Comments on: Your Time: Are You SPENDING It or INVESTING It?

By: Roundup for week of 4 November 2007: Surly Taco edition at Mighty Bargain Hunter

Roundup for week of 4 November 2007: Surly Taco edition at Mighty Bargain Hunter — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 12:45:39 +0000

[...] All Financial Matters asks if you’re spending your time or investing it. [...]

By: Stacey

Stacey — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 00:27:08 +0000

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!

By: Meg

Meg — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 00:21:29 +0000

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.

By: JLP

JLP — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 17:46:40 +0000

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).

By: Beth

Beth — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 17:36:00 +0000

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.

By: Mrs. Micah

Mrs. Micah — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 17:21:32 +0000

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!

By: Curtis

Curtis — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 17:13:11 +0000

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!