Often we wonder why some people seem to have a constant paucity of time struggling to finish what they set out to do while others consistently seem to be able to do what they set out to do. While the former belabor the difficulties in their lives, the latter largely are on top of things. This difference is stark.
Would we all not want to be part of the second group? How do the two groups of people differ from each other?
Most of us have more demands on our time than we want to afford. We necessarily have to distribute our time, which is a scarce resource, towards all the activities that need our time.
People handle the above situation in two ways.
People who choose the first option believe that (a) every activity should be done well and (b) every activity should be given equal priority. Note that (a) and (b) are conflicting. A high focus on (b) above usually leads to a low quality of (a). Now let's see why this should be so.
Let me explain this through an example. Let's assume we have limited money and that we have two options. Option A gives 10% return and Option B gives 20% return. What would our investment strategy be? Invest equally in A & B or invest only in option B? Would we not invest only in option B? We will eliminate option A from our investment strategy, right?
Investing our time (which is another scarce resource) among various activities is no different. We have to identify all those activities which demand our time that are similar to option A above (those that give lower return on investment) and eliminate them from our (time) investment strategy.
Insofar as money is concerned we know what we expect from investing money. We look for monetary return on investment which is tangible.
When it comes to time, what is the return we expect and how do we measure it? If we didn't know the answer to this question how could we identify those activities not to do?
This is an important point. The return that we expect from our time depends on HOW we want to spend our time as well as WHAT we want to achieve. May be we want to make money and / or may be we want to devote our time towards social causes. Note that we may have a HOW as an objective as well.
Once we have identified our personal objective we will use that to decide how we spend our time. At the very least, the awareness of personal objective will help us to decide which activities we need not do. Adherence to this point helps us to maximize the return on investment of our time. And this is what separates the two groups of people which I mentioned in the beginning - those that are constantly short of time and those that constantly seem to be on top of things.
The takeaway from this is: Identify what you need NOT do. And scrupulously dont do it. It is perfectly fine, optimal for us to not do some or many things in our lives. A silly fellow is he who puts his money in every scheme that he comes across.
If you still feel that money and time are entirely different and that the same yardstick should not be applied to the two, look around and see for yourself whether the people around you who are usually on top of things do all the activities that confront them with equal vigor...
Would we all not want to be part of the second group? How do the two groups of people differ from each other?
Most of us have more demands on our time than we want to afford. We necessarily have to distribute our time, which is a scarce resource, towards all the activities that need our time.
People handle the above situation in two ways.
- Spend our scarce resources towards each of the activities (Note that I am using our time and scarce resources as synonyms) Or,
- Eliminate activities from our scope (by not doing it, by delegating to someone else / outsourcing it, by doing a shoddy job of it) after prioritizing our activities
People who choose the first option believe that (a) every activity should be done well and (b) every activity should be given equal priority. Note that (a) and (b) are conflicting. A high focus on (b) above usually leads to a low quality of (a). Now let's see why this should be so.
Let me explain this through an example. Let's assume we have limited money and that we have two options. Option A gives 10% return and Option B gives 20% return. What would our investment strategy be? Invest equally in A & B or invest only in option B? Would we not invest only in option B? We will eliminate option A from our investment strategy, right?
Investing our time (which is another scarce resource) among various activities is no different. We have to identify all those activities which demand our time that are similar to option A above (those that give lower return on investment) and eliminate them from our (time) investment strategy.
Insofar as money is concerned we know what we expect from investing money. We look for monetary return on investment which is tangible.
When it comes to time, what is the return we expect and how do we measure it? If we didn't know the answer to this question how could we identify those activities not to do?
This is an important point. The return that we expect from our time depends on HOW we want to spend our time as well as WHAT we want to achieve. May be we want to make money and / or may be we want to devote our time towards social causes. Note that we may have a HOW as an objective as well.
Once we have identified our personal objective we will use that to decide how we spend our time. At the very least, the awareness of personal objective will help us to decide which activities we need not do. Adherence to this point helps us to maximize the return on investment of our time. And this is what separates the two groups of people which I mentioned in the beginning - those that are constantly short of time and those that constantly seem to be on top of things.
The takeaway from this is: Identify what you need NOT do. And scrupulously dont do it. It is perfectly fine, optimal for us to not do some or many things in our lives. A silly fellow is he who puts his money in every scheme that he comes across.
If you still feel that money and time are entirely different and that the same yardstick should not be applied to the two, look around and see for yourself whether the people around you who are usually on top of things do all the activities that confront them with equal vigor...
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