Understanding Time 

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Time is the only thing in life we can never get back, and it is the only thing in life that we are unable to get more of no matter how much money we have.  It is the most important resource in the world.  Once it is gone, it is gone forever.  You can make more money, you can build another house, but you can never make more time.  

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How we use that time is a great separator between people.  The homeless man and the billionaire have the same twenty-four house in a day.  They just use it differently.  The billionaire might get up earlier.  He/she might stay up later.  They might know exactly what their time waster is and avoid it at all costs (looking at your Instagram...)

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The point is, they understand the importance of time and how precious it is.  Wasting time is the ultimate sin to them and they are very strict with their time.  They are able to be so strict because they prioritize what is most important to them and what will yield them the greatest return on their investment of time.  

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In Principles,  Ray Dalio, says the following:

" Maturity is the ability to reject good alternatives in order to pursue even better ones. "

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Said differently in The Joys of Compounding, Gautam Baid says:

"One of the hardest things to do in life is to avoid good opportunities so that you have time to devote to great opportunities - and having the wisdom to know the difference."

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Important of Prioritizing and Planning

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This is the importance of prioritizing and what starts to separate the truly efficient people in the world.  We all have to-do lists that are never ending.  Spoiler alert - they will be never ending until the day you die.  There will be some tasks in life, that you just never complete.  And that is okay.  As long as they aren't the most important ones to you.  

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One of my takeaways from Principles is the idea that you can have anything you want it the world.  You just can't have everything.  As an ambitious young adult in the world I wanted to continue my ascent in the professional world.  I was all ears when I heard it wasn't that hard to become a billionaire in the world.  But that was followed up with "just don't expect to win any dad of the year awards," and my hear sunk because I was also a new father.  What was most important to me?  That was the question I needed to answer and then prioritize my life around that.  Chances are, I am never going to become a billionaire, even if that was on my "to-do" list but that's ok, because being a good father is more important to me.  Not everyone is the same and I am not saying that ever billionaire is a terrible father.  I'm saying my standards as a father are very high, and for me to become a billionaire I would be sacrificing them.  

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To further my point, lets review an exercise that Warren Buffet recommended to his pilot: 

"The first was to write down his top twenty-five goals. The second was to circle the top five most important ones. Finally, he should separate the top five goals into a separate list - and put goals six through twenty-five on a "not-to-do" list. Buffett concludes by stating: "Everything you didn't circle just became your avoid at all cost list. No matter what, these things get no attention from you until you've succeeded with your top 5"

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Even the best investor in the world can't focus on twenty-five things at once.  He prioritizes, just like everyone else should.  If we do not prioritize then:

"When we chase after twenty-five things at once, that's when we run the risk of becoming a jack-of-all-trades but a master of none"

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When this happens we don't actually make progress, either.  We continue to start and work on so many different things that we can't give our attention to them and we insert and extract ourselves out of projects.  Warren argues that: 

"Spending time on secondary priorities is the reason we have twenty-five half-finished projects instead of five completed ones."

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The smartest and wealthiest people in the world prioritize and are intentional with their time.  If you came into an abundance of money, without ever having to work for it, you would likely find a financial manager to help you manage the money, and be intentional with where you put it to maximize your return on that investment.  You wouldn't just blow through it with no plan at all.  It becomes an asset that you want to see a return on.  If you were presented with an investment that would net you a twenty percent return and an investment that would net you only a ten percent return, with the same amount of risk, you would take the investment that yields the additional return.  So why would we not take the same approach with our time?  We came into an abundance of time the moment we were born, and we didn't have to work for it.  Why would we not be more intentional with that time and prioritize that time as if it was money?  

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Helpful Tools

• Books That Have Influenced My Thinking on Time Management 

  • The Joys of Compounding -- Gautam Baid 

  • Principles -- Ray Dalio 

  • Getting Things Done -- David Allen 

  • Building a Second Brain -- Tiago Forte 

• To learn how I currently manage my time click here

• Click here to see and read my blog posts about this subject ​​​