“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it” – Henry David Thoreau

 

Many of us agonise over how and where to invest our money, looking long and hard for where we think the greatest return will come from. We want to find the products and tactics that will maximise our returns and grow our initial investment.

 

We don’t always give the same focus to thinking about how we spend our time.

 

This is a strange set of affairs when you consider there is always a potential, at least, to make back money lost.  Time is different, once it’s spent it has gone for good.  We don’t get time back.

 

Trading Time

We all make trades on our time and energy.  Whether this is clocking into the office or spending time with others, everything has a cost associated with it.  All take time and effort.

 

The question then is, how can we make the best use of the precious commodity that is our time?

 

Be Selective, Be Intentional

The first step in making the most of our time involves being intentional with our days.  Rather than slipping into auto-pilot and following others, we instead bring a sense of real focus to our day.  We purpose them.

 

We approach our days knowing that how many of them we get has no guarantee.  We know time is precious.

 

We get selective with what and who we say yes to.  We appreciate and protect the white space in our diaries.

 

Getting Comfortable with No

Becoming more selective with our time means we have to get comfortable with saying ‘no’ to others.  This isn’t always easy but is necessary if we are to reclaim our time as ours.

 

If we receive an invitation and our immediate response is not a ‘yes, I’d love to do that’ then that’s usually an indication of something we may wish to consider further. Perhaps we turn it down.

 

This can be tricky as some of these invitations may come from family and friends we feel in debt to in some way.  We’ve been socially conditioned to think that no is not what others want to hear.    However, if we default to yes all the time, we may make others happy at the expense of keeping ourselves happy.  Trying to please others at any cost can also be a mistake.

 

Budget Your Time Wisely

If we view our time as a budget to be enjoyed, but also protected, we start to see life through an altered lens.  Saying no to commitments we don’t really wish to keep becomes easier.  Making time for the people and things that truly matter becomes fundamental to how we approach our days.  We know we want to make the most of our time – we budget accordingly.

 

How we use our time is up to us but the rules are the same for all of us, time spent doesn’t come back.

 

Subscribe  // Books