Time is money–this is an age old adage that is undeniably true. Yes, I believe in (and to some extent participate in) volunteer work, but I would not be hanging out at a hospital 40 hours or more a week just because it made me feel better about myself.
We also pay out money in exchange for time. For instance, when I pay someone to do something I am perfectly capable of doing–for instance, unclog my shower drain–I’m doing it because of the increased convenience for me, as I’ll spend my time elsewhere.
However, in that same case, if I’m not capable of doing the drain unplugging, I’m not exchange the money for time; I’m exchanging it for expertise. I don’t know how (or don’t have the proper tools) to unclog the drain, so I’m paying someone else to do it.
For the most part, I’m willing to exchange money for expertise–I cannot, for instance, service my truck’s air conditioning system without some expensive tools I do not have access to right now. But I’m not so willing to do so for just time; I can wash my truck all by myself, thanks.
Now, there are times I would be willing to exchange money for time–if, for instance, I can get someone to paint my house for a reasonable amount, I might do that, because while I can paint my house, it takes a lot of time that I don’t have. But for the most part, I’m more willing to exchange money for expertise than for time, meaning that the more expertise I get in certain areas, the more likely I am to need to pay money out for it.
I blog (as you know). I also podcast (infrequently, unfortunately). I’ve written for, edited, and published niche technology newsletters online and on paper. And I’ve authored computer software. Others photograph (I do too, just not all that well), videograph, record music, write books, or create comics.
Amazingly, all of these things are exploding online, because the cost of putting out what is essentially an online radio show (podcasting while livestreaming over, for example, UStream), is about zero. So is having an online site with your photos or comics. YouTube will host your videos and expose them to a huge audience without cost to you. An actual physical book can be published at incredibly low cost or hosted online for free.
It’s amazing how so many opportunities for creativity are being given audiences at a cost of so little. Keep channeling your creative efforts into the Internet and you may become a moderate success–or maybe a huge one–with very little chance of a downside.
In a social sense, inertia is the reason we keep doing whatever it is we’ve been doing: because it’s comfortable, easy, and what we’re used to. For instance, I’ve attended KansasFest every year since 1995. While I do enjoy the event, a lot of the reason I go is because I’ve already gone.
Inertia is evidenced in many other aspects of our life. For instance, I am not exactly what people would call a neat person. In fact, “slob” would be an accurate description. Every so often I make an effort to clean, but it ends up on my action list for months before I do any cleaning–however, once I start, I make a huge dent in things.
That’s inertia. Once I get going, I stay going. For quite some time.
Inertia can be positive and negative. For example, once I get into a groove with my workout schedule, I stay like that for months at a time, and it’s better for my health, my blood sugar, and my stress management. On the other hand, if I’m not doing something–say cleaning or going to the recycle center–I end up not going for long, long periods of time.
Knowing this, I have to figure out ways to make inertia work in my favor, rather than the opposite.
While I wish he would post more regularly on 43 Folders, I love listening to and reading work by Merlin Mann. He recently had an interview with Seth Godin, who we mentioned a few posts back. One of the things that really hits home in this interview is the dicussion of the price of failure.
To put it simply, the price of failure in a high tech world is very, very low. A blog can be had for free–if you want your own domain name, say under $10–and if it’s a failure, guess what? No one was reading it anyway.
The upside of all of the price of failure being so low is that it’s then possible to take many, many swings at being a success without it being a total disaster if failure is encountered.
I’ll have more to say on this in a few days. In the meantime, listen to the interview.
Seth Godin, noted author, has put together an electronic book in Adobe Acrobat format called What Matters Now; it has contributions from over seventy “big thinkers”, including folks like Gina Trapani (of Lifehacker fame), Merlin Mann (43 Folders), Kevin Kelly (Cool Tools), and many more.
You can get it free off of Seth’s blog at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
It’s a great, quick read.
I think everyone has a personal black hole, something that just never gets done or is so low priority that it only happens about once a blue moon. It happens for me, a lot.
Cleaning the house.
I admit it, I’m a slob, which often surprises people who don’t know me in real life. It’s not much of an admission, actually; it’s such a part of me I’m not ashamed of it. I’m almost proud.
It’s unfortunate, because I know that being neater would boost my productivity. It would probably increase my energy as I would have less clutter to fight through. But the way things are now, I’m likely going to have a full two weeks off from work to get through my action list to the point where cleaning the house gets pulled out of the black hole and gets done.
