Decision making can often be a difficult thing for those of us with adhd. And sometimes that means that we keep doing the thing that we’re doing because it’s the thing we’ve always done. Of course, I think that’s a human being thing too. But it’s important for us to reassess our methods, are values, and our priorities somewhat regularly.
I’m pretty sure I’ve written about this before. But I’m also sure it’s been quite a while. When we decide how to spend our time, there are many competing forces. There is how much time we have. There is how much attention we have consistently were able to utilize it priority is important. Often money is part of the equation. And I’m sure there are things I’m forgetting. The point is that how we choose to spend our time is a relatively complicated system.
I am suggesting that examining that system and possibly making changes could improve your quality of life. Specifically, I like to discuss outsourcing today. Deciding what to outsource is a financial decision. But, it is also a personal decision. People often talk about what they would do for an extra hour in the day or something in that vein. Well, it’s possible. Everything that you outsource will buy you time. You just have to decide whether it’s worth it.
Here’s the example that came up for me in the last few weeks that engaged me in this topic enough to write a post. I used to go through my filing cabinet and filing system every year in January to finish up the year, get ready for taxes, and generally clean out the junk. Well, as less and less of my life is involved paperwork, and more and more of my life is involved parenting, I haven’t done this in a good 5 years… Possibly eight. It hasn’t really presented a problem. But as with most areas of my home in my office, eventually, it feels out of control and I want to tighten it up. I also had 12 years of old client files in the basement and a not so great system for keeping track of important paperwork like old receipts for my business and mortgages and stuff that didn’t fit nicely in an eight and a half by 11 folder.
So during one of my off weeks, when I tell everyone I actually have time to run my business, I took care of business. I went through the file cabinet and I ended up doing two full loads in my waist high shredder as I went along. Perfectly good use of time. Then I went through the old client folders and got rid of 95% of them. All in one fell swoop I had what turned out to be 66 lb of shredding. That went to the FedEx office store and cost me $98. How long would it have taken me? Feeding things in 20 sheets at a time, bored out of my skull, worrying that I’m going to break the shredder, waiting for it to stop overheating, I don’t know. But the combination of actual time and boredom that it would have taken was well worth the $98 to not have to do it myself.
There are other things in my life that I outsource for both business and work. Here are a couple for you to chew on. I outsource my bookkeeping. That’s the best money I spend. I outsource part of our laundry at a great place that does wash dry fold. That saves me about 2 hours every other week. More than that, it saves me a boring annoying task. And they still do all the sheets and towels. Which is a good example of moderation in outsourcing I guess. If I sent everything it would probably cost $150. But I do the sheets and towels. I send most of the rest of the stuff and it costs about 60 bucks. In a purely mathematical sense, that’s 30 bucks an hour my time. That’s totally worth it.
Also, for you parents, strongly consider that 3 hours of a babysitter at $15 an hour is $45. I don’t know about you, but I find that 3 hours a week might be enough to save my sanity. $45 for my sanity seems like quite a bargain.
I think this also relates to the idea of do we fix something or buy something new. It’s a very similar equation. If you can sew something in 5 minutes to save you $50, sew it. If it’s a 2-hour project, I’d consider throwing it out and buying a new one.
Feels like I’ve written enough on this topic for today hope it is good food for thought.