that’s not possible.
Also, if you make $50,000, you’re likely doing it on salary, so those 100 or 200 hours spent working don’t translate into much additional money. But if you spend those hours (and many more) investing in yourself and building side income, you will be able to build a new stream of income. It all comes down to wanting it.
Are you actively looking for a job that’s closer to your home? How about seriously considering moving closer to your work place? The houses might seem more expensive, but 1 hour of your time every day amounts to a gigantic sum of money.
Hopefully, you are already trying to build your side income, in which case you are seeing the power of that extra hour.
Don’t waste your time but work hard. You will be much happier, and richer too.