DO YOU SPEND TIME OR INVEST TIME?

If you received an inheritance of 100,000 would you go out and throw a big party or would you perhaps invest it or use it to pay down debt. Unfortunately, most people do not approach time in the same manner. It is true that you will get more out of the time you have when you learn to get more out of your life. What do you want? What are your values? What do you believe and what are your priorities? The answer to these questions will determine how you spend your day. In order to get more out of you time, you need to know what you want to get out of it.

There is a difference between spending time and investing time. According to Webster to spend is to use up, exhaust, or consume. In other words if you spend you have no return. On the other hand when you invest you do so with the expectation of obtaining a result which could include a satisfaction, income, achievement, or the like.

Many of us spend far more than we invest. Most of us spend large amounts of time engaged in frivolous activities that are distractions to achieving our goals. We need to value time like we value money.

Without goals and purpose we can spend too much time doing things that seem urgent rather than those that are really important. As a result, many unimportant tasks get done in a timely manner while important activities get quickly done under crisis conditions. Understanding your priorities and values is the first step to time management.

Take a proactive approach to time management rather than a reactive approach. When you react to every interruption and every email as it dings on your computer you are not in control of events. Here is how to get control. Analize incoming requests and put them into one of four quadrants according to the template below.

Notice that the horizontal axis is labeled important and not important and the vertical axis is labeled urgent and not urgent.

Quadrant 1 is high priority. Activities that are both important and urgent go here.

We can plan most effectively in Quadrant 2. Yet we underutilize this quadrant because we spend too much time in Quadrant 3 (urgent and not important) and in Quadrant 4 (not urgent and not important).

In general, you should complete activities and projects in Quadrants 1 and 2 first. Ask yourself whether this task is important and do I really need to do this task? The task is important if it helps you achieve one of your goals. Sometimes, however, the task may not be as important as other activities. Avoid those things that are urgent but not important. They are time wasters.

Allocate your time in a way that will contribute to the achievement of your goals and mirror your values in life. Invest your time wisely and you will reap significant rewards in your life.

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