Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You to Be Rich recently posted “20 questions that your financially unprepared friends are afraid of.”  I’ve re-used all of his questions, but swapped thoughts related to money with thoughts related to time.

Makes you think, eh?

I’d highly recommend opening up his article and placing it besides this (especially since I took a few liberties on my analogies and some are a little bit of a stretch).  There really is a lot to consider about how we budget both the time and money in our lives.

20 questions that your overwhelmed friends are afraid of (and just to remind you, these were copied from Ramit’s article but adapted):

1. How much time do you spend each month on you?
2. Where does the time go?
3. Where do you want it to go?
4. Do you have a lot of time?
5. What does having a lot of time mean to you?
6. Hey, how’d you manage to spend 20 hours watching TV and browsing through Facebook this week?
7. How much time every week do you reserve for alone time (or real conversations with friends, face to face)?
8. Why’d you put off that vacation?
9. You’re always thinking about doing more. Ever thought about doing less?
10. OMFG, are you REALLY calling your week at a conference where you still have to do the work back at the office a vacation?  
11. If your job calls for 40 hours per week, how many hours do you spend in the office?
12. Then when you’re not at the office, are you creating barriers and setting expectations for your co-workers as to your availability?
13. Once you’ve set up expectations, are you able to relax once you leave the office?
14. Some studies show that people (especially men), spend more time on their email than with their children.  What are you doing do ensure that your life is your life and not your work.  Or at least not the monotonous portions of it?
15. If I could offer you double the vacation time, would you be able to cram all your existing responsibilities into your remaining time at the office?
16. You’re always complaining about time, but have you read even one book on time management?
17. When was the last time you said “no” when someone asked you to do something that involved your time?
18. How do your friends handle their time, and how do you think it affects you?
19. What’s the one thing you could do today to start having more time?
20. Why haven’t you already done it?

I really enjoy Ramit’s blog, not just because his financial tips are sound, but because he understands where he’s taking his career and has a razor sharp focus on how best to spend his time.  He’s a smart guy, and worth listening to.

Flickr photo credit: millermz

Filed under: Productivity

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