Most of us are only keeping track of one thing when it comes to the work we do. And that is: how much will this make me?

It's a fair question. Money is real, bills are real, and finances shape what we can and can't say yes to.

But there's a second thing worth tracking, and nobody ever taught us to look at it. It's what the work costs — the Sunday nights, the recovery days, the subtle sense of dread before a call we said yes to for the money.

Some work pays well and leaves us empty inside. Some work pays less and gives us our evenings back.

And when your work is made up of a million moving pieces — client work, creative projects, content, offers, half-started ideas — money is the only one loud enough to hear.

What would change if we counted both?

There are 4 things worth measuring, and only one of them is money.

✨The first is time demand: How much of the week does this new project actually eat up, including the parts that don't appear on an invoice. Is this new project meeting heavy? Are there constantly changing priorities leaving you spinning your wheels for hours with no resolution or end in sight?

✨The second is energy cost: The prep, the research, the follow-up, everything surrounding the work that isn't the work.

✨The third is nervous system load. How does the work sit in your body? Does it settle you or wind you up?

✨And the fourth is values alignment: Is this something you’d still care about if it paid more or less?

You might skip one or all of these but the third one is the one I like to pay attention to the most. It's also the one that tells the truth first, usually months before we're willing to hear it.

There's a name for what happens when we ignore it.

Researchers call it effort–reward imbalance: when what work demands consistently outpaces what it gives back — money, yes, but also recognition, autonomy, and rest. Three decades of studies have linked that gap to real health risks, including depression. Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41485243/

✍️ Brain dump every income stream you have, or could have. Don't filter, don't rank, don't be realistic. Speed matters more than accuracy here, this is a true brain dump! The filtering is what keeps the honest answers out.

🫁 Next to each one, write one word for how it lands in your body. Ease. Neutral. Tight. Not what it earns. What it costs in your body.

🌤️ Then mark one as later. Not gone forever but just something to start at a later date.

That's the whole exercise. It won't give you a number, but it'll give you a shape and the shape is usually enough to see what you've been avoiding.

📌 The takeaway: The goal isn't to add more projects and work to your plate. It's to see clearly enough through an audit to know what you truly value and what it costs you.

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