I attended a Business Chicks breakfast this week where the inspirational Carolyn Creswell of Carmen Fine Foods was speaking.
During her talk she spoke of how we should be mindful of how we manage our time in order to create balance. Carolyn runs an extra-ordinary business and is a mum of 4 young children. So time for her is something she needs to manage very well in order to meet her professional and personal goals and commitments.
She gave a great example that I thought I’d share:
“If a stranger in the street were to ask for $20 we would almost certainly say no, but if they said can I have 20 minutes we are more likely to say yes.”
This example really struck a chord with me. It’s true – we often place more value on money than we do on time. But the reality for most of us is, we have the opportunity to earn back the $20 we might hand to a stranger, but we have no opportunity to earn back those precious 20 minutes.
Are we being wasteful with our time, handing it out left right and centre to random strangers? How much power do we give to others to take over our time? Pressures from family, friends, schools, work eating into our time allocation.
Our money has a budget with fixed amounts being allocated to particular events and funds, it is structured and if consistently maintained yields great results.
The same can be said for our time, if we value our time with the same efficiency as our monthly budget – imagine what results that might bring! Do you agree? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.