What falls into your personal black hole? Is it cleaning? Or laundry? Or balancing your checkbook? Tell me what never gets done.
Stephen Covey’s work has been groundbreaking in terms of time management and productivity. Instead of the epic Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (which I’ve listened to before), Put First Things First is just a one disc audiobook that focuses on ways to prioritize.
Using Covey’s groundbreaking but now classic system of prioritizing by importance and urgency, the reader is guided through a series of exercises and examples on prioritizing. Covey continues to emphasize how efficiency and effectiveness are not the same thing and how it’s important to be efficient with things and tasks but to be effective with people.
I’m not sure if this is the most important part of Covey’s work, but it’s definitely important to understand how to prioritize tasks. This is something I’m still learning and may never really master. I appreciate the work here, but my feeling is that it’s a secondary work to the original Seven Habits. However, if you’ve listened to (or even read!) that book, this one is definitely worth listening to. Whether it’s worth the price or not I’m less sure, because–like so many other books I’ve listened to or read, I borrowed it from the library. It is, however, definitely enjoyable if you’ve done much of any work with time management.
We’ve been skipping paydays for awhile but we’re back into it now with an all new Link Payday for May 25, 2009. Let’s look at some of the best blog posts in the personal finance blogosphere of the last few weeks:
While not really a blog post, CNNMoney.com’s Are Stocks a Loser’s Bet? points out, once again, how difficult it is to pick individual stocks that outperform the market (and, again, at least indirectly, making a case for low cost index funds–exactly the kind I like).
Frugal Dad helps in the battle against clutter by giving us 5 Reasons Not to Save Stuff for Later. I am still struggling in my fight with clutter–and losing. I think the next time I have a couple of weeks off work I am going to try to make major progress on that front.
Mrs. Micah tells us How to Live Like a Grad Student (and for a couple of years there I was a graduate student, so it’s a nice refresher). Student debt can be crushing, but there’s ways to handle it better than others.
The Online Savings Blog gives us 3 Easy Tips for Easy Short-term Savings. Quite frankly, while Americans have been doing much better with savings recently, I think we can use every tip we can get, particularly if they are easy!
And finally, The Frugal Duchess gives us a lesson in How to Be a Great Party Guest: 7 Mostly Frugal Tips. Yes, it does cost money for someone to host a party, and you can help them spend less on you, or at least be a big help in other ways.
And that’s your Link Payday for May 25, 2009!
What have I done today, a Monday day off? I’ve dropped off paperwork at my part time job, written a few blog posts, washed my truck, and eaten brunch. While not always with finance in mind, each decision impacts my financial situation.
Dropping off paperwork at my part time job helps me insure I’ll continue to have that as a second (but very significant) source of income. Writing blog posts helps to build value into the blog which will hopefully result in more readers and more income. Washing my truck myself rather than paying someone else to do it means that not only am I 100% in control of the end product, I don’t spend any money unneccesarily. And finally, eating brunch that I prepare at home gets me to spend less than if I ran out to do so.
None of these things is going to result in a $20 positive in my net worth today–in fact, all of them combined won’t. Yet in their own way, they all help me make a positive impact on my bottom line. These may not be as apparent as the Starbucks trip every morning, but it still does make a difference in your financial situation: the small things are still important in reaching your big goal.
In order to manage your tasks better, dealing with them before they get close to deadlines is of paramount importance. An example: taxes.
My sister was unemployed for almost a year after Aloha Airlines shut down. During this time, she spent almost no time looking for work or doing much besides watching television. Yet she was up late on the night of April 14th doing taxes and the same on April 19th doing her state taxes (due on April 20th, 2009).
Why?
What was she doing during the first months of 2009 when she wasn’t working (and honestly wasn’t actually looking very hard for employment) that was so important she couldn’t finish her taxes until the night before they were due to be in the mail?
I wish I knew. I just don’t, but as we know from Randy Pausch, waiting until the last minute to do something is very expensive (think USPS vs. Federal Express).
Despite talk of multitasking (for humans rather than computers), it’s becoming clearer and clearer that it’s far more efficient to work on one thing at a time. There’s not a thing that my sister can do that night other than her taxes–and if there’s some kind of emergency, like a sick child, she is in serious time management trouble. Because she’s rushed doing her taxes, she has no time to double check her results very little margin for error. A power outage, a computer printer without ink, a problem with her Internet connection, and she’s screwed.
Don’t wait until the last minute! There’s too much at risk. Take care of what you can before it becomes very expensive to do so.
