Tag Archives: Time Managment

Retire early by saving time on habits

Non-financial Aspects of retirement, Retire Early,

 

This post was contributed to Leisure Freak by the accomplished entrepreneur and personal finance influencer Erik Bergman. 

When it comes to retiring early, it’s all about achieving financial freedom. But what many fail to recognize is that to achieve financial freedom, you have to change habits. Some habits work against your efforts to retire early. So by saving time on these habits, you are making it easier to do that.

Achieving financial freedom before retirement isn’t easy. Not only do you need to root out some habits to save time, but you also need to prepare mentally. While it’s easy to put off your retirement plan for another year or two down the line, imagine how different things would be if you had saved that time instead. So if you want to retire early, you need to act now and not in hindsight. With the help of our tips, you can do that. So without wasting too much of your time, let’s look at how to retire early by saving time on habits.

Retire early by saving time on habits

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Go To Bed Earlier

One of the most common bad habits we all do is not getting enough sleep. We are encouraged to get anywhere between seven and eight hours of sleep each night. Are you sure you’re getting enough sleep? Sleep is an important biological function that no one can survive without. Not only does sleeping help replenish energy, but it prepares you for the next day.

All successful people get enough sleep. So to do that, you need to start changing your bedtime habits. Are you going to bed at the right hour, or are you wasting time by scrolling through social media, watching TV, or playing games on your smartphone? If the answer is yes to any of these three, then you’re not getting enough sleep. In that case, the only way to get enough sleep is to wake up later in the day.

But morning is the most important part of the day. It prepares you for the day to come, and waking up earlier makes you fresher and more productive. My simple tip is to go to bed earlier by reducing screen time. On average, you will be saving more than ten hours a week. This is one of the four habits that save time and help you retire early.

Quit Poisoning Your Mind and Body

We have all kinds of habits that negatively impact both our minds and body. These habits make it difficult for you to function the next day. Even more so, they create a downward spiral that makes you less productive. In turn, the less productive you are during the week, the less work you’ll do. This negatively contributes to your goal to retire early.

The whole point of retiring earlier is to enjoy retirement more. So with every small action, you make that will negatively impact this goal, you are losing valuable time. People have all kinds of negative habits. But some hinder your ability to achieve financial freedom. Some are so harmful that they actively work against early retirement. Drinking is one of those harmful habits. The more you drink, the less productive you are. While you’re certainly not a stranger to the idea of alcohol, having too much of it can harm your mind and body.

If things spiral out of control, then you indeed lose all control. The habits become the norm. Every morning becomes a struggle to sober up and deal with hangovers. This hinders your personal and professional development. So, you need to start thinking about changes. One of the best changes is to replace the whiskey glass with dumbbells. Exercise is your best tool to help you deal with this problem.

Many people drink to stop depressive thoughts. According to this study, exercise is the best tool to combat depression and addiction.

Save Time By Preparing Easier Meals

Much like sleep, we depend on food for energy. Without eating, we wouldn’t be able to survive. So naturally, eating is something unavoidable. But you’ll be amazed to find out just how much time you’re losing every day preparing meals and thinking about what to eat.

Meal preparation takes, on average, one hour each day. You can spend that hour more productively elsewhere. But that doesn’t take into account the process of figuring out what you’ll be eating three times a day. So what’s the solution to this problem? Like in personal finance, planning is key. By planning what you’ll be eating for the whole week in advance, you’ll save valuable time grocery shopping, preparing, and cooking.

Make this a habit, and you’ll start realizing just how much time you’re saving on average. You can invest the time saved into planning for early retirement.

Stop Watching Television

The last habit is similar to the first but different in many ways. We mentioned that to prepare for early retirement, you need to prepare your body and mind for it. Everyone owns a television. And everyone has the same habit of watching TV when back from work. But what television does is it makes you a slave to it.

You watch more just to satisfy your need for daily entertainment. That could be watching a fun game show, TV series, or even watching the news. People watch the news to know what’s happening around the world and at home. But what happens around the world doesn’t really impact you or your day in any way. You’ll still go to work and come back tired.

So instead of watching television, try to do something else that will have a positive effect on your early retirement plan. On average, quitting television can save up to four hours each day.

