How to Have More Time to Enjoy Life

Modern life can be very hard sometimes in that it often feels like to have plenty of money you have no free time and to have free time you end up with less money. There is a way to break out of this cycle however, and I want to share with you some ideas that have helped me.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• The desire to have more time so you can enjoy it.

1. First of all, from a thought-process standpoint you're likely going to have to gradually change some things you've been doing. Many of us are raised to think that money is our most valuable resource, and there's a tendency to base your career and life off of that concept. That's not to say that money isn't important (people spend 70,000+ hours of their life earning it), but the two are related in that to get your time back you're going to have to learn how to earn and manage money differently.
2. A good place to start in "finding time" is to look at your lifestyle. I've seen statistics that say the average adult in America watches 30-40 hours of television a week. You could take a portion of that time a develop a side business that could either get you out of debt (so you don't have to work extra to make debt payments) or help you transition into a career that gives you more money and flexibility with your time. If you're already a work-o-holic and don't seem to be making progress financially, you may need to take a look at what you're doing to see if a minor change could increase your overall income.
3. Realize that in the beginning you may have to sacrifice some time to get it back later. I currently don't have to work a full-time job anymore because I spent 2 years of my life basically working 80-hour weeks, 40 for a company as an employee and 40 for myself. It wasn't easy, but it was worth doing.
4. Find some motivations in your life that will pull you toward finding ways of having more time. For me, it was wanting to spend more time with my husband, my parents, and my brother. I also wanted to free myself up to do things that would make a difference that I couldn't do before because of not having the time to do it.

Tips & Warnings

• No pun intended, but this takes time and is a process. I first started focusing on this idea in my late teens, and I've seen progress in my early 20s. It also requires you to be a little different from most people, but I think the rewards are worth it.
• Books that are helpful regarding this topic are "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki and "48 Days to The Work You Love" by Dan Miller. I've found business books in general are helpful in that they teach you how to build an income that is residual (repeat income for a single effort). It's pretty sad, but most colleges don't teach this even though it's extremely important in life.
• Don't live your life in such a way that you'll procrastinate and later regret not making time for what matters in life. If you don't focus on this issue, it will slip by you.