How to maximize your time doing what you want while efficiently doing what you need With the holiday season, a lot of us are trying to figure out how we can spend more time with our families and enjoying the season without sacrificing our profitability While there may be some time-sucking tasks that you should cut out of your daily routine or outsource, there are other areas that could be made more efficient and would save you time (and maybe even money) in the long-run, far past the holiday season For most of us, the hands on tasks of taking care of the horses is the largest time investment of our day. This often leads us to not having as much time for our second biggest time commitment, office/admin tasks. So today we’re going to talk through some simple tasks both in the barn and in the office that could be more efficient. We’ve talked before about a time-audit and getting really clear about how you are spending your time. If you haven’t completed a time audit or if your day-to-day has changed significantly sine you last did one, it’s worth reproaching to get a clear idea of how your time is being allocated. This could also be a time to evaluate if there are more cost effective ways to get your daily tasks done. This is not to tell you to drop your current schedule spend the next 2 weeks researching and price shopping every part of your program! This can be a gradual task that you work on each week Keep in mind: sometimes the long-term efficient option takes more money upfront - that is why we often avoid it and stick it on our “one day when I get around to it” list. For us and our hay example, we had to buy nets and hay rings, not a small upfront investment. But now that we have them, we are on the upside of saving both time and money on our hay. Key point: Don’t let the upfront cost deter you from making the change that is going to save you money and time in the long-run. Replace your broken stuff! Yeah like that manure fork with 4 missing tines or that hose that is leaking in 3 areas making a mess everywhere or the wheelbarrow tire that won’t hold air. - Sometimes we deal with things because we are trying to avoid the COST of fixing it yet oftentimes we’re losing way more than we realize because of how much that broken thing is slowing us down or creating extra work for us. Since we’re on the topic of upfront costs, let’s also talk about buying items that are built to last. This is another area where it may cost you more upfront, but in the long-run you’re going to get more use and not waste time trying to rig it up and repair it when it breaks because you went the cheap route. [...]