This informative article was contributed to Leisure Freak by Erik Bergman. We all can find ways to be more productive in reaching our early retirement financial goals. A little self  analysis goes a long way and tweaking non productive habits costs little to nothing.

Retire early by saving time with better habits  Author Bio: Erik Bergman co-founded Catena Media and helped grow it to over 300 employees and a $200 million valuation before stepping away to start Great.com, an iGaming organization that donates 100% of its profits to environmental charities. In addition to running a successful online affiliate business, Erik also hosts the Becoming Great podcast, shares entrepreneurship tips with his more than 1 million social media followers, and contributes to sites like Entrepreneuer.com, Business Insider, Foundr, and Forbes.  

Early Retiree Free Time: The Double Edged Sword

Non-financial Aspects of retirement, Retire Early, ,

I recently posted that people who value more time instead of money are the happiest. Our hard-won Early Retiree Free Time brings us great happiness. But it can also bring conflict. It is a double-edged sword. Time is a valuable commodity in today’s busy world. Where family and friends wouldn’t think to ask early retirees for money. Early Retiree’s free time is another story.

It takes a certain kind of wealth to retire early. Our net worth isn’t usually advertised or shared. Friends and relatives may make assumptions but seldom hit early retirees up for money or even consider it. But wanting use of our free time seems totally up for grabs.

Assumptions about retirees always having free time to give can lead to misunderstandings and hurt feelings. It is up to the early retiree to manage their free time. Early retirees must manage both the requests for favors and our own emotions. Life is short. Relatives and friends are our greatest treasure. But nobody on either side of these relationships wants to feel used or let down.

Early Retiree Free Time Can Cut Both Ways

Having won free time in our early retirement to follow our passions and interests can cut both ways. It is the reason for celebration and happiness. But it can also bring requests for help and obligations beyond what we bargained for. Even though I put a high value on being there for those I care about. I have experienced the strain of having to be there for more than my schedule had room for. I did retire to something and believe me it keeps me pretty busy.

Early Retiree Free TimeThat said, I know firsthand the pitfalls of my hard-won free time. How it can weigh on my emotions and relationships. This happens when everyone’s expectations are out of whack. It is hard to say no to someone you care about. However it is better to be honest and upfront about things.

When we retire we want to make family and friends a high priority in our new life. That includes being there for them by sharing our free time. To both enjoy spending more time together and help when and where we can.

There is something worse than saying NO or the recipient hearing the word NO when there are time conflicts. That is our doing something we really didn’t want to do or couldn’t do at that time. Then complaining about it. Our words and attitude will come out into the open one way or another. It hurts both us and our loved ones. It comes down to this. Either happily do it or just say no.

The Upfront Approach – Verbal Contract

This might be hard for some to do. Especially before any favors or requests for time have been made. But if you have a reasonable concern of what might come once your retirement is known. Then laying out ground rules to friends and family may be the best strategy.

My mother had no problem doing this. She is from the old country. From a place where being abrupt and direct is normal. She announced to the family about her pending retirement and said, “Don’t expect me to babysit everyday”.  Nobody had mentioned a word about her doing that. But it did set the ground rules early. Way before anyone made some false assumptions about how mom would be spending her new free time.

Setting a verbal contract with friends and family can help ease any future conflict.

For example, by simply stating that except in cases or emergency all babysitting must be approved in advance.

Requesting that our loved ones get advanced approval is important with many time requests. The same would go for driving folks around. I have an early retired friend whose parent and in-law sets appointments. They do so without finding out first if he and his wife have already made travel or other plans. Many times he has changed his plans to keep the peace and not upset anyone. He happily obliges but is cause for annoyance to him and his wife.

Advanced approval is necessary for many time requests. Dog or house sitting, moving, painting, etc. Many people have an assumption the early retired have nothing ever planned. They always have time to help when needed.

Being upfront helps saying “NO”. It could eliminate false assumptions. When a time conflict does arise the retiree-free-time verbal contract is something that could be pointed back to.

Set Your Limits

There are things that I have to say no to when asked. There have been many times I have had to say no to friends and family because I just can’t help them. One limitation is associated with pain. I know what my bad back can handle.

