Budgeting Your Time

Last night I had the opportunity to attend a Jaycee's meeting in which Nate Boulton, a local attorney and civil justice advocate was the guest speaker.  The conversation was about the importance of networking and being involved in our communities.  One of the golden nuggets from the workshop that I thought I would like to share with you is the importance of budgeting our time.  

Many times we hear that people do not have enough time and we may even be guilty of saying this ourselves.  People will make time for the things they have decided are important and are valuable to them.  Budgeting our time is one of the things that we need to do in order to meet the goals in various areas of our lives.  If you don't decide what you are going to do with your time others are going to have the power to do that for you or your most valuable asset may be wasted. 

How do you budget your time effectively?  Budgeting your time is like budgeting your money, you should start with what you value. Here are the steps I would recommend taking to make sure that your schedule represents what you most value. 

Step 1: List the things that are important for you to do with your time (people to spend time with, organizations to be involved in, ways you are going to earn money, investments into yourself, etc.) 

Step 2: Prioritize the list  

Step 3: Decide what you want to budget your time with (paper calendar, electronic calendar, etc.) 

Step 4: Add the required things in your calendar (hours at work, children activities, sleep, etc.) 

Step 5: Add the next round of things most important to you (date nights, organization meetings/events, community/networking opportunities, family time, working on goals, etc.) 

Step 6: Decide what to do with the remaining time (more community involvement, family time, reading, mentoring others, volunteering, etc.).

If you don't some of these steps you are more likely to waste your valuable time when it could be used to make additional investments in yourself and others.   What do you think?  Do you budget your time?  Do you have any additional tips that would help others?