We all need returns on our investments. Return on Investment (ROI) isn’t just a term for financial purposes any longer. Betty Liu, Bloomberg Television anchor gives it a little twist, in her recent article, “4 Weird Time Saving Habits of Highly Successful People”.
Betty reports on RTI – Return on Time Invested. “But it brings up a great way to look at your valuable time: What is the return? I call it “RTI”: return on time invested. If you feel like the return is worth less than the time you put into an activity or event, don’t do it. I’ve heard of CEOs who don’t watch sports or others who never go to parties because they find the RTI to be too low–or in other words, time wasters. So be picky about where you spend your time and look for those things with a high RTI.
This 4th “weird time saving habit” serves as a great reminder for all of us to not only how to SAVE time, but how to best USE our precious time.
We are born with limited time and nowhere on this earth can you buy more. Don’t waste it on losing investments – financially, emotionally, or personally.
When I thought about this I reflected on how much precious time I’ve wasted. Let’s take a little time inventory.
Return Investment on your Time
How much benefit are you getting from your emotional output? Time spent with family and/or friends – are you nourished, uplifted, laughing or are you drained, tired, and spent? Do you find yourself genuinely interested or politely hurry to hang up the phone? Time well spent?
How much benefit are you getting from your religious output? Do you find meaning and personal connection with your religious service? When I really paid attention one Sunday I noticed people disengaged (one lady making a grocery list), music like fingernails scratching on the chalkboard while the priest droned on about his travels overseas. Time well spent?
We can ask these questions on many different activities, supporting sporting events, reading books, attending social affairs, participating in business meetings, engaging on social media, etc. Am I getting the most out of my time spent?
I realize that it’s not always about what I get out of it, (that would throw a lot of guilt about being selfish) but sometimes the hard question needs to be asked.
Challenge: make a list of all your activities for the week and on a scale of 1 to 10 rank them as to the benefits that you received. You can physically eyeball the quality of your time spent and answer the all-important question, “ How does this serve me?”
You may want to alter how you allocate some of you precious time. Are you investing enough time with loving family and friend? Have you carved out regular time for spiritual exercise, physical exercise and just plain fun?
We only have this one life, with so many allotted years, weeks, days and minutes. It would be helpful to know exactly how much time we actually do have, but we don’t.
We don’t want to lie on our deathbeds regretting that we wasted so many of our precious minutes on activities and people that did not help fulfill our journey with joy and love. Invest in your happiness and it will pay off with big returns.
What “time investing” tips have worked for you?
