How to Become Productive by Using the Principles of Investment

I’m certainly no financial guru, but I do, of course, understand the idea that investing money is using money earned to make more money. You take your cash and sacrifice it to the investing gods in the hopes of making a return on your investment, instead of splurging on a new iPhone.

Good productivity is the same. Time saved and squandered isn’t time saved. When you learn productivity techniques by reading sites like Lifehack or books on the topic, and you apply the principles to save more time and get more done, you’ll probably feel great relief at first.

But after a while, it doesn’t feel like such a relief. You’re getting more done, sure, and you’ve got a bit more time at the end of the day… but what you really wanted to do was get rid of the never-ending chaos. The constant deadlines. You didn’t really want another hour at the end of the day. You wanted the feeling of freedom.

If you make $100,000 in a month and spend it all, you’re not rich. If you save 23 hours of your 24 hour day and sleep for every single minute you saved, you’re not wealthy in time either. To create that feeling of freedom you have to start investing your saved time in creating even more time, because the sense of freedom comes from relieving the pressure of having to do something right now.

How the Heck Do You Invest Your Time?

By the time this article goes up, it won’t be fresh in my mind. I won’t remember, line for line, what I said. I’ll know the essence of the piece, but to have a clear recall of it, I’ll need to read it again.

That’s because I wrote this article, and many of the other posts that you see here, quite some time before it was published. I sat down and wrote this one and a whole bunch of others in one sitting. I used a slew of time management and saving techniques to get extra work done and free up an entire afternoon of my time so I could focus on nothing but writing articles for this site.

First, I earned saved time (comparable to bringing home a paycheck). Then, I invested that time freeing up even more time (like putting that paycheck in a high-interest account). Now, I don’t have to worry about writing for the blog for a while.

I did this so I could focus on an increasing workload and satisfy a bunch of clients, so I wasn’t really “investing” my time in order to take the pressure off my shoulders. Make no mistake, it can help you achieve that - it’s just not why I did this time.

When you save a bunch of your time, do you squander it by eating Doritos and sitting in front of the television, or do you invest your time in getting even further ahead of the tidal wave of work?

A Note on Taking Breaks and Having a Life

When I wrote this I was expecting that someone would pipe up in the comments and say, “Sitting in front of the television isn’t squandering time! We all need a break!”

I’m working on the premise that your reason for learning productivity and saving time in the first place was not merely to make enough time for recreation. It’s an important part of life and there’s no way to be productive without taking time out, no matter how busy you are. So, in this post, I’m assuming that you do take time off to recoup and that you’re not squandering time saved on making even more recreation time. That would be practically purpose-defeating.

If you are not taking time off to relax, then you’re not going to be productive, period. Drop a client or some business activity and force yourself to spend that time enjoying yourself. Your remaining clients will reach deeper into their pockets for the far superior work you are now able to provide.

Just a Quick Note…

My first article at a new gig has just been published. Check out the AudioJungle blog, where I’ll be writing articles for musicians once a week. AudioJungle is run by the guys who brought you FreelanceSwitch and FlashDen, and is a marketplace for high quality audio stock.

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