How do I gain more time for myself?

I used to work 24/7 days and had hardly any time for myself nor my family. Whilst I could do that when I was single, it became tougher when I got married and had my first child that came about in 2008. As I struggled to find a work life balance, it became evident that something had to change. And it had to start with myself.

Today, I work 5 days a week and mainly focused on weekdays in the daytime, although once in a while, I get still work on sat morning after my morning run with my wife.

What changed and what strategies did I deploy?

What are my priorities and goals?

The first thing I did was to focus on what was most important and my priorities in my life. My wife and children are my key priority after spiritual health. Next, getting fit was one of those goals that were important to me to keep me physically sharp. Work is important, but it had to be meaningful work with wonderful relationships I wanted to build over the long term together with my clients. Finally, it was about giving back to the industry and society and sharing my experiences to provide a life of significance. If I have all these things in life achieved, life will be passionately worth living for and it is all about finding purpose in life.

Family time

I only was able to work within the 5 days weekday daytime and the rest of family time will be arranged by my wife. I had to ask her for permission if I crossed that boundary because it was meant to be family time. That way, my priority time is set for my wife and children. Blocking out dates for family and couple trips on a yearly basis was another way I put family as a priority.

Work time

That meant that I only had 5 days a week to get everything done within that short time frame I had. 5 days a week, with 52 weeks means 260 days of work a year. With public holidays and taking time off with family for holidays would take away about another 33 days a year. So I am officially left with 227 days to work in a year. Now when time is that short, we have to make it work effectively.

Finding work I enjoy and am fascinated about to continuously grow

I found that what I loved about what I do is to help clients create ideas and find solutions for the problems that they and their family face, most things related to wealth and health. Through this, it is about the building of a long-term trusted partnership to journey with each other. When I am able to be of value to others, whether in a small or big way, a bond is forged.

Being selective of clients

In the pursuit of productivity, it also meant that I had to be selective of the clients that I wanted to work with and not everyone might fit into the selection criteria. I do not need to work with everyone, I just worked with the clients who reciprocated and appreciated the value I could bring to the table. It was not easy at the beginning, but over time, that selection process became a strength for my practice.

Investing in other trusted people’s expertise.

In my industry, there is a fair amount of documentation and paperwork. Fortunately, I was able to hire my staff who loves administration and documentation to ensure that the backend of the office is well taken care of. By giving out what I am not strong in, the partnership works out perfectly for all of us. So the office “belongs” to my staff and I only come in for meetings with an Ipad and to submit documents. All other paperwork is handled by my staff.

One other thing I did was to invest into a team of investment experts who looks at and works on the markets on a daily basis whilst I focus on my clients’ personal and long term financial goals so that I do not need to get emotional about the short term volatility of the market which will eventually be much higher in the future than it will be today.

Giving and sharing

With more time, reflection and flexibility, I am able to have space for creativity and learning opportunities almost on a daily basis. And there are wonderful insights that we are blessed with as we deepen our engagements with people around us. With more time, we can allow us to carve out the best of ourselves, our family and society. That also allowed me to step out of my comfort zone to share with many other people of how we can all maximize our full human potential.

With the above strategies I have slowly started shifting since 2009, I have not only gained more time for myself, my work output had grown more than 300% from where I was when I started in 2009. I wish you all the best in being able to gain more time for yourself.

If you think you would like to explore how to go about working as partners and see if there is a fit, I would be happy to have an initial chat.