2717: You Can't Work 168 Hours a Week by Paula Pant of Afford Anything on Personal Finance & Work-Life Balance

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[00:01:14] You can't work 168 hours a week by Paula Pant of affordanything.com.

[00:01:20] And I'm your host and personal finance enthusiast, Diana Merriam.

[00:01:24] We're going to get right to today's post as we optimize your life.

[00:01:32] You can't work 168 hours a week by Paula Pant of affordanything.com.

[00:01:38] A cornerstone of the afford anything philosophy is that every choice you make is a trade-off

[00:01:44] and that applies equally to your time and your money. So what do you do about outsourcing?

[00:01:49] On one hand, the more you outsource, the more you trade money for the most valuable possession on

[00:01:54] earth. Time. That itself is a pretty strong argument for outsourcing as much as you can.

[00:02:01] On the other hand, your money is limited and if you want to afford anything,

[00:02:05] you have to trim back from spending on things that aren't your big priorities.

[00:02:10] So how do you decide what to outsource and what to do yourself?

[00:02:14] Here are a couple of questions to ask yourself before you pull this spending trigger.

[00:02:19] Number one, what else would I do at this time?

[00:02:23] If you're a freelancer or a consultant who charges $80 an hour for your services,

[00:02:27] it doesn't make sense to wash your own dishes. Until of course,

[00:02:31] you consider the fact that you can't work 168 hours a week. At most, you can work 40 to

[00:02:37] 60 hours per week of sustained focused effort. I'd argue that the number is closer to 40.

[00:02:43] The more excess time you spend at work, the less productive you become.

[00:02:48] You're better off spending fewer, more focused hours working. Then go home and unwind by grocery

[00:02:54] shopping, cooking dinner, washing the dishes, reading a bedtime story to your kids, and doing

[00:02:59] all of those other mundane tasks. Yes, you could send someone to buy your groceries for you

[00:03:06] at a rate of perhaps $15 an hour. So if you earn $80 an hour at your job,

[00:03:11] the math doesn't make sense until you accept that the human mind is limited.

[00:03:16] Our focus and concentration is finite. We're not robots.

[00:03:21] We're better off spending fewer hours at the office.

[00:03:24] Parkinson's law states that work expands to fill the time you give it.

[00:03:28] Spend fewer hours working, and you'll be able to do more in less time.

[00:03:33] Number two, how much will slowness cost?

[00:03:37] Buying a rental house? Every month the property sits vacant, you're losing money.

[00:03:42] If doing it yourself takes five months and outsourcing it takes only two months,

[00:03:47] you've paid three months rent by refusing to delegate. That's a lost opportunity cost.

[00:03:53] On the other hand, if you want to fix part of your own personal house,

[00:03:57] and there's no financial benefit from getting the job done fast,

[00:04:00] there's a stronger argument for doing it yourself and taking your leisurely time.

[00:04:05] Number three, how much will sloppiness cost?

[00:04:09] If you're dealing with something technical or complex and fixing your mistakes will be costly,

[00:04:14] you may want to enlist an expert. Why do you think I bought my house at such a steep discount?

[00:04:20] In part because the previous owner insisted on doing a lot of fix-it work himself.

[00:04:25] I'm sure he googled how to XYZ, but he lacked experience,

[00:04:30] and his shoddy work made the house worse, not better.

[00:04:34] His self-inflicted DIY damage brought down the price of his house.

[00:04:38] Lose, lose situation for him.

[00:04:41] Number four, does this drain my energy or refuel me?

[00:04:46] There's a very strong argument for outsourcing the massive drudgery that tires us rather than

[00:04:51] refuels our energy. At a certain point, scrubbing the baseboards behind your toilet

[00:04:56] is a waste of your time. If you can live a more satisfying life by outsourcing that task

[00:05:01] and spending the extra hours with friends or family or volunteering, do it.

[00:05:06] Your life is valuable. Don't waste it scrubbing toilets.

[00:05:10] Important, only outsource this if you're already financially stable.

