Do You Feel Like You Have Time Debt?

The clock is ticking and this time of year it seems to tick faster. From here until January 2 is usually one big blur but not without some of the most meaningful and impactful events still to take place. Including those which are work-related. It’s this time of year where you are most 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?

I felt the debt of time writing and editing my latest book. The process was harder than my first for many reasons. For starters, my first book finished at about 38k words. My latest unedited book was 78k words. The amount of editing required had jumped tremendously.

When I considered writing the book I knew it would be easier and it was. That is when I had time to write. What I failed to consider was how my business has grown and the time I would be able to devote to writing. I barely considered editing. Foolishly, or conveniently, I also forgot about marketing. All the things I didn’t plan for took a lot from my time bank account.

I was in debt to not only myself but others and it would only get worse if I couldn’t pay it off. Not getting the book to the editor in time throws off the formatting schedule and pre-release schedule. A complete domino effect as the list and schedule seems to keep getting longer. 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.

Here is how I answered my own questions:

What will matter a year from now? Two years? A year from now and even two years from now my latest book will matter and be relevant. I used to write articles on my blog and LinkedIn twice a week. I stopped because when I look back at my work and what will have the greater impact it will be my book. The articles take more time than I had realized. Creativity and writing time which was precious to my book.

I found my decision validated as I was reading through content from a year ago. My email filters are set to send most of my promotional reading materials to a different folder. Once a week I go through to read the articles. With the number of publications and people I'm subscribed to I have well over 2,000 emails in that folder. This past week I was able to delete many without reading because they were not relevant.

My blog posts are written to remain relevant long after a season. However, I don't continue to promote them over and over. They are not sold for money and provide no direct revenue stream. It was hard to stop writing them, for a time, and focus on what really needed my attention but it was the right thing to do what matters most.

What does your job depend on? My job is to match clients to the right virtual assistants and train other VAs. This required my full attention. Having my full attention meant there was no room to “fit” writing in between those times. A day full of consultations, interviews, and training wasn’t conducive to writing. I needed to block off time in large chunks and lock myself away.

Editing required a completely different work arrangement for me. Working while traveling the world this year I’m in Southeast Asia on the last leg of the tour. However, I’m keeping U.S. Eastern Time hours which means I’m working graveyard. Not necessarily bad for my normal work. Difficult for my challenging work, editing.

I had to find the right time and rhythm which turned out to be at the end of my workday, not the beginning. Since it’s flipped that meant it was 5am-9am as the sun was coming up. This was the crucial moment when I got to pay back on my time debt. Up until I figured this out I was only sinking deeper into the hole.

Finding time for yourself and your growth work is not always convenient. There is a space to find your rhythm. When you can lock into that space your work gets done in a way that feels both productive and rewarding. Less like a chore. You may have to give up attending an event, gathering, or party. In my case, while the decision wasn't easy, missing my editing time meant literally throwing off my entire day and losing my sleep schedule. The consequences were too big to chance.

I owed it to my current and potential clients to be on my best game. Make the right decisions based on getting enough rest and thinking clearly. Not missing my professional development hours. My business growth and development couldn't be at their expense.

What is a nice to do versus a have to do? The odds and ends of my business were all given to virtual assistants! My time is way too valuable to concentrate on anything which can be done by someone else. As I tell my clients, Do what matters most. If it could be done by someone else it was and still is. If I didn’t think it was worth paying someone and I wasn’t willing to do I had to make a decision if I would keep it in my business at all. Sometimes the hard and best decisions are made at crunch time.

I'm not sure why except that I like to know everything detail of my business but giving up some of the daily minutiae was more difficult than expected. It would be nice if I could do it. Nice but not necessary nor worth it. When I examined those things I felt like I have to do proper priority was given. Up until this point, I knew they had to be done but I wasn't scheduling proper time.

Then came the decision to stop and get rid of certain aspects of my business altogether. They have not grown with me and I needed to end them. Not what I expected from growth.

This is my story. Which doesn’t even include the personal although you can bet I have personal commitments and responsibilities even 9,000 miles from home. What are you in time debt to?

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 and host of the Admin to VA Summit. To learn more about working with a Virtual Assistant contact Melissa here.