When it comes to increasing your income, what comes to mind? For many, boosting income means adding more dollars to a bank account.
Have you ever stopped to wonder if your income can also be measured in the time you have each day? When you begin to think of your daily hours as spendable income, it affects how you choose to schedule and live each and every day.
The Tyranny Of The Menial
Every day we are bombarded with countless things that need to be accomplished:
Projects to complete
Meetings to attend
Kids to pick up and take to extracurricular activities
Doctors appointments to make (and wait on)
Errands to run
When control of your day is given over to the taskmaster of your to-do list, it can be hard to invest time and thought into those things that really matter. In his book The Happiness Equation, author Neil Paschrica writes about our daily time as fitting into a graph. On one axis is the importance of a task and on the other is the time it will take to complete it.
On the right side are high-importance, high-time tasks - those tasks that push you toward your personal and financial goals. At the bottom left of the graph are low-importance and low-time tasks. These are the daily nagging distractions that keep you from getting to your real work - and thus, leaving you with no bandwidth at the end of the day to spend on what will truly help you increase your income: Debate Time.
Increasing Your Time & Income With Debating
In his hallmark work The 4 Hour Work Week, productivity guru Tim Ferriss writes on the concept of creating space for debating those issues that have a real impact on your lifestyle and financial goals.
One of the biggest challenges we face in our always-on, ever-digital world is the impact of breaking news. Yet, how many of those things you see on notifications and news segments actually impact your daily life? What if you could set up a system that allowed you to filter out those low-importance, low-time distractions and focused only on your important tasks? The result is breathing room - a space to invest in your own goals.
The Power of Breathing Room
Whether you are a leader, employee, or family member, breathing room allows you to find ways to add value to those places you invest the most time. In order to excel and reach your goals, you need to create value that proves you are valuable to the organization.
What does that take? Time.
What is time? Income!
To boost your time income, consider limiting yourself to debate only those things in your mind that you can control. If you can’t control or affect something you take in through daily life or the media, then you can't afford to waste time on it!
If you want to optimize and maximize your life, then don’t waste your time. What are your financial goals or lifestyle goals? Make that a reality and don't let clouded thoughts hold you back from your goals.
Want to hear more great lessons on life, happiness, and true wealth? Check out the Picture of Wealth podcast - hosted by Dustin Serviss. Discover the tips, tricks, and insights that unlock a life well spent. Listen today where you listen to podcasts.