It’s been a while now since we have had warm dry weather.  Leaving home to go to work and coming home in the dark and rain is getting to be a bit much.  Until recently, sleeping the early evening away felt like a reasonable option when I didn’t have a plan.  Who really wants to be tromping around outside in the cold and wet weather anyway?  Not me.

Time is money.  Ever hear that?  It’s true.  You can buy services to meet a need that take someone else’s time to complete or if you are skilled enough or want to learn how, you can spend your own time servicing the need.  Either way, time and money are interchangeable. The difference is how much value you can honestly place on your own time.

If I need something done and I am not skilled at doing it, I have to research and learn how and it will cost my time.  How much depends on the complexity of the service required.  If I hire someone who has the skill to perform the service, it will cost money.  How much of it depends on the complexity of the service required and how much time it takes.

Time a commodity we are all given but we do not know exactly how much in total we get.  What we do with it and how we manage it is entirely our choice.

Free time?  What about free money?  Now are they interchangeable?  Not in that view but time really isn’t free anyway.  The clock ticks every second and every second counts.  Again, it’s what we do with it.

For example, I have been considering a home repair that I am not sure I can accomplish in a time effective manner, meaning that I will spend a lot more time doing that repair than hiring someone who has the skills to complete the job in an more efficient manner.  Does that mean I am not capable of doing the job and should I consider myself less valuable because I don’t have the skills to do a home repair?  Not really, as I have other skills that a home repair serviceman might not have and someday I might find them contacting me for my skills and services.

Sometimes it’s going to be more effective to spend the money to get something done rather than attempting to do it yourself because time is interchangeable with money and how you manage and invest it will determine your overall portfolio.  I’d like to spend time with people I care about and spend money on something that will free me up to do just that.

Sometimes you have less money than is required to purchase the service and you don’t have the skill or time to meet the need.  This is a problem when the need doesn’t go away.  This is where people get trapped in borrowing against their future.  The better question at that point is weather you can wait for the need to be met at a future date when enough money has been saved to buy the repair service, do you attempt to spend your time learning the craft to do the repair yourself or blend a mix of both?  A blend could be spending your time doing what you know you can do and paying for the remainder of the service after you have done what you can.  This is a viable option.  Alternatively, can you abandon the entire situation without hurting your time/money portfolio?

Time really is money and how it’s spent is important.

Goal complete, the firewood is stacked and seasoned.  Leaves are falling and the cedars have begun to drop some of their greenery and it covers the ground in a latticework of light brown against the darkened earth that has otherwise been stripped of the brambles and brush this summer in preparation for the springtime and green grass next year.  Winter is just around the corner and the preparations for it are paying off.

I find that with a busy schedule outside of the home, I try to set a goal of doing one thing each day with the time I have at home.  It doesn’t mean that the thing has to be a big thing, just something.  Everyday, I make it a point to complete some thing that I set out to do and once it’s complete, I savor the moment, even if it’s just for a minute.  Lately, it’s been goals of “house tuning” you might say.  Opening a particular box from a move that hasn’t been gone through yet and sorting out what’s inside or repairing something around the house or fixing equipment used to maintain the house and yard.  Sometimes it’s a simple matter of gathering a load of who knows what to give away or dispose of.

This year was busy with a really big move and sale of a house and all the activities that come with finalizing the sale of said house.  It’s one thing to move as a college student or young person with few possessions but to have amassed a lifetime of trappings that you must move and sort, well that’s a different story.

It felt like the goal of prepping the house, moving, selling the house and meeting needs at the new house was never going to end and there were a few times that I just wanted to walk away from all of it.  The problem was that the poorly defined goal was one big massive list that just kept getting added to.  In the business world they call it “Scope Creep” and it means that the Scope of Work spreads out beyond the original plan.  In my case the goal or scope of work had never really been clearly defined and it kept growing with no end in sight.  That kind of situation can lead to stress because you loose focus without a clear goal.  That’s when you want walk away, unsuccessful and feeling defeated.

At some point, there was a realization that a lot of goals had been reached and few had been recognized and even less had been celebrated.  It was at that time when I understood that many small defined and accomplished goals are better than one giant ball of undefined murkiness that has no apparent end.  It was at that time when getting one thing completed at a time as had already been happening but also savoring the victory no matter how small, came into play.  Since that time it’s been far easier look back and see the accomplishments and recognize just how much has been done.

Break your goals down into sizable portions, recognize completions and celebrate that victory…repeat.

It’s been a long time since I have had to strategize about paying bills.  I have been nearly debt free for a while now and I can tell you that life is in fact,  different.  You don’t lose sleep thinking about that next payment you must make and in general, life is simpler without debt.  Surprisingly, I have a little more time for other things now.
The next big ongoing push for improvement has been to make life easier by minimizing the amount of material goods I do not want waste my time managing anymore.  I find that a mountain of collected unused crap takes up space, personal energy and time managing said crap.
It’s not to say a completely empty life is best, but focusing on the basics of what you really need can really be the next step in being free.