The Perfect Time Doesn't Exist
By Melissa Tosetti
I was talking with a client the other day as we compared the ridiculousness that has been our schedules over the last few months.
While we sympathized with each other, I reaffirmed that when it comes to something like taking control of your finances, it’s just too easy to want to wait until the perfect time; the beginning of the following month, a free weekend, when Saturn and Mars align. You get the idea.
In truth, the perfect time to start doesn’t exist and if it did, it’s quite likely we’d schedule something over it since as modern humans, we seem to hate voids in our schedules – and if there is a gap in our schedule, it’s just too easy to waste the opportunity.
So, if there is a financial related task you’ve been waiting for the perfect time to tackle such as starting to track your spending or creating a Spending Plan – just do it! Even if you can only dedicate five minutes to the task, at least get started and then be on the lookout for pockets of time when you can dedicate another five minutes to it and gain your momentum from there.
It’s quite likely that one of the reasons you’ve had trouble finding the time for your financial task is because well, frankly, it’s not necessarily the most fun thing to do in the world – or in many instances, it can be emotional.
A technique I learned years ago is to use a timer and limit less-fun-tasks. Set the timer, get started and when the timer goes off, you’re done for the day. Do the same thing the next day and you knock out the task incrementally. In my own experience, very often I’ll get on a roll and will end up continuing to work well past the timer going off – completing the job in one session.
I not only use this technique for those less-than-fun tasks, but I also use them for tasks that could go on forever if you’re not careful. While Kevin and I wrote Living The Savvy Life, I worked at it two hours a day over a three month time period.
For the record, I got down to this sentence in the first of two 15 minute writing sessions. Give it a try. It works!
Melissa Tosetti is a cash flow planning expert, founder of The Savvy Life and author of the international bestseller Living The Savvy Life.
For the past ten years, she’s worked with over 850 individuals and families to create Spending Plans.
To learn about the Spending Plan process, visit The Savvy Life’s Home Page. If you’d like to learn about how The Savvy Life works with financial advisors and their clients visit: The Savvy Life Advisor’s Page.