The Importance of Paying Yourself First

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?