Invest Your Time or Spend Your Time - You Decide

An Important Time Management Strategy - Invest Your Time vs. Spend It

We are constantly in our culture hearing about investing money with the hopes of getting a return on investment. And certainly many who have taken that road have been rewarded handsomely experiencing some remarkable returns.

Well the same can be true about time.  Time, like money is a commodity and can be spent or invested - you decide.

I love this time management tip and perspective because since time is your life, what we're really talking about is investing in yourself - investing in your life! 

Here are 4 areas that most consider meaningful and important....and in which you'll want to consider investing in.  These are areas that most want to increase the quality and longevity of and one of the fundamental ways of doing that is "taking the time" to do so.  It's like paying if forward for yourself with a ripple affect to others.

1. Skills – Investing in you is always a good use of your time. What new skills do you need to learn? Being a life-long learning is key to future success. Always be investing time in new skills and capabilities.
2. Health – Too often, exercise and healthy habits get put on the back burner when you are busy. Make sure that you are maintaining your body and health. After all, your health impacts your abilities in all areas of life.
3. Relationships – Despite the old cliché about “quality time,” relationships are all about “quantity time.” (Hat tip to Brian Tracy.) It’s the amount of time that you invest that determines the relationship.
4. Career – Too many people wait for their job to hand them a promotion or next opportunity. Instead, go out and make it happen. No one is going to simply give you that new job, you have to go out and get it.

Coaching Tip: Look at how your time is used and see what of these 4 are being given attention and how. I recommend using the practice of time mapping - taking a week at a glance and chart how your time is really being spent!  This exercise will give you a realistic view of how your time is or is not being invested!

These and other suggestions you'll find in this recommendation below: Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed: how to manage your time, space, & priorities, to work smart, get results & be happy - available in these formats: Kindle - The Book - Nook - Audio Book -  The Seminar    |      Here's an independent review of the book

This post was adapted from this article 7 Ways That Everyone Should Invest Their Time - The Time Management Ninja