Do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of.
- Benjamin Franklin
Return on investment (ROI) is a term you hear frequently, usually in relation to business and finance. The goal (obviously) is to maximize return on the money you invest. The implications of this concept go much deeper when you start to think of time as your primary investment rather than money. Everything you do is an investment of time. When you watch television, you’re making an investment in entertainment. If you watch a show that sucks, you’ve made a bad investment and receive a poor return for your time.
In many ways time is more valuable than money. You’ll always have the opportunity to make more money, but once time has been spent it’s gone forever. When you think of time as a commodity, and all of your actions as investments, it changes the way you approach every day decisions.
We spend time in many different ways: working, eating, sleep, exercise, entertainment, etc. All of these things are important. When we start investing too heavily in one area and not enough in another we create problems for ourselves. The key is investing our time in a manner that perfectly balances each of these areas and forms a productive and pleasurable life.
Deciding how to invest our time is a formidable task. Unlike business, there are no percentages or spreadsheets to reference. We have to rely on experience and intuition. I’m far from a master at this, but these are a few principals I use to guide my decision making.
1. Look for Multiple Positives
A multiple positive is an activity that generates a positive return in more than one area. These are great for ROI because they multiply returns and incur fewer losses. One of my best multiple positives is working on this website. It’s something that I find extremely entertaining, it contributes to a small (but steadily growing) stream of income, and it develops skills that I’ll be able to use the rest of my life like writing, web design, and networking.
Every individual will have different multiple positives, the important part is finding ones that work for you. A multiple positive for a software developer might be working on open source or a personal project. It can even be as simple as playing basketball, a fun game that’s also great exercise. The key to finding multiple positives is finding areas where different positive actions intersect. If I can find a way to get paid to eat delicious food I’ll be golden.
2. Avoid Multiple Negatives
Multiple negatives are the same as multiple positives, except the complete opposite. These are activities that detract from multiple areas of life. One of my favorite weaknesses is going out drinking. This hurts me in three ways: the time spent isn’t productive, drinks are expensive, and the effect of staying up late and being hungover usually ruins the following day. If I don’t have a good time, this is basically the worst possible scenario.
I’m not saying you should never go out and have a good time. To be happy we need socialization and excitement. My point is that we should always try to minimize the negative impact of our actions. I try to do this by minimizing the amount I drink and only going out when I know it will be enjoyable. Often we get caught in a pattern of poor investment. Over time, the benefits fade away and what remains is mostly negative, but we keep doing it out of habit. This can be avoided by periodically analyzing our behavior. Is it still a good investment, or is it time to make a change?
3. Utilize the Power of Compounding
I’m sure that everyone reading this understands the power of compound interest. When you invest money you earn interest. Then you start earning interest on the money you earned from interest. Over many years this continues to compound and eventually leads to a very large sum of money. The same concept applies to time. If you invest time by working hard when you’re young, you put yourself in a position to succeed that will continue compounding for the rest of your life. If you waste time when you’re young, you can’t make up for it later because you’ve lost the opportunity to utilize the power compounding.
Many people my age fail realize this, in fact I didn’t, or at least I didn’t act on it, until fairly recently. The primary reason is that we’re trapped in the childish mindset. As a child, your only responsibility is entertaining yourself. You needn’t worry about investing your time because Mommy and Daddy are there to take care of you and they’re usually happy as long as you stay out of trouble. These days many young adults ride the childish mindset straight through college. After graduation we’re expected to adopt the adult mindset (and the responsibility of investing our time) instantaneously. A lot of people don’t get it, and every year they waste trying to extend the college days is an opportunity that can never be replaced.
Many people think their time isn’t valuable when they aren’t working, so they throw it away on activities that have a poor return on investment and don’t build for the future. The truth is, no one else is going to consider your time valuable until you do. If you want to acquire the wealth that will provide the freedom to live your ideal lifestyle, start thinking of every decision as an investment. Nothing is insignificant.
One mental model that can help you make better decisions is imagining that your life is a corporation and you’re the only employee. If you were the CEO of John Doe Incorporated, and were obliged to maximize profit on behalf of investors, what would you make yourself do? You’ll find that this sort of analysis simplifies many decisions and increases return on investment.
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- Ben Franklin's Real Way to Wealth - Part I Industry
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Good ideas, but the article could really use more examples of what he’s talking about. All I saw in there were 1) play basketball and 2) don’t go out drinking. Not a huge help.
Thanks for the feedback, James. I see your point. My intention with this article was to explain the ideas in a conceptual sense. If people are interested in more concrete examples of how to apply them, that’s something I will definitely cover in the future.
