Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to create the time equivalent of an
Speaker 1: emergency fund. If you read a lot of personal finance
Speaker 1: literature or listen to personal finance podcasts like my favorite
Speaker 1: How to Money, you're probably familiar with the concept of
Speaker 1: a monetary emergency fund. Life happens. When it does, it
Speaker 1: can be expensive. An emergency fund is easily accessed cash
Speaker 1: that can cover an unexpected car repair, a broken pipe,
Speaker 1: or anything like that. These things fall in the category
Speaker 1: of known unknowns. You don't know exactly what unexpected expense
Speaker 1: will arise, but you can be pretty sure something will happen.
Speaker 1: Having savings means you can absorb the expense without going
Speaker 1: into debt. This is why Dave Ramsey, for instance, advises
Speaker 1: that even people with significant high interest debt save one
Speaker 1: thousand dollars as their first step toward financial stability. That
Speaker 1: baby steps emergency fund often keeps people from going deeper
Speaker 1: into the hole. There are many parallels between time and money,
Speaker 1: and I think this is one area we're seeing parallels
Speaker 1: can lead to good choices, good time management. Means creating
Speaker 1: the time equivalent of an emergency fund. This is easily
Speaker 1: accessed time that you can deploy when something unexpected happens.
Speaker 1: If you have this open time, then an emergency means
Speaker 1: you don't need to borrow time from other priorities. You
Speaker 1: have a place for the emergency to go. Slack in
Speaker 1: your schedule means you stay on track. One of the
Speaker 1: best ways to do this is to avoid scheduling things
Speaker 1: for at least one multi hour block somewhere in the week.
Speaker 1: Friday afternoon is a common choice to leave open, as
Speaker 1: it tends not to be anyone's peak productivity window. If
Speaker 1: nothing goes wrong during the week, great This open time
Speaker 1: means you can quit early, But more likely your week
Speaker 1: will go something like this. Your biggest client whose project
Speaker 1: is due Thursday, we'll call on Wednesday morning with some
Speaker 1: additional requests. This means that anything non urgent that is
Speaker 1: scheduled for Wednesday will need to move. If Friday afternoon
Speaker 1: is open, it can go there. You're still on track.
Speaker 1: You end the week accomplishing exactly what you hoped to.
Speaker 1: But if Friday afternoon is already packed, as is every
Speaker 1: other minute of your week, then you start having to
Speaker 1: borrow from future weeks which are equally packed. That's when
Speaker 1: the time debt starts to add up and people feel overwhelmed.
Speaker 1: So that's why open space is the easiest way to
Speaker 1: create a time emergency fund. But there is one big
Speaker 1: challenge with this. A financial emergency fund is there unless
Speaker 1: you spend it. Even the wealthiest person, however, will see
Speaker 1: his time emergency fund disappear once those minutes are in
Speaker 1: the past. You can't borrow time now from a low
Speaker 1: key week you experienced in two thousand five. You have
Speaker 1: to keep creating a time emergency fund again and again.
Speaker 1: But there is a more renewable form of a time
Speaker 1: emergency fund, and that is banking time with other people.
Speaker 1: Here's what I mean. Humans are a social reciprocal species,
Speaker 1: which is a fancy way of saying that if you
Speaker 1: do something nice for me, there is an extremely good
Speaker 1: chance that I will do something nice for you if
Speaker 1: you ask. This doesn't work for everyone. There are certainly
Speaker 1: some sociopaths out there, but most people want to help
Speaker 1: people who have helped them. So whenever you've got a
Speaker 1: little extra capacity, reach out to people. Reach out to
Speaker 1: your colleagues and see how you can help support them.
Speaker 1: What of their work could you help make a little
Speaker 1: bit lighter. You can do this in your personal life too.
Speaker 1: If you've decided to take a school holiday off, for instance,
Speaker 1: because you don't have a good child care option, see
Speaker 1: if your neighbors or your kids friends need supervision that
Speaker 1: day too. You've banked favors and now at work, for instance,
Speaker 1: when your big client has last minute requests, your colleague
Speaker 1: will happily cover your Wednesday meetings. You've relied on a
Speaker 1: time emergency fund and you're still on track. Life is
Speaker 1: full and life is calm. So how will you create
Speaker 1: a time emergency fund? What time slot will you leave open?
Speaker 1: And what favors will you do for the people in
Speaker 1: your life who are currently feeling overwhelmed. Take some time
Speaker 1: to think about it and put some time in the
Speaker 1: bank in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at before Breakfast pod
Speaker 1: that's B the number four, then Breakfast p O D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much.
Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
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