Time Is Money

Time Management and Money

I remember how intrigued I was when years ago, and long before I had heard of time management, I recognised the link between time and money - we say that we 'spend' both time and money, and also talk about 'saving' time and money.

Moreover we usually find that in order to save time, we have to spend money, and vice versa. For example, to save time cooking, we

Our decision depends on our circumstances and priorities - someone else might well prefer to save some money and spend more time preparing and cooking a meal.

We make these choices all the time and often have no objective yardstick to show us how effective they are - unless our choices are so extreme that eventually we are totally overloaded with commitments, or on the other hand we run out of money! Constantly trying to keep a balance between spending and saving time and money demands a willingness to keep checking priorities.

This is particularly true of self-employed people starting or growing a business. It can be tempting to try and keep all costs as low as possible and do everything yourself. But this can be counter-productive when you realise just how much is involved in starting and building up a business.

You need to think carefully about money and time management. If you can pay a specialist to do a job and thus free yourself up to do something else, that may be the better solution. Here are just a few examples:

* You might be able to tinker on the computer and come up with a logo and some marketing literature, but how long will that take and will the results justify it? Paying a designer might be a good move.

* Business these days is wrapped around with bureaucracy and you must comply with all kinds of government agencies. Is it better to do all your accounts, wages and admin work yourself or would an employee or virtual assistant do it better and quicker?

* Selling is an essential part of any business and one loathed by many. You can either spend hours on the phone working through directories, or hire professionals to do your cold calling and set up appointments.

* Running business systems efficiently can be time-consuming and repetitive. There are software programs available which reduce the monotony, but they cost money. Another choice!

* If you need to travel some distance for work, consider the respective merits of driving yourself or taking a plane or train. A plane or train ticket may be expensive but you might be able to do some work while you travel and still arrive in good shape.

* You are probably constantly receiving invitations to attend conferences, seminars and workshops. These are often held in expensive hotels and can be pricey. It is tempting to think you can save both time and money by not attending! But you can meet some valuable contacts this way who will refer you work, thus saving your marketing time and costs. At the same time, you may well be inspired with some new ideas to transform your business growth.

* Personal development - when you are working for yourself and have no employer to pay for these on your behalf, training and executive coaching looks very expensive and you may barely even consider it. My own personal experience and that of many of my clients shows that the spurt in growth which comes about when you commit to personal development can move you further and faster than you ever dreamt.

* Holidays and breaks - it is so easy to feel that we cannot stop working or everything will start to crumble. The descent from enthusiasm and motivation to worry and stress is an insidious one which we may not even notice and which has a profound impact on our time management. Give yourself the gift of some time away from your desk, however, and you will return feeling newly inspired and be so much more productive.

Time and money - our investments in both will ultimately pay off in the success of our business and the happiness of our lives. It makes sense to think carefully about the balance.

might buy ready- prepared food.

Leadership Begins at Home

One of the greatest gifts you can give your kids is help in foregoing immediate gratification, by setting boundaries for them and by modeling the behavior yourself.

That's also one of the greatest gifts you can give to those you lead or manage.

I got to thinking about all this after reading "Growing up Digital: Wired for Distraction," Matt Richtel's superb, often heartbreaking front page article in Sunday's New York Times. It's about the effect of all the new technology on the attention span of kids.

Compelling as it was, I suspect few read to the end of the article. It was long, and we ourselves are struggling with the same issue our kids are. Just last week, I wrote about it under the headline "Warning: Your Attention is Under Siege."

When it comes to the impact of our increasing obsession with being connected electronically, kids are simply an exaggerated version of the rest of us. They're also more honest about the costs.

By staying relentlessly busy sending thousands of text messages a day, playing endless hours of video games, and checking Facebook every three minutes, kids are addressing two core needs. They're eliciting brief, tiny bits of gratification and reassurance, and avoiding loneliness and fear. "Video games don't make the hole," a student named Sean McMullen poignantly tells Richtel. "They fill it."

The most obvious cost is that when they're preoccupied with technology for entertainment or escape, kids aren't engaged in learning or any sort of complex thinking.

In one recent study, 47 percent of heavy users of technology were found to have poor grades, versus 23 percent of light users. The kids Richtel describes struggle at school nearly in direct proportion to the amount of time they spend online.

The analogy at offices is that most of us are quick to shift attention from our work every time we hear the "ping" of a new email that promises instant gratification (but rarely delivers). Email also interrupts whatever else we're doing. When we turn attention from one task to focus on another, it dramatically increases the time it takes to finish the first task, and adds to the number of mistakes we make.

Nothing better fuels high quality work and productivity, or makes us feel more satisfied, than deeply immersing ourselves in a task. But really focusing requires resisting the instant gratification of other distractions, and that takes effort.

There are lessons here for parents, but also for leaders.

First, model the behaviors you hope to see. If you're forever on your iPhone, or watching TV, your kids get that message. If you're always looking over at your computer screen when you're meeting with people, they too get the message.

Second, recognize that these technologies are as addictive as any other drug or diversion that provides an instant hit of pleasure and/or an escape from pain.

"Sometimes I'll say: I need to stop this and do my schoolwork, but I can't," Vijay Singh tells Ritchel, echoing his friends. Parents must set firm boundaries restricting the use of electronics.

It's not about banning them, which is unrealistic and extreme, but rather about helping kids to regularly experience the deeper satisfaction that comes from becoming truly absorbed in and mastering a complex challenge.

Leaders, meanwhile, need to encourage their employees to turn off email entirely at times, in order to focus uninterrupted attention on their most difficult tasks.

Third, parents and teachers alike ought to encourage a new way of working. Whether it's for homework or for office work, the best way to get things done is in periods of interrupted work no longer than 90 minutes, followed by true renewal.

We embed, contextualize, and synthesize learning during downtime—which is what we've sacrificed in our addiction to constant connection.

The new technologies aren't going away, nor should they. The real issue is whether we can learn to manage them more skillfully, so they don't end up managing us. Who's going to lead the way?