I enjoyed the article John. As a fulltime worker, aspiring blogger, father & husband I know that time is precious. I consider myself productive in many ways, but there is still much I can do (eg less TV and drinking). A followup article with specific examples would be useful.
Thanks, Peter, I’m glad you enjoyed it.
John…great piece (this one will get tagged for future reference). I especially like the analogy of compounding interest with compounding your time while your young. I’m in my late 20’s and I’ve personally felt a significant shift in my prioritize in the last 2 years to get things done & be productive so that I’m not behind the eight ball when I’m in my 40’s and 50’s. I’m a mortgage banker and too often I see credit reports where individuals are just swamped in debt and working jobs that are normally not conducive for substantial increases in pay. These people have reached the ceiling in terms of earning power and are stuck working these dead-end jobs that they hate but have to do everyday to pay their bills. I don’t want to be like this and I’m grateful for the many resources (Internet) available today for me to learn and advance me skill set so that I can set myself up nicely in the years ahead.
[…] >> Time is all we have: 3 ways to increase return on investment << “Many people think their time isn’t valuable when they aren’t working, so they throw it away on activities that have a poor return on investment and don’t build for the future. The truth is, no one else is going to consider your time valuable until you do. If you want to acquire the wealth that will provide the freedom to live your ideal lifestyle, start thinking of every decision as an investment. Nothing is insignificant.” Pick the Brain is becoming one of my favorite blogs. It’s not specifically about personal finance, but it has some great tips. […]
Small thing:
One of the links on your home page is broken:
http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/learn-to-understand-your-own-intelligence/
richard,
Thanks for letting me. It’s fixed now. Some how that post got set to private.
“If you waste time when you’re young, you can’t make up for it later because you’ve lost the opportunity to utilize the power compounding.”
On the other hand, if you work all the time and don’t take the opportunity to have fun while you’re young, you may not be able to make up for it later after you’ve retired, because you will no longer be young so many doors will be closed to you (unless you work so hard you can retire young). Just something to think about.
Very true. The last thing I want to advocate is the workaholic lifestyle. I think working a lot can feel great if your career is something you love. It all about finding balance, not an easy thing to do.
That’s a great article John. To me, it’s really more about prioritizing. If I have a choice between two actions, I should choose the one with the most amount of positives and the least amount of negatives. If I’m choosing between two forms of entertainment, I should pick the one that might also teach me something, or help my finances.
John, I recently discovered your Website and I am really enjoying it. A previous poster stole my thunder with his praise of your “power of compounding” theory, since that part of the article truly resonated with me.
My problem when I was younger wasn’t lack of hard work — it was lack of focus. I spent time working in radio, then in I.T., then in writing, tutoring, etc. My journey has been fragmented, which has minimized my ability to “compound” my experiences.
There is some benefit to this, though. I find that my fragmented experiences give me a somewhat unique perspective and an ability to handle a wide range of tasks — so maybe another way of looking at it is that the power of compounding has created a single, cohesive skillset from all my early wandering.
Great Blog, John.
Hi John,
I enjoyed your post and realised I’ve been worrying about the “Return On Investment” of my time a lot lately. My main “weakness” is that I have a 90 minute commute to and from work everyday. It’s an unacceptable waste that I have been trying to solve by doing a lot of reading and also by getting a portable internet device so I can be productive whilst travelling. But I think commuting is a large percentage of peoples wasted ROI.
Cheers,
Tom Fotherby
Thanks everybody.
hey, I have a question for you. What do you think about religion? Is it a major part of your life? Do you think it’s a positive investment of our time? and do you think there will actually be a ROI?
Ahmad K,
That’s a tough question, I think the answer is probably different for different people. Personally, I’ve never been very involved in formal religion, but I think individual spirituality is important. The ROI all depends on personal beliefs so it’s nearly impossible to measure.
[…] Pick The Brain: Time Is All We Have- 3 Ways to Increase Return on Investment - “In many ways time is more valuable than money. You’ll always have the opportunity to make more money, but once time has been spent it’s gone forever. When you think of time as a commodity, and all of your actions as investments, it changes the way you approach every day decisions.“ […]
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I really enjoyed how you’ve defined the part about starting young and realizing the power of being productive as early as possible. The drinking part made me chuckle
I’m going to be the contrarian here and disagree. It’s not about time. It’s about choosing your actions. I’ve seen fellow employees whine because they said they needed more training in time management. They were blaming their lack of success on an external factor: time. They should have been blaming it on an internal factor: their poor decision making skills. Because they blamed their lack of success on an external factor, they went reactive and waited for something or someone to do something for them. But they should have been proactive in learning how to make better choices.
