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?

March Update

While this winter has seemed long the new year doesn't feel like it could have already been 2 months ago.  This year has been a busy one as I work on new things spiritually, financially, intellectually, relationally, and physically.  I am going to take this opportunity to give an update where I am on my 2014 goals.

Spiritual Goal: My spiritual goal is to connect with God each day through prayer, reading his Word and reflection.  

I am still working on intentionally praying daily - it has been the weakest part of my spiritual walk in recent years.  I know I need to be in constant prayer when times are good and when times are rough.  We started in a new small group study in February based on Max Lucado's book Fearless which was one of the books I read as part of my intellectual goal.  So far I have been happy with the study as it pushes us to fear less and rely on God more.  

Financial Goal:  For 2014, we are going to try to stretch ourselves and set a financial goal of paying off at least 60% of the debt that is remaining on our mortgage.  

Anna and I are still focused on this and looking for ways to cut cost and save us money for the short term to eliminate our debt quicker.  This month we changed internet service providers which will cut $10-15 each month out of our regular expenses to put toward debt reduction.  In addition, I was asked and decided to coach girls soccer this spring.  That extra income will get us closer to making this stretch goal a reality.  As of today, we are projected to be debt free in 19 months. 

Intellectual Goal: My intellectual goal will be to read the same three books at least once a month and spend time reflecting on the principles and applying them into my life. When I find a book that has principles to that would be beneficial to read over and over again it will stay in my three book diet for the rest of the year. 
I have decided to change my 2014 intellectual goal to allow myself the flexibility that I have been giving myself already.  I did finish my January book that carried and my three books for February.  I have decided not to continue to read Fearless for the rest of the year.  Teacherpreneurs is a book that I would love reading over and over again but it was borrowed and I need to return it this month therefore I will not keeping it in my 3 book diet.  I am be keeping Andy Andrews' book The Noticer Returns in my reading list for the rest of the year.  The two books I am going to be adding for the month of March are Your Money Counts by Howard Dayton and Teaching an Anthill to Fetch by Stephen James Joyce.  

Relational Goal: NEW: I will schedule an opportunity for at least one date with Anna each month. 

Since I already completed my relational goal for 2014 in January, I decided to add a new one.  Anna and I will be celebrating out 10th anniversary this year so I want to make the whole year special not just one day.  Since William was born we have not done an awesome job of making sure to schedule date nights as I have seen other friends do and marriage experts talk about.  For the rest of the year I am going to be intentional and get these on my schedule before each month begins to work on continuing to grow closer with my wife. 

Physical Goal:  My physical goal is to run a marathon by the end of the year. 
Today I started week 3 of a 12 week 1/2 marathon training program.  Once I complete this training I will start working up toward being ready to run a marathon by the end of the year.   Right now I am shooting for the Des Moines marathon in October, but that could change. 

February Goal Update

The first month of 2014 is already over and has resulted in the completion of one of my goals, moving along the path toward achieving some and refining another.  Occasionally I will check in to share my progress, my struggles and changes I make in my goals this year.

Spiritual Goal: My spiritual goal is to connect with God each day through prayer, reading his Word and reflection.  

Each day I have committed myself to begin the day in prayer and have at least read though a chapter of the book of Proverbs.  My goal was to do that in addition to getting into the Word first thing in the morning.  I have realized that not being a morning person has hurt my chances of making this successful.  I am still committed to achieving my goal but am scheduling my quiet time in the Word to the evening instead of first thing in the morning.  For the month of February I will be focusing my additional study on the Book of John. 

Financial Goal:  For 2014, we are going to try to stretch ourselves and set a financial goal of paying off at least 60% of the debt that is remaining on our mortgage.  

We are working toward making this a reality.  One of the big changes we have made starting in January is that we canceled our escrow account to allow more of our money to go toward our mortgage each month while budgeting for our home owners insurance and taxes ourselves.  This change alone cut our debt free date by 2 months.  We now are currently less than 606 days away from being debt free!

Intellectual Goal: My intellectual goal will be to read the same three books at least once a month and spend time reflecting on the principles and applying them into my life. 
I was unable to accomplish this goal in January.  I did complete two of the books (The 5 Love Languages: Men's Edition and The Noticer Returns).  I only made it through a little more than a third of Thou Shall Prosper.  I have found that Thou Shall Prosper is not a book to read quickly so I am taking my time to complete the book and will finish it during the month of February and then putting it back on my bookshelf.  Out of the three books I started with I am only keeping The Noticer Returns by Andy Andrews in my 3 book diet for 2014.   Since I cannot commit to reading Thou Shall Prosper every month I will be replacing it with Teacherpreneurs: Innovative Teachers who Lead but Don't Leave by Barnett Berry.  I am also going to replace The 5 Love Languages with Fearless by Max Lucado. The reason for this second change is that I have read the 5 Love Languages several times and thought that the Men's Edition would give me something more to apply to my life, but it really was the same thing with a few side notes.