Many times all people see is a healthy and handy 6’3” man who should be of great help. But I have to draw the line. Even though I may risk injury and pain to do these things for myself. I can’t move their furniture, load trucks, ladder work, paint, shovel or blow snow, plumbing work, etc. for them. Saying “NO” is necessary. Sometimes I do say “YES” and pay dearly for it. I let my wanting to help override the limits I have set for myself. I am then quickly reminded why I have set those limits.

Assess what you will be happy to do and what you definitely wouldn’t or shouldn’t want to do. That includes allowances where you are happy to reschedule your plans around for them. That way when one of these kinds of requests comes up there is no hymn-hawing about it. It is then easy to stick to your guns and kindly say no at the time of the request.

Dealing with Spousal bias

Dealing with spousal family bias has come up with us and a friend of mine. I am sure it is quite common. This is when we spend a great deal of time lending our time to family. There are time conflicts and changed plans that occur. There are then complaints that too much time plan changes are allowed to one’s family members. Yet no complaints about the same time and equal allowances given to the spouse’s family when similar time conflicts arise.

Blood is thicker than water. Bias is natural in most cases. Aside from having good communication skills and relationships with our spouse. Calmly talking about the situation and setting a plan is better than going over the scoreboard to prove our point.

  • Never favor your family over your spouse’s family for your time or making time conflict allowances.
  • Never volunteer your spouse for time and services without first asking them if it’s OK.
  • Set the same limits and guidelines for all requests for your time.
  • Treat each other as partners in managing your early retiree free time and back each other up.

Know thy self – Overcoming guilt.

There are always those special family members and friends who know how to perpetrate the best guilt trips. Dropping one of those bad boys on people is an art form. It is however a gift you can refuse. Guilt trips are in our own head and we don’t have to be ruled by them.

I still occasionally fall for this insidious emotion. Somehow my inability to accommodate someone’s wants and needs means their hardship lands solely as my responsibility.

We always want to help but sometimes time conflicts happen. Hearing that –

  • They already spent the money on non-refundable tickets.
  • We haven’t the money to pay someone else.
  • It has to be done now and there is no time to find someone else.
  • We can’t reschedule on our end without losing XYZ, etc.

None of that is our fault or reason to feel guilty over our not being able to accommodate. Explain that obviously if you could and didn’t have the time conflict you would. Reaffirm that if only THEY had pre-approved the time-frame for the time needed. They should get the picture that if they had then this time conflict wouldn’t have happened.

Of course if I can change my schedule for an emergency I would. But not everything is a true emergency.

Time Conflicts from Outside of Family and Friends

Early Retiree Free Time can be considered up for grabs from even outside our friends and family. It can happen when working a Part-Time gig. Where coworkers and management may make assumptions. Whether being asked last-minute by a coworker to cover their shift or the boss filling holes in the schedule.

Many retirees spend some of their allocated free time doing volunteer work for their community or church. Those in charge may make assumptions and believe the early retiree can handle more assignments.

I am sure there are many more examples of clubs and organizations that are part of what we retired to. Any could make a request of more time than our early retirement lifestyle schedule has room for.

The Bottom Line

Early Retiree Free Time is the prize that keeps on giving. It gives our own happiness and the ability to spend it with friends and family. Even helping them and their lives be easier and better.

That free time cuts both ways. Time conflicts do arise and we hate letting people that we care about down. But by setting some personal limits and having up front verbal contracts we can ease bad assumptions.

Misunderstandings about our retiree free time can add pain to a relationship. Don’t simply agree to do everything and then live your life complaining about it all. That only leads to animosity and distance between us and the people we care about. That is not what we retired to.

One last comment – Of course when I say “No” in this post I don’t mean we flip the word “No” out there all alone like that. We can always be polite even while getting our point across.

Do you see Early Retiree Free Time being an issue for you to handle?

Have you considered laying out ground rules in a verbal contract? If so, what was your ground rules?

Workaholism Survives Financial Independence

Career, Health, Non-financial Aspects of retirement, Workaholic, Workaholism,

I have news that may surprise those on the journey to financial independence and perhaps also to those already enjoying the fruits of reaching their freedom goals. Workaholism Survives Financial Independence and Early Retirement. Just because you reach the point where you no longer NEED to work doesn’t mean your Workaholism will be automatically cured. The key is first recognition and then taking action as soon as possible.