As for “compounding,” you cannot invest one hour and expect to get back 7o minutes.
Although I disagree, I like your blog. Keep up the good, hard work.
Regards,
Glenn
I particularly like the “compounding theory” and I couldn’t agree more on it. Thank you for this nice post John.
Glenn,
With regards to compounding, I never meant to say that you can create more time. What I meant is that if you put in effort earlier, you get greater returns. For example, if someone worked very hard in their early 20’s and became a manager at the age of 25, they’d have a great chance of becoming an executive. On the other hand, someone who wasted 5-10 years before working hard and became a manager at 32 would have a much harder time rising through the corporate ranks. Even if the 32 year old worked harder, they already missed out on the benefits of early entry.
The idea is that success builds on itself. The rich keep getting richer, so the sooner you can start building momentum the more time it has to snowball. I see examples of this everywhere, especially with this blog. If only I’d started it a couple years ago.
Love picking your brain. The “compounding” example is excellent and it’s great to see someone so young “get it” while he still has time within a natural lifespan to enjoy and maximize the compounding aspect of those time-as-investment-decisions. I’m a baby boomer who wasted too many years on sex, drugs & rock ‘n roll, as they say. Bad decisions and certain circumstances that don’t need airing have left me approaching retirement with NADA! Even though I can do some things now to try and catch up a bit, the reality of the limited quantity of time is left to me, especially pre-the looming deteriorating health of ‘old age’, cannot be altered or ignored.
[…] If you really want to learn, start thinking for yourself. Consider it a life long investment. It’s hard to learn a concept, but once you understand it, that knowledge can be applied repeatedly. Resist intellectual laziness, actively pursue answers instead of passively accepting them, and you’ll be the one giving the tips. Tag: philosophyRelated Articles:How We Really LearnLearn to Understand Your Own IntelligenceResist the Temptation to Submit to AuthorityOvercoming a Loss of MotivationStop Waiting and Choose Your Own Talent […]
[…] are *your* multiple positives? Let’s hear ‘em in the comments. — Wendy Boswell Time is All We Have: 3 Ways to Increase Return on Investment [Pick The Brain […]
“If I can find a way to get paid to eat delicious food I’ll be golden.”
become a food critic?
Haha, that’s a great suggestion.
Speaking of wasting time, I just realized that’s exactly what I was doing by reading all your comments!
Haha, well this site is the exception!
One of the multiple positives for me is doing exercise while listening to audio books or podcasts. It both helps body and brain.
That’s a great example. I need to download more podcasts to my Ipod and hit the elliptical machine.
[…] Time is All We Have: 3 Ways to Increase Return on Investment - [PickTheBrain] digg_url = ‘http://www.lifehack.org/articles/management/3-ways-to-invest-in-time.html’; ( function() { var ds=typeof digg_skin==’string’?digg_skin:”; var h=80; var w=52; if(ds==’compact’) { h=18; w=120; } var u=typeof digg_url==’string’?digg_url:(typeof DIGG_URL==’string’?DIGG_URL:window.location.href); document.write(”"); } )() Author: Craig Childs Posted: Monday, June 11th, 2007 at 10:33 am Tags: investing, investment, investments, time, time+management, timemanagement Bookmark or Share this with a friend! […]
@John Wesley — Multiple Positives are a great concept, which I guess I’ve been using for some time.
@Wade Allen — you mentioned it first — I’ve been doing this for 8 years now, with this additional positive — I walk to work, listening to good books. So that’s at least three positives:
1. listening to books to improve my mind
2. commuting without polluting the air or burning fossil fuels
3. exercising daily like my doctor ordered
Aside: Given the rising price of gas, I keep expecting to meet even more walkers and bikers on my daily commute. Where are you guys?
[…] Time is All We Have: 3 Ways to Increase Return on Investment - [PickTheBrain] […]
@bc — I wish I was able to walk to work for the same reasons. Unfortunately I live too far away. Maybe if gas keeps going up I’ll look for a closer apartment.
[…] just read this post, and I agree very much. Your time is worth so much more than money. And some simple rules can […]
a good example of compounding time might be in stretching.
if you want to be able to touch your toes at the age of 35, then at 25 it’s a good idea to be stretching regularly and maintaining that level of agility.
if you start when you’re 34.5, after 10 years of couch-blobbing, you’ll have less likelihood of reaching that goal.