Relational Goal: I have set a relational goal of getting all documents created and organized that will help take care of my family if something would happen to me by creating a legacy box this year for them. 

This goal has already been completed.  I participated in the 30 day hustle with Jon Acuff and finished this goal within the first 30 days of January.  During the month of February I will be working toward reconnecting with some friends and will have a new official relational goal to post by the beginning of March. 

Physical Goal:  My physical goal is to run a marathon by the end of the year. 
I have worked toward accomplishing this goal by continuing the 10K training program.  By the end of February I should finish the 10K program and start my 1/2 marathon training program. 

Spiritual Goal Breakdown

One of the five goals I have for myself this year is a spiritual goal.  This goal will help keep me centered and focused on what really matters throughout 2014.  My spiritual goal is to connect with God each day through prayer, reading his Word and reflection.  How am I going to do this?

My first strategy is to begin the day in prayer before I get out of bed to get myself started right.  This allows me to connect first thing with God thanking him for another day and praying for his strength and guidance.  I have set my alarm a little earlier this year so that I can read from Bible each morning before getting online or going to work. While I shower, get dressed and on my drive to work I can continue to connect with God by reflecting on what I have read and pray for wisdom.

In addition to this intentional time of connecting with God in the morning, I am incorporating other strategies to connect with God throughout the day.  One is to utilize an application called myPraypal to organize and keep track of prayer requests.  I have put this app on the front screen of my iPhone so I make sure to see it each time open my phone. This helps me to make sure to open up my prayer lists at least once a day to pray for the needs of others God has put on my heart.  I would encourage you to check out myPraypal if you want to make prayer a more central part of your new year.

At another time each day I will also be reading through the book of Proverbs monthly throughout the year.  There are 31 chapters in Proverbs and they are not too long.  It will average out to about 5 minutes a day to reflect on God's book of Wisdom which is something I can always use more of.

In addition to my quiet time with the Lord individually I plan on doing a family devotional with William and a marriage devotional with Anna throughout the year.

Making sure that I am focusing on God's Word, my prayer life and connecting with him will be vital for me to have a successful 2014.  Do you have any spiritual goals this year?

My 2014 Goals

I plan to use this platform to help and inspire others to set goals and put the work in to meet those goals.  One way to do that is by modeling the practice myself.  I have set five larger goals that I will share with you today.  Throughout this month, I plan to break each of these goals down into smaller actionable steps so that I can track my progress with you on each of them.

Spiritual Goal:

My spiritual life is one that is very important to me and will be at the center of everything that I work on this year.  My spiritual goal is to connect with God each day through prayer, reading his Word and reflection.  

Financial Goal:

Anyone who has been following my life recently knows that our family is on a journey to become debt free. If you have not been around, you can read a story my wife and I put together to talk about our journey here.  For 2014, we are going to try to stretch ourselves and set a financial goal of paying off at least 60% of the debt that is remaining on our mortgage.  

Intellectual Goal:

Since I am creating a blog dedicated to setting goals and meeting them, it is probably pretty obvious that I am a strong believer in learning and improving.  One of the best ways I know how to do that is by reading books and trying to applying new principles into my life.  Last year I set a goal of reading at least 100 books, which was great for getting a lot of new ideas in my head, but left very little time to reflect on and apply the principles into my life. This year I am going to follow Chris Brogan's advice and go on a three book diet this year, but with the adjustment to do other reading I need or want to do as time allows.  My intellectual goal will be to read the three books below at least once a month and spend time reflecting on the principles and applying them into my life. I have set up affiliate links for my three books, they are:

1. The Noticer Returns: Sometimes You Find Perspective, and Sometimes Perspective Finds You
2. The 5 Love Languages Men's Edition: The Secret to Love That Lasts
3. Thou Shall Prosper: Ten Commandments for Making Money

Relational Goal:

My family is very important to me and I think it is important to not only be concerned about the short-term needs of my family, but also prepare for taking care of them in the future.  With this in mind, I have set a relational goal of getting all documents created and organized that will help take care of my family if something would happen to me by creating a legacy box this year for them. 

Physical Goal:

An area of my life that has lacked focus is my personal fitness.  I have times that I am 100% in total body fitness, times I am running, times I am biking, and other times when I am simply warming up the couch.  It is important to me that I take care of my physical body and will be working toward doing that this year.  My physical goal is to run a marathon by the end of the year. 

A New Blog

I am going to be slightly reformatting the purpose of my blog, but hope you stick with me as a reader.  For over a year I have been posting about living a balanced life and writing articles related to different strands of wellness.  I will still be looking at five stands of wellness going forward but through the lens of setting and meeting goals.

I will be posting my goals for 2014 here tomorrow morning.  There will be a goal in each of the following areas:

• Spiritual 
• Financial 
• Intellectual 
• Relational 
• Physical 

Throughout the year I will... 

• Share my progress on my goals.
• Go deeper into one of my goal areas by sharing my thoughts/learnings during my journey
• Share strategies to help you set and meet your goals. 

I will be encouraging you to share your goals with me too so I can try to help you meet your goals.