It can be challenging to manage your time. Whether you want more leisure time, need to cut some work projects for responsibilities that take precedence, or anything else, you have probably wondered if there is a way to find more time. So, how do you spend money to buy time?
To spend money to buy time, outsource your projects, automate with technology, and take advantage of compounding through your personal investments. Outsourcing and automating can provide you with more time in the short-term, while investing can purchase you time long-term.
Contrary to the famous saying, “Time is money, but money can’t buy time” there are ways to use your finances in an attempt to better manage your time. Taking the steps outlined below can give you a head start in saving time in both the near term and long term.
How To Spend Money To Buy Time
You can directly spend money to buy time. No matter what you have heard before, it is possible. Those who say money cannot buy time have likely never tried reducing the stress in their lives or are simply content with their current day-to-day lives.
There are different things to consider when thinking about how you can spend money to buy time. First of all, the act of actually spending money on goods and services to reduce your occupied time is essential. On top of that, however, you should try out a few ways to manage your time in addition to spending money on such efforts.
From deciding your options, to learning new skills, to knowing not to be so hard on yourself, this process can involve much more than simply paying off responsibilities that take up too much of your time. Instead, you need to focus on multiple areas. For the sake of simplicity, however, these are the three important ways you can spend money to buy time.
- Outsource
- Automate with technology
- Compound Invest
Manage Your Finances
Before we begin, it’s important to remember that you might not be able to buy as much time as you would like. At some point, it is possible to spend too much money trying to buy time time. It can be a good idea to establish a budget and decide how much you are willing to spend to make your routine more enjoyable and less time-consuming.
When doing this, you may learn that you will have to make a few compromises. If you are unwilling to spend the money on two areas that could be very beneficial in time consumption, you may have to decide which you prefer. In reality, not all people who spend money to buy happiness can pay off every aspect of their lives that causes stress. A lot of it is about compromise.
Which brings up an important point, keep in mind that you are looking to spend money to buy free time, not happiness. Of course, the free time you earn can immensely influence your happiness, but you should not have the mindset of ridding yourself of all of life’s problems.
If you are committed to spending money to buy time, you could even consider cutting basic purchases. Obviously, you will want to budget for food, housing, and transportation (the big three), but petty purchases can make a huge dent in your wallet that you may not have considered before. Try out some basic percentage-based budgets at first, knowing you can scale to more advanced budgets over time. If you are budgeting a small salary, focus on your savings rate until you’re making enough money to begin buying back more of your time.
1. Outsource
On the professional level, one of the easiest and quickest ways to spend money to buy time is by paying someone else to take care of certain responsibilities. If you are in a position of relative power in your career, having employees that you can allocate work to can be extremely useful. Of course, the employees are being paid to complete the work, and you should make sure you are not piling on work that they will not be able to complete.
You can also take the outsourcing to another level, either hiring a new employee or literally outsourcing to another company. Especially as a manager, CEO, or any other position of authority, you will have some major responsibility. You might find it helpful to spend money for someone else to write a blog for you, take care of employee payroll, and do anything else that may not take precedence over your other projects.
2. Automate With Technology
Whether your company revolves around technology or not, likely you and many of your employees sit in front of computers all day. Chances are that you have wondered whether some of the projects you have to do on your computer are necessary – whether they need to be done by you or if they would be better off left to a computer.
Buying a manual process software is a hugely beneficial way to spend money to buy time. Software that contains the ability to complete payroll, work out employee scheduling, fill out databases, and so much more can make time for you, your marketing team, human resources, and everyone else in your office.
Taking advantage of technological advancements is one of the best ways to buy time for even small projects. You might be surprised to learn how beneficial technology can be for helping run a company and making your leisure time more manageable.
3. Compound Investing
Investing money early in your life is a valuable way to buy loads of time in the future. If you do choose to invest your money but have never done so before, it is advised that you learn as much as you can about investments.
Whether you meet with a financial advisor or investor or get enough information from self-research, knowing what you are doing before investing can help you make better decisions regarding where you spend your money. If you invest safely and intelligently, you will find your investments growing exponentially (through the magic of compounding) over the years.