Some people will joke calling themselves a workaholic when putting in extra hours on a project. When temporarily putting their personal life on hold. The truth is that anyone suffering from the negative impacts of Workaholism have nothing to joke about.

Workaholism is defined as valuing work over anything else.

There is no balance where their life can place value on or allow them to enjoy relationships, hobbies, or leisure.

Workaholism can cause serious health issues and destroy their marriage and other relationships.
Workaholics will work even if it is all-consuming.

Living without happiness or pleasure because they have no other passions, interests, or activities they would consider doing instead.

Workaholism is like an addiction.

An addiction with nothing but negative outcomes. Where the workaholic may want to stop because they recognize the damage it is doing but can’t stop.

The FI Community Has Its Share of Workaholics

Those who are successfully on the path to financial independence certainly have an ambitious and driven type of personality. They work hard to generate income. They budget, eliminate debt, become super-savers, side hustlers for extra income, etc. Chances are there are at least some workaholic traits if not full-blown Workaholism going on within them. Whether realized or not.

I know I suffered from it during my first career. I find even now after financial independence, early retirement, an encore career, and a second early retirement that I am not going to ever be cured. I will always be a Recovering Workaholic.  I’m not kidding about that.

It shows up during any project I am working on. I can become all consumed and can’t stop myself until it hits me that I am ignoring what is going on around me. All of the important things in my life drop by the wayside. I usually see it happening and catch myself where I can then pace myself and enjoy the moments passing by with my wife and family.

I have to remind myself that just because I am doing what I want to do and am passionate about doing that it is all too easy to fall into the same Workaholic traps. This of course results in my neglecting everything else.

Workaholism Does Survive Financial Independence and Early Retirement

I can tell you that Workaholism Survives Financial Independence and Early Retirement. It’s not just for those who have to serve their jobs, climb the corporate ladder, and accumulate as much money as they can get. You bring it with you wherever you go and are.

My Workaholism actually started early in school where I ignored everything else in my effort to earn straight ‘A’s. It has been with me much of my life. Fortunately I can now recognize my slips and put a stop to it. For others it’s not so easy because their Workaholic addiction takes over and they don’t even realize it until their health, relationships, or attitude toward life fails.

Workaholism Survives Financial Independence so Know the Signs

The first step to avoiding or beginning to stop Workaholism is to know the signs and recognize whether you have the traits and habits that put you in danger.

To figure out if you have workaholic tendencies, habits, or perhaps full-blown Workaholism, Workaholics Anonymous suggests you ask yourself these 20 questions.

Having only Three positive answers are considered an indicator that you may have a problem with Workaholism:
  1. Do you get more excited about your work than about family or anything else?
  2. Are there times when you can charge through your work and other times when you can’t?
  3. Do you take work with you to bed? On weekends? On vacation?
  4. Is work the activity you like to do best and talk about most?
  5. Do you work more than 40 hours a week?
  6. Do you turn your hobbies into money-making ventures?
  7. Do you take complete responsibility for the outcome of your work efforts?
  8. Have your family or friends given up expecting you on time?
  9. Do you take on extra work because you are concerned that it won’t otherwise get done?
  10. Do you underestimate how long a project will take and then rush to complete it?
  11. Do you believe that it is okay to work long hours if you love what you are doing?
  12. Do you get impatient with people who have other priorities besides work?
  13. Are you afraid that if you don’t work hard you will lose your job or be a failure?
  14. Is the future a constant worry for you even when things are going very well?
  15. Do you do things energetically and competitively, including play?
  16. Do you get irritated when people ask you to stop doing your work in order to do something else?
  17. Have your long hours hurt your family or other relationships?
  18. Do you think about your work while driving, falling asleep, or when others are talking?
  19. Do you work or read during meals?
  20. Do you believe that more money will solve the other problems in your life?
Workaholism isn’t a joke even though society may accept it and it is thrown around as a joke.

