Buy back your time

So often we wish for the crystal ball. You know the one that we can look into that will tell us that decision A will take us over here, and choice B will open doors 3-5, but to avoid C because that brings with it D, E, and F.

I know I often had and at times still do.

But what I know and why today was so cool - is that it really does work out exactly as you plan.

Let me share with you about today and why it was so cool.

It was probably 8 years ago that I went to the University Club for the first time as a 2nd year law student. A beautiful place and I believe I was attending the swearing in party for a new judge. I was in awe of all the people that were there - lawyers and judges. I felt as if it would take forever to get to "there" - to that place where they all seemed to be.

A lot happened in 8 years - I now have two kids, a law degree, a LL.M., two successful businesses, and a 12-hour work week spent behind a laptop in yoga pants with a baby on my lap. Not everyone's idea of a dream job but it is mine.

Today Tad (my 3 month old little boy) and I went to the University Club together to share with other women lawyers about what we do. I say "we" because he's a team member :) And it's because of him and his brother that my life is what it is.

You can see the scope here.

But what I wanted to share was that you are in control of your time.

You can do whatever it is that you want. Now it might take time to get to "there" - wherever that is for you. But you have it within yourself to get to your "there."

While you are in control of your time, you might be feeling that there's never enough of it. You might be right.

During the luncheon, my good friend and fellow law school buddy Lindsay asked me what advice I'd give and without a doubt - buy back some of your time.

How to buy back time

We all have time in our days, weeks, months, and years that we're giving away too freely and that's the time you want to get your hands on.

You see it's often too hard to find creative solutions when you don't have time. You need time to allow your brain to think. To think about what is it you want out of life - really, really want. To think about who you want to spend your days with and how you spend them.

• Track your time (I know probably what you're trying to get away from doing!) 
• Look at where you're spending your time
• Where could you buy back 30 minutes? 
• When you get back that 30 minutes, what is your plan? How are you going to spend that newly found 30 minutes.
• Once you've bought back 30 minutes - look for where you could buy back an hour? Then 2 hours ... then 3 ... 4, 5,.... 

Ultimately I bought back almost 20 hours in my week which is more than I "work" each week. There's nothing magical about how I did it but I do have two systems that work sheer magic and you can see them right below.

Start with the easy 

I bought back my time with popsicle sticks and quarterly meal planning. I then invested those hours into the areas that I wanted to expand - my self-care and business. 

Where can you buy back some of your time?

• Could you use the popsicle stick system with your family?
• Could you create your own meal plan?
• Could you set up grocery delivery through Amazon prime?
• Could you ... 

You see when you buy back your time - you're in control of how to spend it - seriously good money in your hands.

When you have time, you have freedom of choice. 

When you have freedom of choice suddenly you see opportunities and potential are surrounding you.

When you see opportunities and potential - well then you're open to playing the "what if" game ...

What if ...

• You could choose to do the work that brings you JOY?
• You could choose to work with ideal paying customers that you enJOY?
• You could take time off when you wanted to?
• You could pay off all your student loans in two years instead of twenty?
• You could feel like what you were doing was making the change you wanted it to?
• You could go to your child's preschool play, 6th grade parties, junior high assemblies, etc.?
• ... ???

What would you do with 30 minutes added to your day that you could spend anyway you wanted?