You have probably heard of investing before, but chances are you may have never considered how an investment can buy you time. Spending money to buy time is all about approaching the process while knowing what you are getting yourself into. Investing in the right things, whether it be stocks, market funds, or anything else, can help you earn money without any labor, allowing you to have extra funds in the future for vacations, retirement, and so much more.
How To Make Time For Yourself
Speaking of spending money to make more in the future and buy more time for yourself, there are other ways to make time for yourself. Staying well-organized and managing your responsibilities is a large part of spending money to buy time. The amount of time you work, how much energy you use, and your overall routine can determine how much you can or cannot make more time for yourself.
Organize Time-Consuming Responsibilities
Before making an effort to buy back as much time as you can, it is a good idea to set aside time to organize your schedule.
- What responsibilities during a workday keep you occupied?
- How do you spend your time before and after work?
- What do days off consist of?
Figure out a rough schedule of your week and gauge how much time you spend doing certain things.
Consider aspects you might wish to cut out of your routine, such as:
- Too much time on your phone
- Too many errands to run
- Taking on other people’s responsibilities at work
If there are activities in your day-to-day schedule that either prevent you from getting more important things done or – in your opinion – take away from your quality of life, they should be analyzed.
Give Yourself A Break
It is all too easy to work yourself into a seemingly-constant state of fatigue. Even while spending money to buy time, you have to consider the reality of overworking yourself. The stress and anxiety of daily living can be overwhelming, and failure to manage your time before finding more time will prevent you from capitalizing on your efforts.
Take consistent breaks. While spending money to buy time is effective, you should not let the process become another stressful activity on top of your responsibilities. It may sound cheesy, but it is important. As you have seen with the examples of investing and outsourcing work, spending money to buy time should not require extra labor on your part. It may take some up-front effort or cost, but you should be able to scale to ‘less-effort’ on your part in a relatively short period of time.
Use The Pareto Principle
The Pareto Principle is a scientifically proven method you can use to buy yourself more time. The Pareto Principle states that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. That is not to suggest that you should only give 20% effort when you take care of your responsibilities, but that you should approach your work with a quality over quantity mindset.
The devotion you put into your work should be centered on the quality of effort you put in, not the amount of work you put out. Depending on the quality of your efforts, you will have more or less valuable results. By focusing on the 20% of effort that decides your results, you can better manage the quality of work you put out.
When you produce better work, you do not have to worry about spending long hours finishing projects, taking time to make corrections to your mistakes, and failing to move on to new responsibilities. So, working smarter, not harder, can be an essential key to buying yourself more time.
How To Buy Back Your Time
Along with spending money to buy time comes the opportunity to buy back lost time. Obviously, you cannot go back in time, but you can make efforts to spend less time on projects that have taken up much of your time in the past. As you will see below, one of the best ways to manage time for the future is by spending money outside of the professional field.
While spending money to buy time in your professional life is perhaps more practical, there are still plenty of ways to manage your time when you do not have professional responsibilities. A day full of running errands can be avoided with just a few small tweaks.
Spend for Convenience
One of the most common ways people buy back time outside of work is by spending money for convenience. Of course, not all people are fortunate enough to spend money as often in this way, but if you are, it can be a great adjustment for having more time.
If you find that cooking your own food takes up much of your free time before and after work or for any other occasion, you should consider ordering takeout in circumstances where you are pressed for time. In some cases, you might consider hiring a cook to prepare your meals for you.
You can do the same with things like grocery shopping. Grocery shopping and other errands can take up an entire day that you could otherwise be relaxing, taking care of other projects, etc. Luckily, many grocers offer online orders and delivery to make this process even more convenient.
Hire an Expert
Similarly, you can hire a maid to keep your house in good condition so that you do not have to spend hours doing it yourself. More minor things such as paying a mechanic to take care of your car troubles instead of trying to figure the problem out yourself are also valid ways to spend money to buy back the time you have lost in the past. Essentially, anything that could be a DIY project but could also be accomplished by a professional is a great way to save yourself time. Not only is it an efficient solution, but hiring an expert likely will provide you better outcomes than if you were to do it yourself.
Takeaways
Many people say money cannot buy time, but that is simply not true. There are plenty of ways to spend money to buy time; you just have to be able to organize a plan and put it into action. Time is not a physical product, but it can be managed much better when you plan accordingly. Whether it involves your professional life or free time, spending money to buy time is well worth it.