[00:05:15] That means you're free from consumer debt and you're investing massive heaps of your money

[00:05:19] towards buying your way to financial freedom.

[00:05:22] And number five, can I earn more by outsourcing this?

[00:05:27] If there's one area in your life where I'd argue that you should outsource the most,

[00:05:31] it's at work. After all, your mental bandwidth is limited.

[00:05:35] Hire people to execute your tasks so that you can focus on top-level growth.

[00:05:40] It's a fantastic way to spend money.

[00:05:43] Wealth is built by teams. Mark Zuckerberg didn't say,

[00:05:47] you know, I can build Facebook by myself. I'll personally answer every customer email.

[00:05:52] Just imagine the money I'll save by not hiring an assistant.

[00:05:55] Steve Jobs never said, who needs developers? I know how to program.

[00:06:00] But Paula, you say, my company isn't as big as Apple or Facebook.

[00:06:05] I just run a little design or writing or marketing business.

[00:06:09] Yeah, and your company will always be little if you insist on doing every single last iota

[00:06:14] of your work in-house. You realistically cannot work more than X number of hours per week.

[00:06:21] Once you have even a little bit of income coming in,

[00:06:24] reinvest that money into buying more hours in which you can grow your business

[00:06:28] and don't feel guilty about going home at 5 p.m.

[00:06:31] A lot of people try to circumvent this by working insane hours.

[00:06:36] I can work 100 plus hour weeks, people tell themselves.

[00:06:39] I'll never see my family, never exercise, and only eat bowls of cereal at my desk,

[00:06:44] but I won't be outsourcing anything. That's insane.

[00:06:48] It's not sustainable. You'll burn out. And I bet you'll spend at least 20% of your time

[00:06:53] putting around on Facebook or Twitter or email pretending to be productive

[00:06:57] while you're secretly stressed and procrastinating.

[00:07:01] Ask me how I know.

[00:07:03] Limit your hours, outsource at work, and value your time.

[00:07:07] The key to affording anything is recognizing that outsourcing is an investment,

[00:07:11] just as much as buying stocks or houses is an investment.

[00:07:14] But you have to be strategic about it.

[00:07:16] Otherwise, you're not getting a good return on your investment.

[00:07:23] You just listened to the post titled,

[00:07:25] You Can't Work 168 Hours a Week by Paula Pant of affordanything.com

[00:07:31] and I'll be right back with my commentary.

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[00:09:23] I found this article very relevant as I routinely struggle with burnout from trying to do everything

[00:09:28] myself.

[00:09:29] I've learned that burnout has three main components, physical exhaustion,

[00:09:33] cynicism about work and self blame.

[00:09:36] When I fall into this rut, I typically need to pause and reassess.

[00:09:40] What are my priorities and why?

[00:09:42] Is all the work on my plate totally necessary?

[00:09:45] What can I cut out without sacrificing my larger goals?

[00:09:48] For me burnout is a sign that I need to slow down and get back to basics.

[00:09:53] I need to reevaluate how I'm taking care of myself and if I'm taking on too much.

[00:09:57] It's helpful to remember that it's a season that will pass and I'll learn something from it.

[00:10:02] During my last encounter with burnout, I decided to outsource social media marketing

[00:10:06] for the economy conference which is an event I produce.

[00:10:09] It relieved a lot of pressure to figure it out all on my own and it's been a good experience

[00:10:14] and efficiency.

[00:10:15] By outsourcing to someone else who's more highly skilled, it frees me up to spend my time

[00:10:20] on areas where I'm more highly skilled.

[00:10:23] Outsourcing can also lead to more human connection which is a basic need.

[00:10:27] I often miss the camaraderie of colleagues from my corporate career

[00:10:31] and solo entrepreneurship can get pretty lonely.

[00:10:34] But that should do it for another edition of Optimal Finance Daily.

[00:10:38] I'll be back tomorrow as usual so I'll see you there for the Wednesday show

[00:10:42] where your optimal life awaits.