[…] Time is All We Have: 3 Ways to Increase Return on Investment Annotated If you waste time when you’re young, you can’t make up for it later because you’ve lost the opportunity to utilize the power compounding. The truth is, no one else is going to consider your time valuable until you do […]
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Great stuff, John! I love the concept of multiple positives. I bet that many people read this and assume that you mean multi-tasking at work is a good thing. I’m not so sure - when you’re trying to do many things at once, you typically don’t do any of them well. Or, worse, you’re just switching back and forth between different things, and failing to put your full brainpower behind any of them.
Rather, your definition of multiple positives (I believe) is to take a SINGLE task that has multiple benefits, and focus on that.
Keep up the great work!
Matt,
You’re exactly right about what I meant. I’m actually a terrible multi-tasker and don’t believe it increases productivity (at least in my case). When I’m working on something I become completely absorbed in what I’m doing and ignore everything else. My friends complain about this all the time because they’ll ask me a question and won’t get any response until I break my train of thought.
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[…] Time is All We Have: 3 Ways to Increase Return on Investment by John WesleyTime is precious, so you should invest it in the best possible way to maximize return on investment. This article gives you three practical ways to do so: look for multiple positives, avoid multiple negatives, and utilize the power of compounding. […]
Excellent article. Everyone is familiar with the power of compounding as it pertains to money, but few consider health, relationship, and other implications. An excellent but little known book that illuminates this is The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson.
Every day, in every moment, you get to exercise choices that will determine whether or not you will become a great person, living a great life. Greatness is not something predetermined, predestined or carved into your fate by forces beyond your control. Greatness is always in the moment of the decision. –Jeff Olson
[…] Time is All We Have: 3 Ways to Increase Return on Investment Annotated If you waste time when you’re young, you can’t make up for it later because you’ve lost the opportunity to utilize the power compounding. The truth is, no one else is going to consider your time valuable until you do […]
[…] compatible with your lifestyle and continuously optimize. Based on the feedback from my post about return on investment, personal experience, and hours of research, here are the top 11 multiple positives that productive […]
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Switching from the child mindset to the adult mindset was something I really struggled with. At first (when I was 13), I just wanted to be a kid and have fun because I was sick of people expecting me to adopt the teen mindset, which I found filled with social conditioning. Then I found StevePavlina.com and I realized with the adult mindset, implemented in a courageous way, I could have even more fun than I had before I was 13! (From 1-12 my life was basically routine contentment, social conditioning finally made it worse and made my life from 13-14 pretty much not fun)
I’ve completely skipped the teen mindset (I’m 15 now), and I’m glad I did because to tell you the truth it’s just a popularity contest. Compound interest is so true with time and investing it… I noticed back in 2006 when I discovered Steve Pavlina, my life didn’t get better at all for several months. I had tried to break internet addiction and it kind of worked. I tried setting and achieving goals and it kind of worked. I set up a website and that kind of worked. Then a couple months ago they started to pay off. I had improved my personality, health, and optimism. This week things are going much faster. My website is getting more traffic, I started a blog (I don’t know how so many ideas for blog entries popped out of thin air!), I’m getting better at game dev, becoming an early riser, implementing a creativity style similar to that of the Disney Imagineers, and spending more time with my friends.
But because I’m a minor it severely limits what I can do. I can’t set up a domain name because I have neither the money (game biz hasn’t taken off yet) nor sufficient experience in HTML yet. I can’t use Google Adsense to generate income because I’m under 18. I can’t transfer my savings to ING direct and get 5.25% interest because I’d need a joint checking account with my mother or father because and that is too much trouble to do. I can’t spend as much time as I’d like designing my games because my mom says it’s bad to be on the computer for more than 1.5 hours a day.
So here’s my Master Plan, this will maximize my compound returns on time investment:
Now – 2010
– Keep reading Steve Pavlina to undo all social conditioning.
– Adopt a sleep pattern of getting up at dawn and going to bed at night. (This healthier and you need less sleep this way than if you sleep in and stay up late every weekend day)
– Keep coding games so by the time I can set up my business I’ll be good enough to start making money immediately.
– Stop eating junk food (this is hard to break, stupid social conditioning!) and start excersing more
2010 – 2018
– Establish passive income that requires 1 hour a week or less to maintain
– Get really good at time management
– Get married
2019 and onward
– I haven’t though about this part yet, but most of it is going to be free time
Thank you for reminding me that social conditioning gives us negative muliple negatives now I can replace them with multiple positives!!!
