Second Cup: What's the tax on your time?

Limit projects in progress to make life feel less crunched

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is to remember that almost every activity or project
involves a little bit of planning or administrative time. There's

(00:26):
really nothing wrong with that, but it is important to
recognize this tax on your time so you can organize
your life efficiently. This episode is first airing on April fifteenth,
which has historically been Tax Day in the United States,
the day when people's tax returns from the previous year

(00:48):
are due. I know a great many people file earlier
if they are expecting a refund, A great many other
folks file a six month extension. But April fifteenth is
at least least the day people are most likely to
think about paying taxes. I think a lot of us
can hold two thoughts in mind simultaneously. First, that taxes

(01:12):
are necessary to pay for an orderly society with schools
and roads and emergency responders. That's all good. Second, we
don't want to pay more than we need to, so
we take advantage of things like tax advantage retirement accounts,
and it turns out that we pay a tax of

(01:32):
sorts with our time too. Any project you undertake is
going to have some planning or administrative component. If you
take a vacation, someone needs to plan it and purchase
tickets and find a dog sitter and things like that.
Even if you outsource a lot of the logistics by

(01:53):
hiring a travel agent, you'll want to talk to that
person about what you like and your budget and things
like that. Plus you have to find that person. Every
work project involves at least a few meetings or filing
reports or making presentations. Again, there's nothing wrong with this.
Tax taxes are necessary, But once you acknowledge that every

(02:18):
project has a tax of sorts and that your time
is absolutely limited, then you start to see that there
are more or less efficient ways to organize life. If
you have a great many projects going at once, you
will be paying that administrative tax on all of them,

(02:39):
and it can start to feel like paying taxes is
all you are doing. Limit the number of projects you
have going on and any given time, on the other hand,
and you can limit the administrative time as an overall
proportion of your hours. So, for instance, let's just say
you've got five projects going at work that you are

(03:02):
flitting back and forth between every one of those projects
requires two hours of administrative time per week, so that
is ten hours per week of this time tax. If
you've got three projects going, on the other hand, then
that is only six hours of tax, which freeze up

(03:23):
half a day for making progress on the projects themselves. Now,
maybe it is not possible to limit the overall number
of projects. But what I often see happen is that
people are working on five things that are due over
the next two months. Maybe it might be possible to
work on three things, finish them in one month, and

(03:45):
then take on three projects the next month too. Then
you have cut the overall administrative tax and you have
gotten more done. This is one reason I like to
set quarterly goals for the year. I might know that
I want to work on a particular project, but I
also know that I won't be starting it until Q three.

(04:09):
That's fine. I can know what will happen and know
I will concentrate on it then, but not incur the
administrative tax on my time any earlier. Now, obviously, we
can't always control the total number of moving parts in life,
nor do we choose to. I have five children, and

(04:31):
they all require their own tax on my time, so
to speak one I pay willingly. I simply have to
acknowledge that, no matter how efficient I am, arranging activities
and dealing with medical needs and such for five kids
will take more time than if I had one or two.

(04:51):
So it goes. I also like to do varied things
in my working life. That means my administrative tax is
going to be a little higher than it could be.
But in general, rather than spend a little less time
on more things, it might be better to spend more
time on fewer things and then start the next project

(05:14):
when one of the current ones is done. The projects
may take as long as they take, so you probably
won't change how many you are getting done overall, but
doing fewer at once limits the administrative tax on your time,
and that can make life feel a little less crutched

(05:37):
in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,

(05:58):
you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
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