« “50 Ways I Can Improve Myself” – Advice From 100+ Years Ago | Main | Napoleon Hill: Six Ways to Turn Desire Into Gold »
Your Time: Are You SPENDING It or INVESTING It?
By JLP | November 6, 2007
This post was inspired by “Principle 6: Studying” in Jeffrey Gitomer’s The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching!
Being that the title of this blog is AllFinancialMatters, I spend a lot of time talking about spending and investing money. However, there’s something else that we can either spend or invest: our time.
I don’t know about you but I “spend” rather than “invest” a lot of my time. I watch too much TV (this is good to know since I just bought a new TV!). It’s bad enough to watch new shows or sports but even worse to watch sitcom re-runs. They add absolutely no value to my life and yet I keep watching. I’m sure some of them (like the Andy Griffith Show) are a form of escape from the real world. I mean it’s hard to watch Andy Griffith and not think about how nice it would be to live in such a simple time. I realize that Mayberry is fictional and that the “simpler time” never really existed but that doesn’t stop me from thinking about it.
Anyway, the point of this post is we (me too) need to take our time more seriously and quit frittering it away doing meaningless stuff. For instance, my two biggest “spending” activities are:
- too much TV
- too much time spend checking my blog’s stats – I’m pretty sure I’m not the only person with this problem.
If I could pare back those two activities, I would have 6 or so more hours per week to put towards “investing” activities like:
- spending quality time with my wife
- spending quality time with my kids
- reading a book that will help me grow
- taking a course
- learning a new hobby
- serving others
Those are just a few “investing” activities that I could think of off the top of my head. If you can think of some more “investing” activities, let us know. For me, changing from spending my time to investing my time won’t be easy. I think we are all creatures of habit and it is normally easier to just give in to our old ways and never make the required changes. So, it is going to take deliberate action on my part in order to make the necessary changes.
I’ll keep you posted.
Topics: Books, Personal Growth | 7 Comments »
November 6th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
I try not to spend too much time. I spend much of my time at home with the family, doing home improvements, working on business start up, preparing for teaching and reading. Our TV rarely comes on unless we are together watching a movie or playing video games.
I had to do an exercise in a college course to track how I used my time for a couple of weeks. That was eye opening back then when, after 50+ hours of class, homework and labs the rest of the time was spent mainly goofing off. That’s a good habit changer. Take the time to see how much time you actually spend on tv and just nothing each week, you’ll be amazed to see it quantified. Just like tracking your spending of money the first time!
November 6th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
I “reinvest” my tv time as time I spend working on sewing projects. I like to have some story for my brain to follow. Reading also works, but with some projects it’s hard to hold the book open, turn pages, and sew. Good luck with your time investment!
November 6th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Just a few tips….
When I decided to ‘invest’ more into my time, I did the following to help:
1. I read books for the hour my daughter does homework (no tv, radio or phone calls).
2. I took the tv out of my bedroom (I know you only have the 1 tv, but your readers probably have more).
3. My daughter and I take walks every (and I mean EVERY) night – for at least 30 min.
4. While I watch the news in the morning, I ride my exercise bike (that way I’m not completely wasting my time).
Just thought I’d share a few of my tips.
November 6th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Beth,
Thanks for the comment. Those are all great tips!
For now we have one TV. Eventually I’ll get the boys one for their bedroom but it will NOT be hooked up to cable. It will be a game TV only (and my wife and I will limit how much time they can spend playing games).
November 6th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Such a great concept! I don’t think very much about spending vs. investing time, but I definitely should. How you invest your time is arguably much more important than how you invest your money, especially in the early years when you have lots of free time and relatively little money.
Investing my time might consist of working out (like I don’t have 4 hours a week for that), a few more “dates” with friends and associates to stay socially connected (5 hours), and more effectively using the time I spend “blogging” to build a better blog (no added hours). I also need to maximize my effectiveness at work; I probably waste/spend 5 hours a day (embarassing, yet true–one study I read said employees contribute an average of 1.7 hours of productivity/work during each workday).
These simple steps are so do-able, and yet so unattainable it seems! It’s so easy to stay busy but really be wasting time. What am I really getting out of it when I simultaneously eat dinner, surf the internet, and watch television? Nothing but brain rot I’m sure.
Seriously, TV is the major factor. Every day when I get home I catch myself walking straight to it to turn it on…and I pause because I know better…and I sigh and turn it on anyway. Without TV (whether I’m watching it or not), I’d easily add 4 hours of productivity to every day. It’s sucking the energy out of me from about 8pm to midnight most nights. My new key strategy is just not going home. I go to the bookstore, stay at work late, go to the gym, go see friends, or whatever to minimize the time I “spend” in my apartment.
November 6th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
JLP, don’t do it! No tvs should ever be in the kids’ bedrooms!
While watching tv, I sew Cub Scout badges on the boys’ brag vests, cut coupons, flip thru a magazine, or do easy accounting work for clients (coding checks to the proper exp. acct, etc.) I also write out upcoming birthday cards, make a grocery or to-do list, put family phots in our albums, etc. Why not check your blog stats while watching a favorite show? You’ll be a little time ahead…
Now that we have a treadmill, I crank up the volume of the basement TV and hear Good Morning America (treadmill’s in another room of the basement). It works for me!
November 12th, 2007 at 7:45 am
[...] All Financial Matters asks if you’re spending your time or investing it. [...]