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I agree with the whole concept of time management and making good choices about how to spend time in productive ways. Eventually every positive, productive action leads to some kind of payoff that makes it worth while. However, I would like to point out that some activities look like they are a waste of time, but actually feed the soul of creativity and energize the spirit. The benefits are internal and cannot be proven or given a monetary value. Things like gazing out over a beautiful scene, like the ocean or mountains or quietly, watching wildlife are necessary activities to calm the mind and bring balance. Sitting in the morning sun while sipping a fresh cup of brew is not productive, but rather a Sunday morning ritual that makes me feel happy to be alive! So I say, go out and choose to be productive, but also nurture your self with some “time out” activities that make you feel good and don’t have to create, produce, or payoff in the future. Sometimes enjoy life by just being here and don’t feel guilty about your personal “time outs”!
[…] Understand Time to Increase Return on Investment. Time is your most valuable resource. Understanding these ideas will help you make optimal decisions. […]
[…] Understand Time to Increase Return on Investment. Time is your most valuable resource. Understanding these ideas will help you make optimal decisions. […]
[…] Understand Time to Increase Return on Investment. Time is your most valuable resource. Understanding these ideas will help you make optimal decisions. […]
[…] Understand Time to Increase Return on Investment. Time is your most valuable resource. Understanding these ideas will help you make optimal decisions. […]
[…] Wesley of Pick The Brain talks about Time is All We Have: 3 Ways to Increase Return on Investment, 5 Simple Ways to Increase Your Intelligence and many more. John’s advices are always […]
[…] Understand Time to Increase Return on Investment. Time is your most valuable resource. Understanding these ideas will help you make optimal decisions. […]
[…] Understand Time to Increase Return on Investment. Time is your most valuable resource. Understanding these ideas will help you make optimal decisions. […]
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While I think you are dead-on in describing a good set of rules for the average person, and your thesis is 100% correct, highly intelligent individuals might suffer from following this advice. It’s no secret that the most brilliant ideas come from a very small number of people. This advice is somewhat prejudiced towards conformity, and conformity is a killer for brilliant minds. Sometimes allowing yourself to “wander” is essential for letting the subconscious mind take over and solve problems and dream up new ideas.
[…] Understand Time to Increase Return on Investment. Time is your most valuable resource. Understanding these ideas will help you make optimal decisions. […]
daveo, I couldn’t agree with you more. “not all who wander are lost” - Tolkien.
I also couldn’t agree with John more. I think you need both. Think of it this way.
MAXIMIZE your time, like john talks about with a very STRONG FOCUS. Be Proactive in making yourself that much time to “wander and do nothing”.
I am by no means successful yet that I could pretend to be an expert in this, but I can give an example of an experience I had recently.
I run my own business and am fortunate to have several salespeople, production, admin staff, etc. so that I don’t need to be there every minute of every day.
I crashed at my brother’s house(which happens to be the house I grew up in) and went for a run through neighborhoods I hadn’t seen since I was a kid.
It was a perfect day and I had no plans for where I was running, I just went.
Turns out I ended up at this amazing dock overlooking a huge lake.
I must have sat there for 2 hours. It was well after 9am and I guess everyone else was at work or school. I just sat there and watched geese fly around, cars on a bridge on the other side of the lake, frogs, minnows.
I ended up coming up with a new marketing idea for my business that is really working. If I hadn’t spent a few hours without distraction in a stimulating environment that I randomly wandered to, maybe I wouldn’t have thought about my life and business the way I did(not trying to say it was a genius move like you’re eluding to).
John, I’m glad to see your sticking with this concept. Good stuff.
You made some very good points about return on investment and I would like to add my two cents. I agree that time is way more valuable than money, but I disagree with your opinion of lost opportunities due lack of time compounding. In my opinion, opportunities are primarily based on location and vocation. You have to know which vocation offers the best opportunities in the right location. Furthermore, you should be passionate about your vocation. Basically, anyone can become successful at any point in time regardless of how old they are when they start.
Time is way to complex of a subject to use in an article unless you plan on utilizing some scientific jargon. Even Einstein’s theory of special relativity is incomplete without considering biology, specifically space radiation. I can’t say that it is impossible to compound time, but I think you meant compounding opportunities which is more based on decision making than time. Each opportunity opens a door to another opportunity that a clever person can take full advantage of. Some people are just better at making the best decisions for their own life than others.
I think your idea about multiple positives is spot on though. For example instead of just focusing on getting rich, one could focus on becoming a millionaire or billionaire while traveling the world and completing many other goals along the way all at once. Great post.
[…] couple months ago when I wrote about investing time wisely and the concept of multiple positives many readers commented, saying that an excellent way to […]
Awesome! I love the article, I’m sure many people who read this will benefit and take control of their lives through more efficient time management. “Until we can manage TIME, we can manage nothing else.” - Druker Peter F. Once you fully understand the power of Time Management you will become more productive at work, home & leisure. And I love to personally share more on my experience in my personal blog over here.
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