My Future Doesn’t Taste THAT Good.

So I’m banging on the keyboard the other week (cause I’m a nerd and think best in Excel.)

And out pops this number that blows my mind. But not in a good way.

You see, my wife and I don’t really budget in the typical fashion. We automate as much of it as we can. Something I’m sure I’ll talk about in a later post.

The challenge we run into with things being automatic is we tend to ‘cheat the system’ a bit.

So I’m sitting here staring at the food budget versus actuals number disgusted.

We’re talking off by a factor of four…

Yeah we spent four times more than we planned to on food last month.

I can’t change the past. Last month… last week… yesterday… It’s all sunk time.

The only value it has are the memories you created and the lessons you can still learn. Don’t waste your energy tying emotions to the lessons.

So I decided to make a big change in our routine.

Now I’m a semi-productive guy. But I didn’t suddenly come up with two or three extra hours a week to go shopping for groceries.

Then a concept Tony Robbins talked about called N.E.T. time. No Extra Time. I figured this was the perfect time to apply that.

So I looked over my pretty busy schedule and the time I was spending in the evenings.

I work on my side-hustle pretty often and try to spend time with my wife as much as possible.

The wife time was off limits as she’s already sacrificing a lot of time together so I can focus on the side-hustle.

So here I am having to choose between working on my side hustle and grocery shopping to save hundreds of dollars a month.

One aspect of my side-hustle (which involves writing here and sharing stories of productivity among other things) is continually exposing myself to new ideas.

So I already read a lot each week. I’ve tackled about 30 books already this year and I’m actively going through courses related to copywriting and business.

Ah. So what if I take that time where I was reading and throw on some headphones and listen while I shop for the groceries?

I was on to something. Is it as effective as me sitting down in a nice quiet place reading and taking notes like I usually do in books?

No.

But Audible has a button to bookmark. And since I usually try to read books multiple times, it’s perfect for my first go through where I’m just listening or reading.

So I’ve been finding myself at the store each week lately, part of an elegant solution with no extra time involved.

I also realized looking back at my schedule that I do the same time stacking technique in my morning routine within my business.

If there’s something you’d like to discuss, hit me up at [email protected] I read and respond to all emails.