If you find you have a problem with Workaholism that you cannot control and it is negatively impacting your life, health, and relationships you can find help. It can be as easy as tuning-in to your problem and reaching out for more information at Workaholics Anonymous, a “fellowship of individuals who share their experience, strength, and hope with each other that they may solve their common problems and help others to recover from Workaholism”.

Workaholism Survives Financial Independence so Take Steps Early

You work hard to reach your financial goals and finally retire early from a life where you have to work. Your second act doesn’t have to carry your Workaholism of the past. Deal with it as soon as you can. If you haven’t dealt with your Workaholism while still in the Rat Race then don’t think it won’t appear in your early retirement. We leave the Rat Race with all the same drive and ambition that got us to Financial Independence and even though we may shift our focus from serving our corporate masters we can still fall into the same workaholic traps and suffer the same negative impacts. Basically without knowing it we create our own personal Rat Race under the rationalization that I am doing what I want to do.

Steps to Take:

Focus on what is truly important to you.

Obviously by reaching financial independence and retiring from a career-driven mindset we have redirected our focus away from our work and that is huge. Retiring to something is key. When I look at any opportunity that I have interest in or am passionate about doing in my “retire early and often” lifestyle or take on a project associated to my hobbies or home, I have to put aside my workaholic tendencies and stay on track.

Things that should have more importance than working or tackling a big project is Family, Friends, Health, and Leisure to have fun in life. List what is most important to you and swear to focus on dedicating some of your time to them. Even slowing down and being in the moment should be included because making time for all the others is wasted if your mind is always preoccupied with your work or project. Always remember that the things that are truly important can’t be bought and can be easily lost.

Set Limits on the number of projects or work you take on.

I have a lot of projects I WANT to start and someday finish. The trick is to finish tasks before starting another one. Incremental completion helps sooth the workaholic beast so that I don’t feel like I have to cram it all in during a short time-frame, thus robbing time from the important things. If something isn’t working-out then move on instead of wasting more of your valuable time on it. Remember that it is your time that you are spending and it’s too expensive to needlessly run through trying to please people.

Set time limits on projects or work.

Whether it’s which days a week and/or which hours in the day, limit your project or work time so that you always have time for the important stuff. Limit your time doing work and stick to it. Mindlessly throwing massive hours at your project or work only feeds Workaholism and starves the truly important things out of existence.

Assess the value of any project or work you take on.

Do a time-to-benefit analysis (your time vs how much and who [how many] benefit). What is the benefit of completing the work or a project? Are people waiting for you to finish? Is the deadline just one you laid on yourself? Always ask yourself this so you never get caught working on something for the sake of working on something. Workaholics tend to busy themselves with work just for work’s sake. Don’t be that person. If the benefit is low or none then don’t waste your time doing it and instead go hang-out with the family.

Purposely pace yourself.

The worst boss for a workaholic to work for is themselves. That is because they set tight deadlines for themselves with high expectations causing long hours trying to finish. Stop doing that. If you have other people pushing a deadline or requesting a lot of your time then do a real self-assessment and only accept what is reasonable. Then of course don’t let your Workaholism kick in and have you busting keister trying to beat it. Go into every project and work with purposeful time-management and pace yourself so you always make time for the truly important things.

Control your perfectionism.

Stop aiming for perfection in everything you do especially if it’s not necessary to meet your project or work’s purpose. Remember your Time carries a high value and there is always something better to do with it.

Strive to be productive and efficient.

Try to concentrate and get work done within short time-frames. This is so you can later allow yourself to celebrate your accomplishment by taking time to relax. Work smarter not longer.

Final Thought

Workaholism Survives Financial Independence and Early Retirement where our workaholic tendencies and habits manifest themselves in the projects or second-act careers we take on. Unfortunately they can cause the same negative impacts as when we are in a career striving for advancement and financial independence. Fortunately by recognizing our Workaholism we can take steps to control it.

You can still be a hard worker by working with efficiency and produce excellent quality work and not be a workaholic. It’s all about how you manage and prioritize your time and where you value spending it. Our time is finite and once it’s gone it’s gone. Take the Workaholics Anonymous 20 question self-survey and see if you have traits that need to be recognized as needing monitoring and possible elimination from your life.

Did you take the Workaholics Anonymous 20 question self-survey? How many questions you answer YES to?