by Scott Allan
You don’t have to do everything. Delegating is a very powerful tool.
Knowing what is important to you will help you value your time.
By the time you finish this part of the book, you will have the basic strategies and develop the know-how to double output while doubling up on your free time. Keep your focus on the minutes, and the hours will take care of themselves.
Burning Your Greatest Asset
The most formidable obstacle that stands between you and your dreams is the efficient and effective use of time, a limited and irreplaceable resource. Time management, the ability to apply your time efficiently and in a manner that reflects the importance of your life, is the personal navigation system for ongoing improvement and personal success.
You will determine the tasks and steps necessary to keep your life moving forward on a steady track by adopting a set of time-based habits that build and support the key areas of your life. In order to become an effective time-investment manager, you must determine the areas of greatest importance and develop a plan of action that measurably structures a solid foundation for building the dreams of your future.
An investment of time means putting your greatest and most valuable resource to good use. To spend your life in a way that is both useful and efficient, put your time into the things that will produce the exact results you want. As soon as you determine the life you desire, one in line with your core personal values, your mind will automatically seek ways to make it happen for you.
Time management is a powerful skill that, once mastered and applied to achieving a state of excellence, links all the vital areas of life together. Everything is connected in terms of creating goals for yourself, having a specific great purpose, and applying quality time to the work and effort that generates results. Investing your time wisely opens closed doors. Wasting time and taking for granted the time you have been given keeps those doors closed.
When you invest your time in work or an activity that has great personal value, you want to get something in return. The time and effort you invest now will pay back huge dividends someday. Investing your time consciously, and with a specific plan, is making the greatest investment ever…it is an investment in yourself!
If you want to succeed and go further than you ever dreamed possible, you will have to manage yourself in a way that focuses on the constant and never-ending improvement of a set of time-based principles. This is determining the best time of day you can put your time to work for you.
It is planning, on a daily basis, exactly what you’re going to do with the time you have. The question you need to ask yourself is this: “What matters most to me, and how can I make the most out of my life with the time I have?”
Let’s say, for instance, that I gave you twenty dollars and told you that you could do anything you wanted with it. What would you do? Now, I know you might be thinking that twenty dollars doesn’t go far these days. But that’s only if you think of it as twenty dollars. Now, what if I told you to keep this money until next week without spending it? If you do, I’ll double it and give you forty dollars.
What would you do with it now? What if I continued to double your money every week for as long as you held on to it? Would you spend it or save it? You know that if you spend it, it’s gone forever, and you will get something worth the same amount or less than the twenty dollars. It would be gone, and that is it. If you held on to it, however, and your money was doubling every week, imagine how far this money would go after just one year.
Now, replace the twenty dollars with one hour of time. Imagine now that for every hard-earned hour you invested in the success of your life, you were rewarded with ten hours of leisure time to spend in any way you like. Would you be interested? Would you find the time to contribute to building the life you want?
“Time = life; therefore, waste your time and waste of your life, or master your time and master your life.”
— Alan Lakein
As you can see, whether or not we are investing time or money, both are precious resources. If these resources are invested and managed properly, the rate of return received over an extended period of time is exponential.
Many people spend their time the same way they spend their money—throwing it away on luxuries that eat up cash fast, like over-priced lattes, snacks, cigarettes, soda, or anything else that provides us with an instant sense of satisfaction. The reward is in the instant gratification we feel. The loss comes later when we need money and find ourselves with empty pockets.
If you had money to invest, would you throw it down on a bad investment? Now, replace the word money with time and ask yourself the same question. How much time do you waste every hour, day, week, and year on bad time investments? Are you watching old TV reruns, gossiping, or surfing the ‘net, endlessly looking for new ways to be entertained? This is how you waste both your time and life.
Time isn’t free and it isn’t expendable. It is limited, and each of us has only a certain amount of it. Some people have less time than others to spend. Others have more time than they know what to do with. The basic fact is that each of us has 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This is non-negotiable and will never change. What truly matters is how and where you invest the time you do have. It is worth more to you than the price of gold; it is your life, and to waste your time is to waste everything you value.
The key is to invest your time now so that you can be free later. Do first the things that matter most and reap the rewards later. Once you have invested your time for that day or week, you have all the time in the world for those other activities that demand your attention.
Once you have invested your time and spent it working toward your goals, then put aside the time you need for movie watching, game playing, or just sitting in stillness. How you spend it is up to you, because when the future shows up years later, the investment you made will be obvious. Will you be doing the same old thing, wishing your life were different? Or will you be living the life you visualized because you invested the time necessary to get to where you wanted to go?
