But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Because it really doesn’t matter if you’re finding ways to shave 10 minutes off cooking if you’re still coming home late from work.

Here’s the first thing for us to address right off the bat: you must not spend more than your contracted hours at work! If you’re currently working until 7, 8 or 9pm when you should finish at 5pm, then that is something you need to change right away.

Of course this kind of ‘commitment’ is the culture in some places. But my advice in that case? Find a new job. Seriously: why would you sacrifice an additionally 3 or 4 hours of your time willingly?

So you can get a slighty higher salary?

But then also work even longer hours?

So that you can do what? Drive a Ferrari? Remember we’ve already seen that you can live the lifestyle you probably dream of right now without having to make millions first. Again, it’s a matter of prioritizing the things that are most important to you and that should always mean your own time, time with your family and having exciting new experiences.

And really, you should be able to complete all your work in the hours you are given! If you can’t, then this really only suggests that you have too much work (the company needs to hire more staff, not your problem) or that you need to change the way you’re working.

Make sure you only work the hours you’re given and don’t worry if eyebrows are raised when you leave at 5pm. If you do the job that you’re given, then on one will ask any questions.

Meanwhile, why not try and take this even further by asking your boss if you can move on to ‘flexi-time’ (meaning you can move your working day 2 hours forward or back). This not only gives you the freedom to engage in more activities that might start earlier but it also gives you the ability to do things like skipping the rush hour – which can save you money and make a huge difference to your stress levels (and give you the ability to work on that book on the train).

Your office might not offer flexi-time officially but ask your boss or manager anyway. The worst they can do is say no!

And you may even find that if you’re cheeky you can push them a little further and work at home some days (depending on the nature of your work). This too will make a huge difference to your routine and the amount of time you spend travelling.

You’ll likely find you actually get more work done from home as you aren’t chatting around the water cooler and you have more incentive to work faster. My advice is to work not actually from home but rather from a local coffee shop where you can get some peace and quiet and get away from the distractions and temptations that you’ll get at home.

If your work isn’t playing ball and if it isn’t possible – then consider changing jobs for one where it is. Again, try not to think about your job not only in terms of what you’re doing at work and not only in terms of salary; think about it in terms of how it fits into the lifestyle you want to lead.

Because it might well be worth taking a big pay cut if your new job has flexi-hours or if it is 10 minutes closer to home (meaning 20 minutes saved every day). Think about what will actually make you happiest and make that the priority!

(On a related note, the same goes for choosing a house. When you choose your home, think hard about how easy it will make all the things you’re doing on a regular basis. If you live somewhere where it’s easy to run out and buy milk and where you can easily see friends, that will probably make you a lot happier than if you are just focussed on the investment potential!)

Becoming a Digital Nomad

The way that many people use lifestyle design is to become a digital nomad. This is the ultimate expression of lifestyle design: it means that you are working online and making a living on your computer. In turn, that means you can then work from anywhere as long as it has an internet connection and a power socket.

These people then take their laptops in a backpack and travel the world – seeing incredible sights during the day and spending their evenings typing away on their computers in bars and soaking up the atmosphere. Because the cost of living is often a lot less in the places they visit, they often don’t have to work all that much in order to fund the lifestyle!

This is something you can do yourself, you just need to learn a little about how to work online. That can mean running a blog and getting a small amount of passive income when you start out, or it could mean selling web design, programming, writing, marketing or other online skills. There are plenty of sites that explain how to do all this.

But again, you don’t necessarily have to see this as a ‘one or the other’ decision. I personally live life as a digital nomad but I like my creature comforts and am happily married. Thus I don’t really want to spend my whole time on the road and sleeping in hostels. This is fine too!

I live in London and I use the freedom that my job affords me in order to visit sites and work from outside St Paul’s or in the British Library. Meanwhile, I get to go into London with my wife and meet up with her for lunch and I get to work outside when it’s sunny. And I travel a lot more in mini breaks – this year I have been to Dortmund in Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Lisbon and Mauritius and I’ve taken ‘staycations’ to Cornwall (twice) and Kent. I’ve done all this while buying a house and seeing some exciting developments in my career.

It’s all about deciding what you want your life to look like and recognizing that money is only a very small factor in making that happen. Want to be less stressed with money concerns and debt? Living more simply is a better solution when it comes to having less debt than trying to get a raise!

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