The Budgets of Time and Mental Energy

​When we think of budgets we often think of financial budgets. In my interactions with entrepreneurs and small business owners, I’ve come to realise that there are two other kinds of budgets: time and mental energy. These other two budgets also play a critical role in how well a business is run.
 
Let’s look at the first kind of budget: money. Tracking cash flow is an obvious budget. You don’t know how much you can spend (or should spend) unless you know how much you are earning. An obvious thing to do. Sometimes tricky to implement. But entirely doable.
 
The second budget: time. Something may be really interesting to do. The time it will take to do it doesn’t work with the rest of your schedule. Rushing from one project to another is exhausting. Eventually competing deadlines will conflict. When thinking of taking on new work – also consider how much time you have.
 
The third budget: mental energy. Sometimes you have the money and time to do something. You look at a project and think this could work. When you start getting into the details of the project, all of your energy starts to wane. It becomes difficult to get the simplest of tasks done. You end up hating the project and the work. That’s never a good sign.
 
When you’re deciding whether to take on new work, take into account these three budgets. If you are interested in the work but the project would stretch one or more of these budgets, approach colleagues to see if you can negotiate a better balance.