"Principle number one is to **pay yourself first when it comes to time.** I'm borrowing this phrasing from the graphic novelist and creativity coach [[Jessica Abel]], who borrowed it in turn from the world of personal finance, where it's long been an article of faith because it works. "If you take a portion of your paycheck the day you receive it and squirrel it away into savings or investments, or use it for paying off debts, **you'll probably never feel the absence of that cash**; you'll go about your business -- buying your groceries, paying your bills - precisely as if you'd never had that portion of money to begin with. The same logic, [[Jessica Abel|Abel]] points out, applies to time. If you try to find time for your most valued activities by first dealing with all the other important demands on your time, in the hope that there'll be some left over at the end, you'll be disappointed. So **if a certain activity really matters to you** - a creative project, say, though it just as easily be nurturing a relationship, or activism in the service of some cause -- **the only way to be sure it will happen is to do some of it today, no matter how little**, and no matter how many other genuinely big rocks may be begging for your attention." --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]], [[progressing-slowly]], [[pay-yourself-first]], [[priorities]], [[personal-values]], [[personal-finance]], [[routines]] **Source** -- [[202410130434 - B - Four Thousand Weeks]]