Upgrade Your Time
Recently, I went on holiday to Bali with my partner and some close friends. The trip was magical. The Balinese people were incredibly welcoming and friendly, we stayed at a gorgeous villa on the beach and even did some cliff jumping at a spectacular waterfall.
But, the day before we were to fly back, the airline we were meant to fly back on went on strike. We scrambled to find flights home and eventually learned return flights were already rebooked for us. Unfortunately, the route included three separate legs (one over 13 hours), long layovers, and a delayed flight that caused us to miss one of our connections.
In the end, it took us 44 hours to get home and I got sick from the stress and exhaustion of the grueling trek home.
While lying in bed recovering with growing frustration, I made a decision. We will only fly business class or above from now on (for long flights) so we can arrive at our destination rested. I’ve always felt a regular economy seat was always more than enough, so this upgrade decision doesn’t come lightly.
However, this isn’t a decision to upgrade my mode of transportation, but an upgrade on my time. I am no longer willing to lose time to jet lag, exhaustion, or getting sick from long travels.
And, though it started with this one decision, it gave me pause to re-evaluate otherways where I can make upgrades to my time. Here are some changes I’ve made as a result:
- Signed-up for software to automate aspects of my social media
- Batched time to write and create content weekly
- Set-up a monthly inventory for groceries and household goods for the house
- Signed up for Amazon Delivery Day from Amazon Prime
- Batched household errands to monthly
Upgrade Your Time
Time is our one non-renewable resource. Once spent, we can never get time back.
But, we can invest our time well by taking the time to evaluate our ROI (return on investment). For example, a good night’s sleep for me always pays dividends in clarity of thinking and energy I have for the next day. Same goes for the time spent exercising.
Upgrading your time is about reducing the time spent on things with little ROI. Look for those tasks that can be automated, delegated, or batched such as administrative work and running errands.
Upgrading your time is also about increasing the time spent on things with high ROI. These include self-care such as sleep, exercise, and eating well, and time spent on your priority projects.
Take a close look at exactly where you’re spending your time. If you’re not sure, track it for a few days. Start with just one or two small areas where you see an opportunity to upgrade your time through automation, delegation, deletion, batching, etc.
By making small upgrades to your time, you’ll start to feel your energy and calendar open-up. How will you invest your newly recovered time?
