Photo courtesy of Amy RoseveareThere are many things that seem completely unrelated to personal finance, but still have a huge impact on your finances. One of the best things you can do to help improve your finances is to realize that you need to look beyond those things that have a direct link to money, and consider all the things you do that have indirect effects. A good example of this is daily walking.
I walk almost every morning these days. The length of the walk depends on where I am, but usually between 2 and 5 miles. Although I don’t have a specific time that I leave every morning, I try to leave before 10:00 am. I started this habit simply because I knew that sitting behind a computer all day in a small room writing articles was not healthy, and I thought that going outside at least once a day would help. What I didn’t realize at the time was the huge number of additional benefits it would provide, and how it would help me financially in the long run.
Traveling every day may not seem like the way to improve your finances, but that’s exactly what it does for me. While all the benefits I get from daily walking may not work for you, my guess is that many will. It is only when you can see whether your daily habits are helping or hindering your finances that you can begin to make significant progress in fixing them. Here are some of the benefits I get from daily walking:
Creation
My travels give me the opportunity to be more creative than I would be without them. I’m not the only one. A new study conducted by the Journal of Experimental Psychology found that students who walk can significantly increase their intelligence (by 60%) after taking an 8-minute walk. I’m more creative when I’m traveling because there’s no pressure to start doing the next thing. I’m free to let my imagination run and let it go where it can, which allows me to come up with new and innovative ways to present articles that I may not have thought of before. Traveling gives me uninterrupted time to ask the question, “What would happen if I tried this?” which I probably wouldn’t have asked myself so often if I was sitting in front of the computer writing.
Relaxation
One of the biggest benefits of my daily walk is that it helps me relax. No matter how busy my schedule is that day or what deadlines I may have, getting out and walking a few miles takes most, if not all, of my stress away. Less stress allows me to be in a position where I can do the things I need to do efficiently and carefully. I don’t rush projects, but I just work on what I know needs to be done. Anyone who stresses about things knows that stress can seriously reduce your performance, and my walk is one weapon against the stress of my job.
Preparation
Getting out in the fresh air allows me to clear my mind and mentally prepare for all the things I need to do that day. It gives me the opportunity to weigh the importance of things so that I can spend my time wisely on those that are most important. It also gives me time to consider what kind of preparation I will need to do to accomplish the tasks of the day. This allows me to be more efficient when doing them, since I have thought out all the steps in my head. This also helps me avoid doing things that could cost time and money because I accidentally forget an important step, which might not have been obvious if I had just started doing things without thinking about the preparation process. By giving me time to think about the day in a relaxed environment, I end up better prepared and more efficient throughout the day.
Problem solving
I don’t know exactly what hiking is, but it’s one of the times I can come up with solutions to ongoing problems that need solving. I think that since it’s just me walking without any other distractions I might have around me when I’m working, I can process all the information much better. Often times, I’ll come back from a trip with a working solution to a problem I needed to solve, but was having trouble figuring out what to do with it in front of the computer. Also, being able to solve these problems in a timely manner makes me more efficient, and makes things go much more smoothly than if they had been left unsolved for a long time.
Concentrate
One of the reasons I get so much done on the days I travel is that I have better focus. The trip helps me decide what I need to do that day so I don’t have to stop to constantly check what to do next. I know what I have to do and I can focus on it. Once I’m done, I know what’s next on my list and I can focus on that. The agenda is settled and that focus helps me accomplish more than I would otherwise.
Increased Productivity
Since my travels help me relax, prepare, problem-solve and focus, I’m more productive when I come back from them than I would be if I hadn’t taken them at all. Even if I’m gone for two hours, the increase in productivity will make up for the time I’m out walking. It’s surprising how little time I spend procrastinating or sitting in front of the computer trying to decide what to do next when I go for a walk. Ultimately, this helps me to do more and achieve more, while being better organized in the work at hand.
Inspiration
Walking is also a great way for me to get motivated for the day. I think about the things I need to do and how I will accomplish each of them, and I get motivated to try as many of them as possible. I find that if I don’t go I end up focusing too much on how much I have to do, which sometimes seems like an insurmountable mountain. When I travel, I have time to prepare, and I’m in a much better frame of mind to tackle the day’s list than if I just roll out of bed and start working on the computer. I know from experience that I simply have more motivation to face the challenges of the day after I leave.
Inspiration
One of the most difficult parts of my job is coming up with new and interesting ways to present information about personal finance. This is always a challenge, but I find that most of the ideas I get for potential new articles come while I’m on the go. It’s a time when my mind can wander and think about other issues if I choose to, and it often results in inspiring a new take on some aspect of personal finance. This article came up on a recent morning trip.
Exercise
One of the problems I always had working in front of the computer was exercising every day, and going for a walk every morning solved a small part of this issue. It helps to make sure I get at least a little exercise every day, no matter how busy my schedule may be. While it’s certainly not enough exercise that it’s all I have to do, it’s the bare minimum to have. I used to rely on a gym membership for this small amount of exercise, so going daily has allowed me to cancel this and save on membership fees. Walking quickly taught me that I much prefer being outside to exercise than indoors, so I changed my exercise routine to accommodate this.
Regeneration
I personally find my daily walk to be one of the most stimulating things I can do. My attitude about what needs to be done is often night and day from what it was before I left. It’s almost like a firecracker telling me, “Okay, it’s time to work and get things done.” I know on those few days when I can’t walk, I’m so tired at the end of the day and I can’t seem to get a ride like I do when I go out.
Life
All in all, my daily walks make me much healthier than I would otherwise be. I know my body doesn’t feel right if I miss my walk for a long time. I also find that I gain weight if I don’t walk regularly. Not only do I feel better physically, my anecdotal evidence seems to show that I don’t get sick or have other health problems much more often when I make sure to get outside.
Earning Money
As an added bonus to all of the above, I usually find about $100 in coins on the ground each year while traveling. While this isn’t a lot of money, it’s also nothing to sneeze at. Even better, on days when I find coins during my travels, all of the above things seem to be magnified as there is something that makes me happy when I find a random coin.
As mentioned earlier, chances are that traveling for your own sake may not bring all the benefits it does for you. However, some of the benefits may apply to you as well, and you may find some that are specific to you. The important thing to remember is that the activities you do regularly can have a big impact on how you run your day, and this will have an impact on your finances. As the above shows, while traveling has no direct connection to money management, it affects many things that will affect my finances.
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