There is no pending guilt when you know that you have put your time toward something that’s working to build your life, to make it better through improving the quality of your living conditions. Make a conscious choice to invest your time in working on who you want to be and where you want to be.
Invest your time in today so you can live your dreams tomorrow. If we are to succeed, it is imperative to know what’s important; we must figure out our highest priorities and invest in them.
Time investment has a concrete plan. There is a goal with key target areas, and each target area requires a strong investment of focused concentration in order to work. That is why your priorities need to be set and established before you commit your time and resources to a special project or activity.
You have to know precisely what it is you want. Once you do, you can then work it in to your time-management plan and decide how much time is allocated to each specific area so it can succeed.
A Time-Wealthy Balance
“One cannot manage too many affairs: like pumpkins in the water, one pops up while you try to hold down the other.”
— Chinese Proverb
Creating balance within the boundaries of four key areas is of vital importance to building a solid, well-balanced lifestyle. By making time for each of the following areas, you will create a powerful source of positive energy.
Family/Friendships/Relationships
Developing relationships with friends and family is a wealthy investment. Making time for the people that share our lives is what builds a solid foundation of love, happiness, and sense of well-being. It is through building relationships with friends, family, coworkers, the community, and mentors that we define who we are.
The people that share and experience life with us have the most to offer. Relationships you invest in and make time for will expand and grow over the years, forming an unbreakable bond between you and the people with yo
u on this journey.
You can build these relationships in a variety of ways:
Taking a “family day”—take the children on a day/weekend trip
Staying in touch with people through social networking
Writing a letter to someone you care about
Sending birthday cards to distant relatives and good friends
Encouraging your family to discuss problems and issues
Discussing the importance of values with family and friends.
Career/Education/Professional Development
When we’re not spending time with family, friends, or others, we can focus on a career and doing work we love. If you are not doing work that you love and are just showing up to get a paycheck, you are wasting your time and your employer’s. The whole point to structuring our time is to create the time for spending it on things we care about.
It is the work in life that defines our skills and level of professionalism. At least 30 percent of your time invested should go into building, maintaining, and mastering a profession or field of work.
Through this pathway, new doors will open and opportunities will be created; it is through the industry of work that new skills are defined and mastered. A commitment to your professional field boosts income, develops aptitude and skill, and solidifies confidence in your ability to manage and procure a lifetime of employment.
You can support and develop your professional career in a variety of ways:
Subscribing to or buying online educational courses (for more information, check out UniversalClass.com/Teachable/Udemy)
Completing a degree or pursuing a master’s course
Joining a professional developmental seminar
Reading books on business related to your field, and committing to and expanding your efforts to know everything there is to know about the object of your pursuits
Doing the best work that you can even if the job you’re in right now isn’t what you want to continue doing
Hobbies/Creative Activities
This is perhaps the most overlooked area when it comes to time investment, especially for people with already heavy, busy schedules; the time for relaxing or engaging in a creative hobby is left to the end. It is usually what we do when there is time left over at the end of the week.
Instead of making time for a hobby or other form of relaxation, we do it when everything else is finished. In fact, I have heard many people say that they’d pick up where they left off with a sport or an activity that was once an area of deep interest—when they have time.
The reality is, however, that if we don’t make time for those things that are fulfilling and bring joy to a hectic cycle of life, we never get around to doing anything. It ends up on the back burner, until eventually the flames go out. In the race to get life’s urgencies finished up day after day, the things that make us feel good are left behind to be picked up another day. This day rarely comes.
I have met people who have given up on writing, exercise, painting, making music, and even meditation because they couldn’t find the time anymore. It is true that as life progresses, responsibilities for many people increase to the point where they are maxed out at the end of the week. If that’s true for you, to fix it here is a basic rule: don’t just find the time for the things that matter; you must make the time and schedule it around your priorities.
Something as simple as sitting down for thirty minutes a night to engage in something you love to do will add enormous value to the day and your life overall. Make the time for the things that are yours. Of course, developing relationships, building careers, and taking care of family are of great importance, as is working on ridding yourself of stress, taking time to breathe, and getting focused on something that is for you.
Write that book you’ve been talking about for the past decade.
Take up painting, model building, building furniture, or drawing.
Learn to play an instrument.
Start up a collection of something you feel a passion for.
