Are You Wasting Time And Preventing Yourself From Your Million Dollar Dream?

I read an interesting article yesterday in USA TODAY. It was written by Laura Vanderkam and it was titled, ‘Is time really money? For these millionaires, yes.’

The author spoke recently with a non-profit organization, Count Me In, which provides support to women entrepreneurs. The organization made an observation that women entrepreneurs who developed million dollar businesses had one thing in common. They used grocery delivery services before they made their millions.

While they were in a time period where they might have needed to save money, the women entrepreneurs realized that they also needed to maximize their time. The hour or two that they saved by not grocery shopping was focused on honing their skills, growing their business, or maybe chasing down lucrative contracts. For these women the extra $10 to have their groceries delivered was a small price for that extra hour or two. The author states, “they knew that you can spend time to save money. Or you can spend small amounts of money to save time, and use that time to earn a lot more.”

The article wasn’t selling grocery delivery services and it wasn’t saying that we should all use that service. But it was pointing out that, “there’s a limit to how much you can cut (in relation to spending), but there’s no limit to how much your income can grow if you value your time and use it well.”

I love it when I read something that inspires me. It did not inspire me to sign up for grocery delivery, but it did inspire me to think about how I let certain things suck time from my day or evening. I can just look at my day and tell you where I can find an extra hour or two of unproductive time and it won’t even cost me $10. That is very easy for me to answer…my time spent online.

I try to limit my computer time to when the kids are sleeping. But when I get on the computer, I get lured in to facebook, twitter, bravotv.com, the news, etc, and all of the sudden I realize that I just spent an hour flitting around the internet when I could have spent that time reviewing our balance sheet, working on our small business, or writing a blog post. I could have spent that hour being more productive, but instead I chose to waste it away. I have goals and dreams that will stay just dreams if I continue to waste time away.

This is something that I need to work on. Now that summer is here and we are on a different schedule, I have been working on refining my routine. I am trying to fit so much into my day: exercise, devotion, housework, office work, family time, meal time, and at the end of the day – ME time. Basically I need to put a value on my time. Of course my most important values are my faith and family, but after that is my work.

Will that hour or two a day spent more productively lead me to a million dollar business? I'm not sure, but I am posting the USA Today article above my desk so hopefully when I start to spend a little too much time on Bravotv.com I’ll notice the article and realize that finding out what the Real Housewives of NY are up to is lining their balance sheet not mine.

Do you spend money on a service that gives you more time to spend on growing your business or your balance sheet? What sucks time from your day that could be spent more wisely or more productively?

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