Invest Time, Don’t Just Spend It

There is nothing more valuable than time.  Time is the most valuable currency you will ever have and there are plenty of people who want to steal it from you.

Would you trade your life with a billionaire in his 80s?  If you answered no, why not?  It is likely because you have something on your side that no amount of money in the world can buy.  Time is a non-renewable resource, and it needs to be treated as one.

Consider that the average American watches two hours of television per day and spends roughly three hours per day staring at their phone in some capacity scrolling through social media or web browsing. 

Even if you undershoot the average and round down to four total hours a day, that is nearly two full months out of an entire year (1,460 hours = 60 days) that is spent consuming rather than creating, exploring, or learning.  For many, this is a life well lived. If you are reading this however, you are likely looking for guidance on how to Help Future You.

The conscious choices you make around how to invest that time today will have huge compounding effects for the future.  Living with no regard for the importance of time will sap your energy over the long haul.  There will come a point when you look back and ask yourself where has all the time gone. 

So, what can you do to break the “routine” and ultimate feelings of regret?

• Take inventory of how you are spending time today. By paying attention to where you are allocating your energy and your resources, you’ll know whether or not you are falling more into the “spend” or “invest” category.  The first brings no promise of future returns, once it is gone you can’t get it back.  This is time spent without a goal in mind, in the absence of anything to enrich your life. 
• Leverage time to your advantage in a way that pays future dividends and provide rewards. This is time invested in your health, wealth, and relationships working on the highest-leverage opportunities for growth and fulfillment. 

What do these look like in practice?  

• When it comes to your career, are you spending it in a job that you hate making someone else rich, or are you investing it in a role with long term potential?
• When it comes to your personal life, are you spending time in a dead-end relationship, or are you investing it in a meaningful partnership that is mutually beneficial?
• When it comes to down time you have, are you spending it binge-watching Netflix, or are you investing it learning a new skill to level up in life?
• When it comes to tough challenges you are facing, are you spending time complaining about all your problems, or are you investing time figuring out how to solve them?

You need to start by respecting your time; be conscious of where you allocate the precious few hours you have every day to improve your life in some way.  

Remember, everything you choose to do is at the expense of everything you choose not to do.  As you settle into your comfortable daily routine, be aware of the areas where time starts to slowly slip away from you. 

It may only seem like an hour here or an hour there, but when you run the numbers for most people it tells an incredible story of time being lost, spent mindlessly rather than invested wisely.

Keep yourself honest here.  It will go a long way towards reinforcing the importance of time and ensure you are using it wisely.