add-headingHow Budgeting Can Help Creativity

Similar to money, time can be seen as currency spent in order to gain value in particular subjects, like spending time learning to read or speak a new language. And, like money, time can be budgeted so there’s a greater focus on appreciating assets. This week for my blog post, I’ll show you guys how I look forward to my week and give you a general idea of how I budget of my time.

I like to make the comparison between money and time because we use the same verbs to describe the way we use these two very different things things. We spend money the way we spend time, but the difference being money can be tangible whereas time is an idea. However, they can be invested in the same way. Investing time into a one subject can generate compounding interest over time.

Time is precious, which is why it’s important to plan the way you spend your time in advance so you can ensure you’re spending your time progressing towards your goals. In order to do this, you have to budget your time similar to the way you would budget money.

Budgeting Time

First, figure out how much time you have per week and how much time you need to spend on living expenses. There are 168 hours in the week. You could be a student, an employee, or a business owner, which could vary the amount of time you spend towards your day job. Generally, we can agree that 40 hours a week is a good average amount of time many of us spend working to make ends meet. If we sleep 8 hours a day, we spend roughly 56 hours a week sleeping—maybe more if you’re like me and love to sleep!

That’s about 96 hours spent every week before we’ve even started touching our personal goals. On the other hand, there are still 72 hours left in the week that can still be spent doing something productive, like taking photographs, writing blog posts, or learning something new. Planning those 72 hours can be the difference between consistently moving towards your goals and just dreaming about them.

Some of the greatest athletes, body builders, and scholars attribute their success to consistency. While consistency can be difficult to achieve, great things can happen when hobbies finally become habits. In order to stay consistent, a person needs to plan for success.

A quote I heard from a podcast called the Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor stuck with me, which went, “A small menial task done every day, if it is truthfully done every day, will beat the efforts of a sporadic Hercules.” It means that, persistence, consistency, and perseverance can beat raw talent. This quote reminds me of Kevin Durant’s quote, which went “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”

How I Allocate My Time

As an example, I try to spend 63h of the remaining 72h being productive some way, splitting those into three major categories. I easily dedicate 21h per week to health and fitness. Each day, I spend about an hour in the gym, then about another hour or two studying, cooking, or doing something related to fitness, like stretching or running.

I’ll spend the next 21h blogging, which can include taking photos, planning, writing, and coming up with new content each week. The more time I spend on my blog, the better I become down the road.

Lastly, the next 21h are dedicated to reading, writing, and doing something related to my personality, like watching YouTube channels, organizing, and reading blog post from other fellow bloggers. The point is to allocate time into areas that will produce a greater return in the long run.

According to these calculations, there should be 9 hours left each week, but I chalk that up as energy lost to the system. There are times in between each event, either travelling or getting caught up in conversation, that can take away hours from the day, so it’s best to account for unpredicted events.

Instead of letting time waste away spending hours surfing social media, watching garbage television (there’s good television out there), or doing something unproductive, it’s best look forward into to plan to invest time towards actions and ideas that will net a substantial, compounding return.

Blog #022