Episode 9 - Moving Past the Excuse of "But I don't Have the Time"

Full Episode Transcription:

(00:07):
On today’s episode of the Ditch the Classroom Podcast, I’m going to be talking about a big topic that I have a lot of people, you know, giving me excuses for. And hopefully I don’t step on any toes during this episode, but I just kind of want you to think about finding time to start your digital classroom journey. If you’re thinking about doing it, but feeling like you don’t have the time, this is something that I hear from a lot of people.

(01:40):
And I just want you to know that you can. So I wanna give you the tools and strategies and advice to help you find those pockets of time so that you can create the life you love and ditch the classroom. So I have a question for you, and I want you to answer this truthfully to yourself. If you really tried, could you find the time? If you really took the time to sit down, analyze your life, figure out, where am I hemorrhaging time? Where am I wasting it? What could I do better with my time? Could you find the time? There’s a quote that I love by Alan Kohen that says “There are two kinds of people in this world: Those with reasons, and those with results. If you’re determined to hold on to the life that you already have being stuck in the classroom, but not being fulfilled in it, then you can absolutely keep all of your reasons or excuses of why you can’t find the time for your business. However, if you’re ready to start making changes today to lead you towards creating your dream life out of the classroom, then I have a few tips for you.

(02:56):
One of the many benefits of working from home is that it doesn’t necessarily require 40 hours of work a week. When you’re working as a freelancer or virtual assistant, you don’t have to work a full 40 hour week. You’re not stuck sitting at your desk from nine-to-five every day, like you are in a regular job. So I personally know women who have built thriving businesses as a freelancer or virtual assistant while only working an average of 10 hours a week. 10 to 20 hours. If you’re only working 10 hours a week, that’s less than two hours per day. Let’s just say, you’re taking weekends off. Then that is two hours per day. The that’s not that much. Can you find two hours in your day? Another benefit of being a freelancer is that the time that you spend working each day, doesn’t have to be one solid chunk.

(03:51):
You don’t have to sit at your desk at 10 and be stuck there ’til 12. If you can find pockets of time, then you can get all of your work done throughout the day. So if you have a 10 minute gap here, a 30 minute gap here, so on, I bet you can find two hours of work in your day. So if you’re on a mission to change your life and start your “Ditch the Classroom” journey, I want you to take a moment, grab a piece of paper and write this down. “If it’s important enough, I’ll make the time. If not, I’ll make an excuse.” I’ll say that again. “If it’s important enough, I’ll make the time. If not, I’ll make an excuse.” I want you to take a good look at what you spend your time on each week. I’m gonna challenge you to write down every single thing that you do throughout your day for the next week.

(04:45):
For the next seven days, I’m challenging you to write down every single thing you do from the moment you get up until the time you go to bed. And I want you to be as specific as possible. So for example, I might write down from 7:18 AM to 7:48 AM, I was browsing Facebook and Instagram. If you notice that you’re spending a lot of time on social media, what would it look like if instead of browsing through Instagram, as soon as you wake up, you grabbed your laptop and spent half an hour looking for new positions outside of the classroom that align with you? Or spent those 30 minutes working on a project for one of your clients you already have while you’re still working in the classroom? Maybe you’re working on this as your side hustle now. So you could find your 30 minutes in the morning to get your client work done before you go into the classroom.

(05:40):
If you already do those 30 minutes, as soon as you wake up, BAM – a quarter of your work day is already accomplished. And you haven’t even had breakfast yet. So now, all you have to do, is find another hour and a half throughout your day to get your work done. Or to look for clients, or to build your skills. When you’re analyzing your time for the week. I want you to look for these big time sucks: social media – which obviously I have got to mention that one first, ’cause a lot of people spend WAY too much time on social media, myself included. Checking your email – maybe you’re constantly finding yourself, checking your email 20 times a day. You could set one specific time to do that, you know, in the evening, or right before you leave the classroom and just knock it all out, instead of just constantly checking. Browsing the internet in general while watching TV.

(06:38):
TV’s a big one. I’m not saying you have to give up all of your relaxing time watching your favorite shows. But during a commercial, could you work for a few minutes? During your favorite show (that you’ve seen 10 million times), could you be working on something while half watching show? Also think about, are you running 10 million errands throughout the week? And how could you condense them? Could you, you know, order some stuff online so that you don’t have to go spend some time at the store? How much time are you spending on meal prep? Maybe if you spent made – spent one day making a bunch of meals, then you don’t have to spend that time every other day, making a new meal or heating it up. If you’ve already got the meal made, your family members can heat it up for themselves. When they’re hungry, you don’t have to spend more time planning another dinner.

(07:35):
Also – last one – another big one is using your cell phone for any reason. So responding to texts, talking, playing games – these can be a big time-suck as well. I’m not saying that you have to cut out all of that out of your day. You definitely deserve some time to relax and unwind. But when you take a hard look at where you’re hemorrhaging your time, I’m fairly certain that you’ll find a couple 15 to 30 minute chunks that you could reduce down and dedicate to your “Ditch the Classroom” journey. So I wanna just take a second and do some math for you. If you are spending 30 minutes a day, scrolling through social media, that’s 182 hours a year. Do you see where that time could be used more effectively?

(08:26):
I’d also like to note that if you complete this challenge of tracking your time, and then you tell me, “Arianna, I really don’t have the time. I’m going all dang day.” Then I have one thing to tell you. You’re doing too much. There’s another quote I love from Robin Sharma that says, “When you say ‘yes’ to something you’re saying ‘no’ to something else.” So if you’re saying “yes” to too many different things, but not the things that are the most important to you, like spending the time with your kids or creating this business so that you can spend more time with them. If you are saying “yes” to all these other things you’re saying “no” to that. If you really can’t find time anywhere in your day to build your dream life, maybe it’s time to start saying “no” to some things that are less important. So instead of saying, “Man, I wish I had the time to do what she does so I could eventually stay home with my kids.” I want you to flip the script and say, “Where could I make the time to do this? ‘Cause this is so important to me.”

(09:30):
Again, I’m going to challenge you. Record that time for these next seven days. What are you spending your time on? Where can you find those pockets of time? Write it on a piece of paper. I’m even gonna hold you accountable and tell you to take a picture of your little sheet that you’re writing on and send it to me on Instagram at arianna.vernier so I can celebrate with you that you did this challenge. Took it seriously and are really taking these big steps to follow your dreams and start your “Ditch the Classroom” journey. I wanna ask you, are you ready to make the time to build your dream life? Are you ready to work from the couch, with your little ones playing around you? You can have it. You just have to find the time.