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“You multiply time by spending time on things today that give you more time tomorrow.” ~ Rory Vaden

Can you imagine how much time would be wasted if your library didn’t invest the time to organize their books? The money saved by borrowing a book would be offset by how much time it took to find it.

Most of us let our daily activity depend too heavily on what Laura Vanderkam and psychologist Daniel Kahneman call the “experiencing self.” The present moment self. In other words, the decisive factor in how we use our time is often what brings the greatest immediate gratification.

We pursue short-term pleasure or avoid short-term pain.

The problem is, the path of immediate gratification is often at odds with what’s best for the future.

Shopping spree? Fun in the moment, but sacrifices the saving that brings long-term benefit. Late night Netflix? Feels good tonight, but places a burden on tomorrow — making it harder to wake up, harder to concentrate, harder to exercise discipline. Mindless email? Easier right now than facing that presentation you need to finish.

You have to pull back and think beyond your present now. What about your future now?

What use of time will be best when you consider the impact on your present self and your future self?

Invest

One way to benefit your future self is by investing your time. If you invest it well, your time today can create more time in the future.

We don’t invest time the same way we invest money.

Time cannot be physically multiplied — you get the same 24 hours each day, no matter what. But by using time today to make future activities easier or unnecessary, we gain future time.

Time we can spend on more meaningful things.

For example, a technical support person invests some time to create a template reply and makes all future replies faster or unnecessary.

Or you invest time on Sunday to prepare meals and ingredients in advance, streamlining meals throughout the week and gaining more time than you spent.

Think about your communication with other people. Are there any obvious follow-up questions you can answer? What is the end goal of the conversation, and how can you shorten the path to each that goal?

Plan a meeting :: The goal is to find a time that works for everyone. Eliminate back and forth by providing three time slots that work for you, instead of asking whether one particular time works.

Investment strategy

If your investment is successful, it will bring a return — uncommitted time at some point in the future.

Now what?

You’ve got two options: re-invest it or spend it.

Re-invest

Will you humor me an old movie reference?

In The Naughty Ninties, the comedy duo Abbott and Costello go fishing. Costello gets on a hot streak. But each time he catches a fish, he throws it back, using the new fish as bait for a larger fish. And it works. Each fish is bigger than the last, until finally Costello gets yanked overboard.

You can do the same thing with the time you get back from investments.

Throw it back. Catch a bigger fish.

Re-investing leverages the power of compound interest and will pay huge dividends down the road.

The more you invest, the more you will have available to invest.

Spend

But, like money you gain from a successful investment, the time can also be spent.

Spending is a broad, catch-all category.

You can spend time on family. A hobby. Exercise. A side project. Community service. A new skill. Prayer. Entertainment. Rest.

The list is literally endless — as long as your imagination.

Anything you might want to do in life requires time. The key question is what things matter most to you?

What sparks joy in you? What kind of person do you want to be? What dent do you want your life to leave behind?

This is the real motivation behind investing time — so you can have more of it for these things.

Means vs Ends

Accumulating a huge bank of time is not the goal.

Saving money in and of itself is not good. The true value of money comes from what you can do with it — buy things, give to others, protect against potential disaster, etc.

Like money, the value of time comes from how you use it. Time is a means to the end of [fill in the blank].

The goal is to gain more time for the things that matter most.

Re-investing is an amazing strategy that can generate a lot of free time. But it should be a temporary strategy, not a carousel you ride forever.

Invest, create time, then spend the time.

Also, re-investing and spending are not mutually exclusive. Meal-planning could mean more house-cleaning and more conversation with your spouse.

Ideas

Here are some suggestions to get you started and spark your own time investment ideas.