Dreams

See “Time management” for productivity and efficiency tips.

Background

When I was younger, I had big dreams and I was uncompromising on achieving these.

I did not like the idea of being tied down to a single job or debt-forced to work, unable to take risks, fearful of losing the ability to pay a mortgage and ultimately lose the house. It did not make sense to me.

Poor money and time management, and the mindset of accepting jobs you do not like long-term will inevitably stop most people from achieving their dreams.

Life never turns out how you planned!

I developed some poor financial habits which threatened my progress, but I managed to keep moving step by step toward my dreams.

Eventually I realised one of my dreams to live and teach near the beach in a beautiful, hot country.

Unfortunately, this particular dream was unsustainable financially.

I had got there with financial support from my family (for which I am very grateful), but I was financially immature and had developed poor spending habits. Because of that, I did not yet have the awareness or ability to build the skills, habits or income needed to sustain the path long term. It was a valuable lesson.

Enjoy the journey, learn to adapt

I badly wanted that feeling back, but I was so focused on the end goal-the next dream, that over time, I forgot to enjoy the journey and the dream was lost.

The positive thing that came from my previous “failure” was the start of my financial education journey and independence from family financially, but somewhere along the way I stopped moving forward. This continued for a few years because I was scared of change and I was too comfortable where I was. Dreams require forward motion.

After a push from a loved one, this began to change, but a significant life event and pandemic happened around the same time and I ended up settling back into a comfortable position through fear of risking financial stability in uncertain times.

Life has a way of changing unpredictably and you have to change with it. I am not enjoying the journey right now, but I believe if you do not like a situation, change it, adapt to it or change your attitude. This is what I am doing right now.

More recently, I have begun to dream again. The dreams are different now, bigger even, but this time I have the ultimate motivation to keep me going: passion.

My biggest dream now? Financial independence, to give us the freedom to do more of the things we love, where and when we want to, but this time I am determined to enjoy the journey by focusing on what I am passionate about-family, helping people, writing, personal development, education, financial independence and travel.

This way, even if I do not reach my dreams, I lose nothing, but first I need to break through the things that are holding me back.

Internal conflict

Previously, I was willing to sacrifice happiness now in order to achieve a bigger long-term goal, but why should I sacrifice my happiness? This already took me off track before.

Why should we wait until our bodies are deteriorating to start enjoying life fully? Will we even reach the end goal without passion?

This is where the internal conflict comes in. I need to provide for my family so, as I wrote in “Passion”, for me this needs to be a gradual change over.

However when you want something so badly, it is even harder to continue doing the things you are not passionate about for the reasons mentioned above. Time is limited.

All I want to do is follow my passions 100% right now, but the reality is that for now, my passions do not pay the bills. I find myself itching to find a spare hour to work on my projects, but I feel held back by paperwork and other meaningless work related tasks.

Time management

Everything comes down to time management. Just as many financial experts recommend you spend a month tracking everything you spend so that you can see where your money goes and how you can cut spending and increase savings, you can do the same with your time.

If you cannot just cut your working hours or quit your job, you need to manage your time as efficiently as possible.

I recently started to cut out entertainment from my life unless I need to switch my brain off for a bit.

I use commuting time to learn something useful on YouTube or podcasts.

I have much less tolerance for meaningless tasks and refuse to do the unnecessary. Cut the crap from your life and you free it up for more productive time.

I have no time for small talk unless it is likely to lead to something meaningful later on. My priorities for time now are family and achieving our dreams as soon as possible.

If achieving goals is important to you, they need to be clear, realistic and time limited, and you need to maximise your time to bring your success closer more quickly.

The more meaningful work you do each day, the shorter the time to success. It is just like compound interest-a little each day snowballs into something huge given time.

Time management at my job

I am learning to manage my time as effectively as possible.

I arrive at my job shortly before I need to start.

I have clothes that match without having to think about it.

I wait until I am alone to smash out paperwork to avoid distraction. Sometimes this means staying after my work day has officially ended.

I have an organised filing system so I do not have to think about the order and location of paperwork.

I pile up, organise and work on paperwork in deadline order (unless my concentration is low-then I go for the easiest first). This system allows me to complete small bursts if my concentration is strong enough. If not, I take a proper break.

I kill all distractions where possible. Notifications on my phone are never on, my phone is always on silent mode. I use relaxing music with no lyrics to drown out background noise and signal to others not to disturb me. Sometimes you just need to be blunt with people and tell them you need to focus.

Multi-tasking does not work. You may feel like you are getting a lot done but it is inefficient. Focus completely on one task and you will finish everything quicker overall. The time it takes to get back into what you were doing before the other task is a waste. If you are called away to something else, make a quick note of what you were doing first.

There is sometimes no point in trying to push yourself just for the sake of getting something done. It is often better to take short, planned breaks and naps-you can get things done more efficiently and with higher quality.

Why is time management at your job important?

I work from afternoon to evening, so there is not much of the day left once everything is finished at my job. Well managed time at my job allows me to spend more time at home, or at least time at home when it is most beneficial. Time in the morning free to work on my dreams before everyone is awake, and then time to rest and relax with family. A little time after work with family. Having a set routine allows me to reduce time and energy thinking about what I need to do next. Work smart.

Values

You can see what people value by the way they spend their time and money. What is important to you?