Budget Your Time Like Cash to Avoid Overcommitment

It's 7:32pm and you're still working. 

You've got 5 things left on the to-do list, your spouse just texted to get an update, and you just realized you missed that doctor's appointment you had scheduled. 

You're obviously overcommitted, and you're starting to feel the cost of it...

• You feel constantly behind
• You're not sleeping well
• You're not working out or eating in a healthy fashion
• The quality of your work is suffering

How did it get this bad? And is there any way out? 

Good news: I know how it got this bad. 

More good news: there is a way out. Keep reading. 

Treating Time Like a Credit Card Leads to Overcommitment

Whatever you're doing professionally right now, at some point you had your first day doing it.

And that day you likely took your first task with open arms. You had a wide open schedule and nothing but time, and you were ready to jump in, fully confident you had enough time to do the task. 

Over the next few days, you took more tasks and responsibilities, continuing in your unabated confidence that there was enough time. Whatever your actual capacity was, it was off in the distance, and you could keep saying "yes". 

This story is common for new roles, and it makes perfect sense. We want to do good work. We want to prove ourselves in new environments. The problem is we are treating time like a credit card we can keep swiping, and not paying with cash. Here's why. 

Back to you. Eventually you took the task or said yes to the responsibility that pushed you over your capacity, but you weren't aware, because you had never done the work to define your capacity. You began to feel it as days lasted longer, and you felt more pressure to work on evenings and weekends just to keep up. Then the next request came, and it was clearly a high priority item, and you didn't feel you could say no without doing damage to your team's goals. And as you reflected on the other items you had said "yes" to, they also felt important, and so you just kept doing them. 

To follow the credit card analogy, the bill was now coming due, and you did not have the cash (aka time) on hand to pay it. The cost is real, so you were forced to pay with other items:

• The stress from it costed your rest, recovery and maybe even your sleep. 
• The time required costed you time with family and friends on nights and weekends.

Now that we know how you got here, let's chart the path to get out. 

How to Budget Your Time Like Cash

If you've ever budgeted your finances before, you likely began with the cash you had available. You then began to deduct the expenses required for your life to work, such as rent, food, clothing, etc. If you ran out of cash, you needed to reduce your expenses to make your budget work. If you had excess cash, you could optionally spend it on other items, save it or invest it. 

Time is no different. 

Each week, you have the ability to define the amount of hours you're willing to commit to your work. Obviously you need to align this with the expectations of the stakeholders in your life (e.g. partners, boss, spouse, team, etc), but nonetheless you have agency to make the decision here. This is your strategic constraint, and it needs to drive your decision making.  

Let's assume you decide to work 50 hours this week. That means you only have 50 hours, and not a second more. As you begin to map your tasks and responsibilities to those hours, you will eventually hit a point where there are no more hours left. At this point you have a choice:

• Pay with Credit Card :: aka just keep working, or
• Pay with Cash :: aka decide what to do with what doesn't fit your 50 hours

You already know what happens when you "Pay with Credit Card", so let's consider the "Pay with Cash" option. The key here is simply dealing with the items that don't fit this week to ensure they don't break. 

Here are some options for the items that don't fit:

• Delegate :: Can anyone else on your team complete this task? If so, block time to delegate it, and check on the results.
• Defer :: Can it simply stay in your Backlog till next week? (Not sure what a Backlog is? Grab a copy of the FREE Time Boss Weekly Operating System Masterclass for a step by step guide on how to create one).
• Downsize :: Can you complete any other task on your calendar in less time to make room for more tasks?
• Digitize :: Can you automate a task? Can ChatGPT do it for you?
• Delete :: Is it critical? What breaks if you just delete the task?
• Last Resort :: Add More Time Budget - ONLY do this if it’s required to keep a promise or commitment.

If you can successfully create a plan for the items that don't fit, you can work within your actual time constraints (aka "Pay in Cash"), and avoid all the costs of overcommitment.

Time Budgeting is Easy with an Effective Weekly Operating System

If this concept is new to you, I recommend starting with the FREE Time Boss Weekly Operating System Masterclass. In just 90 minutes, you'll get a step by step guide to plan out your week and run your day using the exact same methods outlined above.

If you feel you need more help and want to solve your relationship with time in the next 6 weeks, check out the Time Boss 6 Week Cohort.  Over the last year 100+ individuals and 5 companies have reinvented their relationship with time, driving peak performance, and doing so with peace, freedom and clarity. If that sounds interesting, please schedule a 30 minute discovery call with me to learn more.