time management tip # 4 the value of time

One of the simplest time management tips I can offer you is to simply understand the value of time.

Nearly every client I work with overlooks just how powerful time can be and just what we can do using what some people call the 8th wonder of the world – compound interest.

In this case though I’m not referring to money but that of the compounding effect of time.

So why is understanding time so useful? Because when we realize the true value of something, we see it in a new light. We attach a different meaning to it.

There are times in our lives when we neglect our health, our family, our friends and even our own dreams.

The only reason we choose to neglect something is because we don’t place much value on it or place a higher value on something else which then occupies our thoughts.

So just how valuable is your time?

For some an hour might be worth a few bucks while for others it’s worth much much more.

Answering these questions might give you a new perspective on time:

• How much would it take to give away one of your weekends?
• What about X-Mas day?
• What about your kids’ graduation day?

While each day holds the same 24 hours, the value of those hours differs greatly.

How valuable each day is is determined by us.

There is also a strange paradox that exists in life – when we are young we have time but no money. But as we get older the reverse is true – we have money but no time.

George Bernard Shaw once said, “Youth is often wasted on the young” and the older I get, the truer I find this becomes.

As a child I wasted more hours than I care to mention on TV and video games. Why didn’t I choose to study a foreign language? or pick up a new skill?

Because I didn’t understand just how valuable time was and how little of it we have. Now I do.

And I hope that you do.

Adrian Shepherd