Stop Treating Caring as Endless by Building Your Fuck Budget

Anna was a marketing manager with back-to-back client calls and a birthday brunch every weekend. Her calendar looked like a runway full of landing planes. One Monday morning she realized she had zero time left for her side-hustle. She closed her laptop, grabbed a marker, and declared a weekly caring budget of ten hours. She listed every existing commitment—team lunches, social events, networking groups—and gave each a cost in hours. By Wednesday she’d cut two low-value meet-and-greets, freeing up four hours for writing blog posts.

The next week, Anna stuck to her budget more easily. When an invite to a “fun” karaoke night landed in her inbox, she checked her caring allowance, which showed only one hour left. She politely declined, saying she was booked. Her boss didn’t bat an eye, and her partner cheered her on. Within a month, Anna reclaimed ten hours a week for exercise, reading, and her passion project—without burning bridges.

This business case shows that treating your attention and energy as finite resources prevents overcommitment. By assigning measurable costs to each request and comparing them to a self-chosen budget, you make clear, guilt-free decisions.

Imagine yourself noting how many hours or dollars you can spend on obligations each week, writing it down as your caring budget, and then listing every request you’ve received. Next, you assign a cost to each item—time, energy, or money—and compare the total to your allowance. When you’re over, you politely decline the lowest-value requests without guilt. By using this simple budget framework, you’ll be in control of where you invest your precious resources. Give it a try on Monday.