Envelopes For Your Mind

Do you believe that time is money?

That if you’re not making money, you’re wasting your time?

And how do you make money? By working your little tuchus off, of course. Nose to the grindstone. Hustle and grind. Go to every single networking event on the planet because you just never know Who’s Going to Be There. Etc.

But let me ask you another question. 

Is money or time more precious to you?

If it’s time, you’re in the right place. 

Let’s talk money instead of productivity for a moment

Money, in general, is abundant. The fact that a lot of it is being hoarded by a few people doesn’t mean it’s not abundant. 

Of course, as a business owner, your personal cash stash isn’t limitless. You probably have a budget for both yourself and your company, especially if you have staff. You want to know where all your dollars are going. 

Maybe you’ve hired someone to keep track of the money, maybe you’re doing it yourself. Either way, you are likely intentional about it. You don’t fling money around willy-nilly. 

You might be a business owner who makes sure that every dollar has a “job”. Sometimes the job is entertainment: season tickets to a sports team or symphony orchestra, to go to movies or have a vacation. 

Or you might be a business owner who thinks about money in terms of buckets: so much goes to living expenses, so much goes to entertainment, so much to food, and so on.

However you personally think about money, when it comes to dollars and cents, you are the one in control.

Thinking about time (still not productivity!)

In our universe, as far as we know, time only moves in one direction. You can’t get back time the way you can with money. Once you’ve spent your time however you spent it, it’s gone. No rebates, no refunds.

Time for the planet and the cosmos is infinite, just as money in general is essentially infinite. Even if we humans do end up wiping each other out, the planet will still be here. We’re not powerful enough to destroy this planet (even if we can destroy a 250-year-old democracy by electing fascists.)

However, time for each person – you, me, fascisti, everyone – is absolutely finite. Hate to be the first to tell you this, but freezing your head like Walt Disney won’t make you immortal. Nor will you be able to upload your consciousness to the Borg. We’re nowhere near the technology we need for that, much less the neuroscience needed.

The author Oliver Burkeman says we get about 4,000 weeks of life. Some will have a little more, some will have a little or a lot less, but none of us are getting infinitely more. That’s why time is so precious for each of us.

In contrast to dollars, time is not fungible. Not all minutes are the same. 

The minutes you spend doomscrolling are not the same as minutes you spend being present with your loved ones. Again, no judgement from me – we all do it!

The minutes you spend on your social media feed are not the same as the minutes you spend in and on your business. 

Not the same as the minutes you spend looking at the stars, or paddling on the water, or watching the fire you built when camping with friends or loved ones.

Not the same as the minutes you spend on whatever your creative outlet is, or the ones you spend on volunteering or making your community a better place, however you define that.

As a business owner, your biggest asset is your brain

The decisions you make are what drive your company to success. You can ask the deity of your choice, your mentor, your friend, your networking group, your artificial “intelligence” bot, or even the great god Google for answers. But you’re the one who has to sift through everything and make the ultimate choices.

The nature of the brain is that it can’t do 21st century knowledge work for very long. (I’ve written extensively about why this is in blog posts and also in my book so I won’t go into that here.)  

Author Cal Newport estimates that we get about 4 ½ hours a day for what I like to call “thinky” work: strategizing, planning, working on spreadsheets and finances, crunching numbers, making decisions, etc.

This is one of the many things that differentiates human brains from computers. While computers can effectively run 24/7 if attached to a power source, your brain IS your power source.

Just like money and time, your energy is also limited.

In order to keep the lights on, if you will, there are a number of inputs your brain requires: sleep, rest, fun, social interaction, physical movement, nutrition, etc. 

Time, money, brains, and the pursuit of productivity

Now it’s time to ask you another question. 

You put a lot of thought into your spending of money, so why don’t you spend your time and energy equally intentionally?

Maybe it’s just because you don’t know how (yet). Or you feel like you’re too busy to sit down and think about it. Or maybe it just hasn’t been on your radar.

Sometimes, for clients who have difficulty with spending, financial professionals recommend the envelope system. When the paycheck comes, cash gets divvied up into a number of envelopes. Each envelope is dedicated to a spending category, like housing, utilities, clothes, gas, etc. 

When the envelope is empty, there’s no more spending in that category. It often takes a few rounds to get the system just right, but it helps clients take control of their spending.

Using the envelope system for your time would give you 24 hours “cash” to divvy up. Just as with money, you start with the “big rocks”: the items that you absolutely must pay for, like housing and food.

Similarly, eight of your 24 hours must go to your sleep envelope. That’s non-negotiable. Very few people can operate on less sleep because there’s a lot of brain goings-on during this time that you’re not aware of but keep you healthy.

Some of these hours have to go to nutrition. For best results, you probably need at least two and a half hours for this: a half hour for breakfast and an hour each for lunch and dinner, plus prep time.

Some time must be devoted to physical movement. I know so many people who skip exercise because they think something else has priority. In reality, it’s required for peak performance so that yummy oxygenated blood gets up between your ears so you can think clearly. 

Now here’s where it might get a little controversial: before you carve out work hours, you have to spend social/fun activity minutes. Those are, contrary to popular opinion, big rocks.

Before work???? GASP!

You might recall from earlier that social interaction and fun activities are NECESSITIES for your power source. (Again, I refer you to earlier posts/my book for why this is true.)

As I always say, yes introverts need social interaction, just less than extroverts do. So an introvert might put more “minute money” in their fun activities envelope, and extroverts might put more in the social envelope.

The remainder can be dedicated to work and chores or errands – and just staring into space time. Your envelopes should look different on your days off from work. Yes, you need some time off every week unless you really want to go to Burnout City.

But your work envelope needs a little closer inspection. Because your thinky work hours, the 4 ½ you get every day, are not the same as your admin/email/etc. hours. To keep your power source running at peak performance, your thinky minutes need to be spent at the time you’re doing the thinky work, and not on email, admin, and the like.

By doing an energy plan and intentionally thinking about how you spend your time, you’ll be able to compress the amount of time you need for work in a given day. In turn, you’ll have more minutes to spend on loved ones and activities.

As with most spending plans, there will probably be times when you’ll splurge. Maybe you spend more time at work, or maybe you end up with loved ones more than you planned. 

Your time envelopes will probably change as your kids grow or your business scales or life changes. Just as with money envelopes, you might need some tweaking to get to a plan that works for you and doesn’t make you feel resentful or restricted. That feeling almost always leads to a binge (ask me how I know this!)

Recap (tl;dr)

Spend your time as intentionally as you spend your money, bearing in mind that your brain has certain needs in order to function at its best.

Want some help with that work envelope and fitting your day into the time you have? Schedule a call with us here for a free consultation.

Photo by Isabella Fischer on Unsplash.