Happy Wednesday, folks.

I talk a lot about delegating your time wisely. If you know me, you know I’m pretty adept at practicing what I preach. My client work time is my client’s. My personal time is mine. My family time is my family’s.

You get the idea.

Recently, I was introduced to the methodology of Dave Ramsey – a financial guru teaching folks to delegate their dollars.

This, I was not adept at.

So, we sat down a few weeks ago and poured over our finances.

Yuck.

We found out that we were spending an exorbitant amount of money on food and fun, and that we should have been giving much more than we were. We also recognized that we had saved quite a bit of money – but weren’t exactly sure how.

Surprise after surprise as we went line-by-line.

It was budget time.

We had never made a budget before, and honestly, weren’t even sure how to go about it.

After one or two failed attempts, we got intentional and lo and beyond, it got done.

The first step was to figure out our income for the next month and add it up.

{I liked that number.}

The second step was to write down each of our expenses that were on the horizon – from our utility bills to school fundraisers. And then add those numbers up.

{I didn’t like that number nearly as much.}

And when we dissected it, some obvious questions emerged.

What isn’t serving us? Do we really need that membership? Why is that particular bill so high? When was the last time we contributed to the organizations we really care about? Do you think we can save more toward that goal?

We put it all on paper until the balance was $0 – we gave every dollar a place to go after it came into our home.

When we actually looked at our finances, we were not only able to cover all of our basic expenses, but we were able to make a substantial donation to a worthy non-profit, we added to our savings accounts, and even made an additional principal payment on one of our investment properties.

We went bold with our budget!

My Juicy Glad-I-Caught-That: “Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

This is, no doubt, an experiment for us.

But it is no different than you deciding to experiment with your time.

With that said, I challenge you!

Look ahead to next week – or next month.

You have x number of hours.

What do you have to do? What do you want to do? Why have you been giving so much time to that task – should it really take that long?

When you give your minutes a home on your calendar, you’ll be surprised at how you’ll not only be able to get the basics done, but also some things that you have been telling yourself you didn’t have the time for.

Budget your time. Because it is yours.

As Dan Kennedy says: “Just as the person who cannot tell you where his money goes is forever destined to be poor, the person who cannot tell you where his time goes is forever destined to be unproductive.”

So set a timer. Evaluate who you associate with. Delegate.

Your business should not own you. Stand firm in your ownership of it.

See you on the flip-side.

In love,

Noelle
xoxox