Redefining Productivity for Greater Success - Time is a Limited Resource and Needs to Be Invested Wisely

How do you invest time for best ROI?

One of 6 tenants to productivity being "efficiently working at effectively achieving desired results" is how time is a limited resource and needs to be invested wisely. Last month, I looked at what it really means to "be productive" or "boost productivity"; today, I'll do the first of 6 deep dives into specifics for redefining productivity to achieve greater success, looking at our limited resource of time.

Each day offers only 1,440 minutes while each week is made of no more than 168 hours. As any clock keeps tick, tick, ticking away, time stops for no one and nothing. We cannot create more time, and, once any amount of time has passed, it cannot be lived again.

Whether the resource being invested is money or time, there is always a measurable return. A financial advisor will talk with you about investing your money so that it can grow and make you more money. As a productivity consultant, I talk with you about investing your time to get a slightly different return on that investment; how you invest your limited resource of time will determine how well you achieve your goals, and the actions in which you invest your time reflect what are truly your priorities.

Next week, in the second installment of this blog series, I'll follow that train of thought further, looking at the importance of aligning our actions with our priorities; meanwhile, in considering wisely investing our limited resource of time, there is one mantra to keep in mind: Saying yes to doing something means saying no to anything else using that time. It's not possible to be in two places at the same time, and no moment can be lived twice.

One of the greatest compliments I have ever received was when a client told me, "I never realized how valuable 15 minutes could be until I started working with you." We can improve only what we measure, and we must know how we are investing our time in order to invest it better. Therefore, if you are struggling to grasp how much time different tasks take or how you are currently investing your time, take action... Set a timer to see how long common actions take you to complete. Further, keep a time journal for at least a week to track how you are spending all your time.

How keenly aware are you of the limitations on your time? What steps do you take to make sure that time is invested wisely?