Why thinking about your future saves you time, money and your mental health

You told me you don't have time to think about your future. I think it's costing you more than time.

Last week I asked a simple question on social media.

When was the last time you intentionally paused to think about your future?

I wasn't expecting a flood of responses, but I was curious what people would say. Had they thought about next year? Five years from now? Their career? Their family?

The answer that came back again and again was: "I don't have time."

And if you're a woman in midlife juggling kids, work, friendships, weekend sports and (maybe) date nights, I get it.

You're probably getting everyone out the door in the morning, working all day, replying to school emails at lunch or late at night in bed, organising dinner in your head during meetings, remembering that someone needs new shoes, booking appointments for your parents, paying bills, folding washing after the kids are asleep, and wondering when exactly you're supposed to fit yourself into the picture.

Life is overflowing, right! 

So when someone asks you to think about your future, it feels like another job. The problem is that the future doesn't wait until your calendar becomes clear.

I keep thinking about one woman who replied to me. She said she'd been meaning to think about changing careers for years, but there was always something more urgent. The kids were little. Then interest rates went up. A big project came up at and it got busier. Then her mum got sick.

5 years passed.

Now she's in a job she is having trouble getting out of bed for every morning, in an industry that's changing rapidly, and she's trying to work out her next move while she's already exhausted.

Another woman told me she'd never really thought about retirement because she's too busy paying for life now. She's looking after teenagers and helping ageing parents at the same time. Every spare dollar has somewhere to go. The idea of planning for herself feels almost like a luxury.

I don't think either of those women are unusual. They're living what a lot of us are living.

We're part of the sandwich generation, which now apparently starts at 35!! We're carrying children, parents, work, relationships and households all at once. We've become incredibly good at responding to what's immediately in front of us, reacting to what's just happening to us. 

But responding and reacting isn't the same as steering and deciding.

When I worked in national security, we never waited for the crisis before we started planning. We assumed change was coming because it always does. The work was about creating options before they disappeared.

I've realised that's just as true in everyday life. So not making time to think about your future has a cost. Let's talk about that. 

Sometimes it's financial. You stay in the same job because looking elsewhere feels overwhelming, and you miss opportunities that might have given you more flexibility or more income.

Sometimes it's emotional. You wake up one day feeling stuck, but you can't work out how you got there because every decision was made in survival mode.

Sometimes it's practical. Your family depends on one income, one childcare arrangement, one car, one piece of technology, one plan. You don't notice how fragile that is until something breaks.

And sometimes the cost is quieter than all of those.

It's spending years building a life without ever asking whether it's still the life you want or even love. Life is really short, so why spend it in fear, being unfilled or hating a huge chunk of it Monday to Friday. 

Just to be clear, I'm talking about finding thirty minutes to get your thoughts out of your head and onto paper.

Ask yourself:

• What's changing in my life and in the world over the next few years?

• What parts of my life feel uncertain?

• Where am I relying on one plan or one person?

• What's one decision I could make now that would make life easier for Future Me?

Those questions don't solve everything but they move you from constantly reacting to everything that's happening around you to noticing where you still have choices and agency to make decisions for you.

Put simply, that's what strategic foresight looks like in ordinary life. Its a life skill and no longer just for government strategy or a business exercise. The women who told me they didn't have time are exactly the women I'm thinking about as I write this.

I know what it feels like to spend years looking after everyone else's future. I also know that the future has a habit of arriving whether we've prepared for it or not.

So this weekend, don't wait for a perfect morning, a quiet house or a free month that probably isn't coming. Make yourself a cup of tea. Sit outside for half an hour. Leave your phone inside if you can.

Give yourself permission to think about the person you'll be in two, five or ten years.

She deserves some of your time too.