Drafting Budgets

Recently in one of our Circle meetings, Jane Zilch was reviewing the “Financial Hygiene” calendar she created for us. She urged us to work on our forecast in October and use that to create our budget in November. The budget is, in her words is a “commitment to our financial plan” in the year to come. This idea of forecasting and budgeting is one that is ingrained in the financial world and it is a good habit to form.

I would also advocate that forecasting and budgeting are good things to do not only for our business or personal finances - but also for our leadership and life goals. But for some reason we never actually take the time to do this kind of forecasting and budgeting. The reason I think this is important is that just as “money” is a finite resource - so is our time - and we should think about how we use time just as much as cash.

The conversation about how to find more time to do things comes up regularly in our Circles. Here are some things to consider when working on creating a time budget.

Does your schedule align with your values?
Values are an important part of how you do business and it should be in how you use your time. This article gives you some tips for how to look at this (and even though it says “working parents” it still applies).

What is the “cost” of meetings you are involved in?
When you add in the “cost” of the meetings by considering the salaries of those in the room (you can use this calculator to estimate) you can see where there might be opportunity to take a hard look at your meetings - What is necessary? Who needs to be there? Can you do it in 45 minutes vs. an hour?

Additionally, we spend about 17% of our time in meetings.. Studies have found that there is generally a 10% “waste factor” because we often start meetings 5-10 minutes late. Would you tolerate that in your financial results?

How much of your 24hrs/day budget do you spend on low value activities (like emails, administrative tasks, etc.)?
In the HBR article Make Time for Work That Matters, the authors found that on average, executives could free up 8 hours a week by being more deliberate about wha they spent their time on. They even created an assessment to help identify where you spend your time.

With changes to how we work, how are you changing how you use your time?
Do you have a new schedule for working hybrid? We learned a lot of lessons about how we spent our time pre-COVID and during - don’t lose what you gained - and take stock of the things you want to get rid of.

How often do you review how you spend your time?
Again, just like reviewing your financials weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc. - you should do the same with your time. Like a financial budget - it evolves as you learn and know more.

With November being a good time to plan your “business budget”, take time to plan your “time budget” as well. Ideally, you get to a point where you don’t have to plan your self-care.

And wouldn’t that be a beautiful thing?

The decisions you make determine the schedule you keep.
The schedule you keep determines the life you live.

--Lysa Terkeurst