Why being time rich is more important than money rich

Far too many of us suffer from time poverty. 

With most people in employed jobs and spending their spare time, commuting, parenting, chores, life admin. Squeezing in family and friends where possible. There is little time for hobbies and relaxation. 

It can feel like life is a fast moving repetitive cycle speeding you though life.

Aside from all the known health damage these stressful lives are inflicting on our bodies. There are other problems as well. 

Time poverty doesn’t give you the space you need to get yourself out of this situation. In order to come up with ideas, create new opportunities for yourself and develop new income streams you need time. 

Many of you will be feeling this now if you are trying to set up your CIC while still working in your day job.

Conceptualising takes time. You need the time to plan and test your ideas out in the real world. Evaluate them, write applications, set up social media, post regularly, build websites and all the million other things involved in starting a CIC. 

For many of you, your mind is swirling with ideas and potential. This can cause you to waste time because you are not focused on one simple idea that will get you started. 

Often ideas can sit in our heads for months as we don’t schedule a time slot and book a date to get it done. 

It can pay to take your simplest idea of an income stream and just book a day to get it started. 

Although the set up of any new business is going to be highly time consuming, long term the tide will change.

The beauty of the CIC model is you will be able to claw back your time. Having the control of being your own boss and planning your own time allows you to have more time off work. You get to plan your hours around your life. Play it right and you should earn more and become financially more secure which allows you to design the perfect work life balance for you. 

The image on this blog is of me in Ubud, Bali. A month long solo trip I took a few years back. I've done many of these. Because I am my own boss and a CIC affords you this lifestyle with time and money. Aside from the fun of these trips I also business expences them as I also used them to work. I'd write books, take media or work remotely. The offer the head space to do amazing work.

As a business owner I have found it’s vital to give myself time to think. Some of my best business ideas come to be when I’m swimming or out in nature dog walking. I also use travel as a time to grab a pad and pen and conceptualise and strategize for my business. 

When we have families, and also as we get older, we naturally want to wind work down. It’s good to set a long term goal of what you want your life to look like later in your career. 

Personally I am going for this model:

20’s employed (I was a probation officer)

30’s freelancer (I started my cic and ran workshops and projects in the community)

40’s moving to automated income businesses (I now have my online course and I am working on other ideas to automate my income online, so I do less freelance work. I have also started buying and renovating property). 

I still do a bit of freelance work but it is now only 1/3rd of my income and I will phase it out when I am ready. I actually like working with people at the moment but it’s nice to be able to choose that. 

Time rich can lead to money rich and vice versa. They are both important. I personally am not into material wealth but a good life costs money and that’s just the way it is. 

To end, I am going to share my tips on how to use your time wisely so you can feel more time ritch. 

• Get up early. Gaining those first few quiet hours of the day to yourself makes a big difference. Exercise, meditate, journal, read etc. 

• Get a planner. Schedule blocks of time to the most important tasks that deliver results the fastest. Cut out anything that wastes time. 

• Scheduled time to relax or exercise in a way that gives you time alone to think, visualise, evaluate and come up with new ideas and solutions. 

• Get those automated income streams up online. Online courses, books or journals you have made on amazon, art on etsy or other passive income like property rentals etc. 

• Delegate. Hire out to save you time. You don’t need to hire staff just outsource to specialist people; accountants, traffic designers, social media managers. 

• Get a mentor to coach you so you can excel faster. Learning it all yourself wastes time. Cut corners by learning from an expert. 

• Cut out any external draining or toxic forces. This can be drugs and alcohol, a toxic relationship, poor diet or unhealthy living. All this stuff is draining. A couple years ago I stopped drinking and not being hungover on weekends has been a game changer for me. Being healthy and not having stress around you puts you in the best position.

• Use digital tool to make work more efficient. Tools like Canva and loads of other tools on your phone are game changers. We are lucky to be running businesses in this digital era. AI is about to blow so get ready to adopt those new tools into our businesses. 

Time rich is better than money rich in many ways. What’s the sense of being money rich with no time to enjoy it. I feel rich when I can skip work on a Sunday mid week to do what I want with my day. Money buys fleeting pleasures but time will buy you good health, relaxed living, new experiences, time for love and memories that count.

Life is short and we only get one shot. You have so much potential. Don’t fall victim to our society's trap of overworking and time wasting on stuff that doesn’t make our lives better. 

Take control and aim to be time rich.