Do You Feel Like You Have Time Debt?

The clock is constantly ticking. In a few weeks the official start to summer, Memorial Day, will take place in the States. Many will take their first vacation of the summer or cancel it because of work commitments. It’s a time of year where you are very likely to feel like you have time debt.

Time debt is “borrowing” time from one project or activity and giving it to another. You tell yourself you’ll make it up later and pay it off soon. Except you don’t and the interest builds in the form of deadlines and emails which flood your inbox like a debt collector calling to find out when your next payment will be.

I know the feeling of time debt all too well. As they say, it takes one to know one. Very recently I was in debt to time and feeling the burden. It is as suffocating as real money debt. The weight it places on your life can make you feel like things are insurmountable. So how do you get over it? You do what matters most which often means taking your own advice.

Some of my most common advice to clients is to do what matters most and get a virtual assistant to do the rest or scrap it altogether. Something which up until now has been a pretty painless process for me.

In order to do this, you have to get brutally honest with yourself. You have to be clear on what matters most in your work and personal life. Ask yourself the easy questions which force you to make tough decisions.

• What will matter a year from now? Two years?
• What does your job depend on?
• What is nice to do versus a have to do?

The last very painful time I experienced time debt was just this past week. I took a few days off unplanned. When I hurt my back I found it even more difficult to get back into the swing of things. Suddenly opening my laptop felt like opening Pandora’s Box.

I was in debt to not only myself but others and it would only get worse if I couldn’t pay it off. Not responding to those waiting on me made the bottleneck seem like a jackknifed big rig accident during rush hour. I had a team ready but they couldn’t work on what isn’t ready.

Practicing what I preach, I believe and work with virtual assistants regularly. However, some things can only come from me. When I answered my own question truthfully I got my answers. I would have to let other things in my business go. As this Forbes article states, Focus On The Change You Want To Make. If in fact, I’m doing something which will change the course of my business, then surely other things will need to change as well. This time change was painful.

Ask yourself the following questions:

What will matter a year from now? Two years?

What does your job depend on?

What is a nice to do versus a have to do?

The thing about debt is you can’t get out without making changes. Making more money doesn’t change behaviors and having more time you will only find more ways to spend it.

Time debt can be just for the moment and a season. However, some debts are harder to repay. In the last days of the year are you really doing what matters most to get out of time debt?

Because you can’t do it all yourself…..Melissa Smith, The PVA is the bestselling author of Hire the Right Virtual Assistant, Become A Successful Virtual Assistant, and host of the Admin to VA Summit. Contact Melissa here.