SELF WORTH | FINANCE
The Importance of Paying Yourself First
Reasons why you should pay yourself first, not just with money but with your time and energy too.
Paying yourself first is often referred to as a personal finance strategy to increase and encourage consistent savings. The goal here is to pay a portion of your salary into your savings account as soon as you get paid, before spending money on anything else.
I’ve always taken this strategy quite literally and I do prioritize saving each month and manage this with no problem. However, I recently read something that sparked an idea of ‘paying yourself first’ with your time and energy, not just money — I’ve since started dedicating time to myself and it’s working very well. I still very much care about smashing deadlines at work and my monthly saving goals but this is more about investing in my own well-being.
It’s only taken a pandemic for my life to slow down and reset. I’ve allowed myself to pause and focus on myself, for once. So, being at the forefront of my mind, I realised that I had almost let it become the norm to focus on my day job before actioning tasks I want to achieve with my day. Before I knew it, the days over, I lack the motivation to complete a home workout, write something new, or cook up a storm in the kitchen — zero energy to focus on myself.
With most days feeling the same, with days are merging into weeks, and with weeks are merging into months; I’ve spent some of that time focusing on myself. I’ve been looking into new ways of making changes, small enough that impact my day but not too big that I forget what I wanted to achieve in the first place. In line with paying myself first, I upgraded my morning routine.
First, I had to figure out what I actually wanted to achieve with my day. I reviewed my personal goals and set myself a mission to not allow my day job to swallow all my time and energy.
I decided that if I wanted to be productive in the morning, shifting my sleeping pattern would be my best bet. Being a morning person, it only took a few days for my body to sync with a 6:30 am wake-up call (yes, even on weekends). I figured that getting up earlier than before, allows me to have at least 2 hours to myself, before starting work.
Previously when getting up early, I felt the need to start work straight away. Getting ahead of the day, meant finishing early, but it never really panned out that way — there were many evenings where work replaced dinner.
I felt this change needed to happen.
Now I am very much aware of my working hours and I try to avoid multiple days of working overtime. If there are days where I need to work late, then I’ll have a slow morning the following day — the benefits of flexible remote working are there; I just don’t always make the most of them.
I wrote down all the tasks that I would like to do with my mornings. I didn’t want to create a strict morning routine; I thought if I could complete at least two of these activities every day then I would feel accomplished before starting work, and most likely be far more productive throughout the rest of the day too.
Here’s how I started to ‘pay myself first’ with a list of activities I wanted to achieve with my day:
- Smash a home-workout
- Get some fresh air before jumping on a screen
- Appreciate my morning coffee
- Write & Read
Now, before I start work, I’ve already appreciated some time outside or sweated through a home work out and I’m feeling alive, fresh and ready to power through a 9-hour shift. I’ve since taken the time to really appreciate the morning chats with my mum over a freshly brewed iced coffee.
Since waking up now without an alarm clock, I’ve massively reduced my time on social media, I am waking up feeling refreshed and lacking the need to jump onto my phone to ‘help’ me wake up. I’ve let go of my ‘doomscrolling’ zombie self and become a fresh, clear-headed human, who bounces out of bed full of energy.
Creating a new morning routine; really has made me feel so much better in such a short space of time. Making small changes can make an impact on your daily well-being and overall positivity too.
It’s all about setting clear goals and expectations for your day and if there’s a day where you can’t pay yourself first don’t beat yourself up about it.
If you can pay yourself with time and energy just 1 day more than you are doing right now, that’s an achievement. Keep persevering to alter your routine to become a more productive human being.
How’s your current morning routine, are you paying yourself first?
If you enjoy reading stories like this and you want to support me, why not consider signing up for a Medium membership? It will only cost you $5 a month — and you’ll get access to all stories on Medium!
If you use this link, I will earn a small part of that, otherwise, if you want to stay updated when I share a new story, you can signup here, for my free newsletter!
Can’t stop scrolling through Social Media? Here’s how to help yourself!
