Time budget

As you make a monthly budget for expenses depending on your income, you should see time as a resource, just like money, and create a budget for it.

To successfully manage your time while prioritizing, you need to do a weekly time audit by documenting where you are spending all your time. That will help you discover habits and patterns that will help you identify opportunities to reorganize your time and break the myth of “I have no time”! As you start each week, you get 168 hours, which are not renewable.

While doing your time audit, consider the following: Seven to eight daily hours of sleep equals forty-nine to fifty-six hours a week. Also, include hours for commuting, running errands, routine housework, childcare, cooking and eating, bathing, watching series or movies, social media, and so on.

Time-tracking apps may assist you in using your time more efficiently. It would be best to acknowledge all the easy distractions that consume many hours of your week, such as browsing the web or social media, which can be your major time consumers without even realizing it before doing a time audit.

Once you are done with your time audit, start working on your budget and include how much time you would like to spend on each activity. Set realistic standards.
For example, you should know what part of the schedule is not negotiable and cannot be modified, such as sleeping, eating, bathing, personal and family care, and whatever other priority you may have on the top of your list. You aim to keep your schedule the same but make your time more efficient and productive. This will also help you save time for relaxing or recreational pursuits and, most notably, meet your personal and professional goals.

Once you have set your priorities, you need to analyze your time audit, identify your time spent on activities that are not helping you accomplish your goals, and decide what to cut back. The main objective of a Time Budget is the same as a Financial Budget, which is to track where your time is being spent and plan accordingly to make better decisions.