You don’t have to do everything; you can focus on one small part of learning what you have always wanted to try. For example, if you decide to start playing the piano, instead of thinking about how it will take you years to learn, just focus on learning one new key a week. Focus on that key for the week before moving on. You can use this mini-strategy for just about everything. Break the task own into a small goal.
Exercise, Sports, and Eating Right
You have to make time for your health. I know, in the busy-ness of our busy lives, exercise is something that we do when we have time for it. We treat it as a side hobby that we only do when we feel like. But your body is getting older. People who make exercise a habit and practice this habit for thirty minutes a day live longer and enjoy a healthier lifestyle. This includes making the time for eating well.
For example, I exercise in the morning first thing within ten minutes of waking up. I drink a glass of fruit juice, and then start working out at home with a few weights and a medicine ball.
“I don’t have time to get the gym” is a common excuse we feed ourselves. While it is usually true, that getting to the gym and setting up for a workout that takes several hours may not be possible, you don’t need the gym. Set yourself up at home with a few things. I bought a 5 kg medicine ball six months ago and I haven’t been to the gym since then, and I am actually in better shape. Check out YouTube for the exercises you can do. A thirty-minute routine in the morning is all you need for the day.
So, spend time each week investing in your body and mind. You can:
Buy some home workout equipment such as free weights, a medicine ball, or ab cruncher. You don’t need much space and there are no membership fees.
Prepare your meals the night before. Taking time out at the end of the day can save you time and stop you from dashing to the fast food restaurant.
Spiritual and Mental Health Development
How much time do you invest in improving and developing your spiritual and mental development? Do you read self-help books? Attend motivational seminars or counseling sessions? You’re reading this book, and that is a great way to flex your mental muscles for growth and find new ways to improve yourself.
Regardless of how successful or fulfilled we might be in the first three areas, if you neglect to make time for cleaning your mental health department, you run the risk of growing negative, bitter, and depressed.
People that fail to “clean” their minds of useless thoughts build up a collection of old, worn-out ideas and ideals. To improve, we must improvise; to develop and make forward progress, we must contribute to a system of never-ending self-improvement.
Put aside twenty minutes a day for meditation or mental cleansing.
Read books by Hal Urban, Pema Chodron, Stephen Covey, the Dalai Lama, M. Scott Peck, James Allen, Anthony Robbins, and Napoleon Hill.
Erase your impure thoughts with positive quotes or affirmations.
Help another person succeed.
Be honest with yourself and others, practice integrity, and—above all—be kind.
Make a list of character traits you value and focus on integrating these values into your life.
Financial Investment and Retirement
A good, solid financial portfolio will someday provide you with the freedom to do whatever you want. The old “Time is money” adage has never been truer when it comes to setting up the future for financial success. In fact, failing to have a financial plan of any kind is planning to fail big time, and time is exactly what you will lose.
Instead of possibly retiring early at fifty-five or sixty, you could end up working well into your seventies or, even worse, retire broke, with all the time in the world but no money to do anything with the time you have. At the very least, you should be putting away 10 percent of everything you earn monthly, without exception.
You don’t have to be a financial wizard or have a doctorate in economics to work out a financial plan. You can find plent
y of easy-to-follow books that can be read in just a few hours. The time you take to read these books and apply their ideas and techniques could save you years.
I would recommend Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach. The information and advice in these books is relatively simple to follow and will set you on the path to building a life instead of just working for one. In the end, we all want more time to do the things that matter most, and if you have the cash to support your dreams, then time really is on your side. To get your financial house in order, follow these few tips:
Put aside 10–15 percent of your salary into a separate savings account or mutual fund
Cut down on buying the stuff you don’t need
Create a financial plan for every year
Only have one credit card
Concentrate on eliminating personal debt, and start a home-based internet business
Priority Investment Planning
“How different our lives are when we really know what is deeply important to us, and keeping that picture in mind, we manage ourselves each day to be and to do what really matters most.”
— Stephen Covey
The first step to mastering time investment so you can effectively master the minutes of your day is through a system I call priority investment planning (PIP). This technique is used for establishing your priorities in life so you can concentrate on the important matters. You have to know what is most valuable to you so that you don’t get caught up in contributing to those activities and distractions that have little or no value.
Unfortunately, most people are not in control of their time, and because of this, they are not in control of their lives. Are you continuously struggling for more time to spend with your family? Is someone dictating to you how and when to do things? Is too much of your time spent pleasing others? Do you constantly complain about having no time, only to spend it wrapped up in trivial matters and empty tasks?