In life there are few things that you can control and learning to take charge of the way that you spend your time, money, and energy is one of the most important skills you will gain. Using these finite resources towards building the life of your dreams is even harder but you can learn how to maximize in all areas to give you the greatest return on investment (roi). So, let’s learn how to simply simplify your life!
Dealing with finite resources
With only so many hours in the day and a finite amount of time, energy and money it makes sense not to try and slice your pizza too many times. More slices doesn’t help you simplify your life at all.
Everyone is dealt a deck of cards in life some are given the gift of fortune. But everyone is given the same amount of hours in the day and a certain amount of energy to accomplish all the things that you want and need to do.
The harder part is figuring out what is worth you spending your time and energy on and what isn’t and that’s where knowing what you want helps big time!
Establishing what you want
in order to really maximise your finite resources and get the most out of them is to figure out what will give you the best return on investment (roi). But what gives you the best return on investment isn’t the same thing as what would give someone else their best return on investment. Why?
Well because everyone is different. But the simple factor that you can use to determine whether things are worth your time, energy, or money is to figure out if that activity you’re doing gives you fulfillment. What I mean here is, do you enjoy these activities you are constantly spending your time on. Do they energise you? Do you feel excited by them? Or do you feel drained?
If you can establish what you want or where you are heading then everything becomes a lot easier.
The best thing to start out knowing is where you are heading. Like every captain of a ship or pilot in a plane, the decisions made at the helm are made in the broader context to get that ship or plane to a specific destination.
So, in order for you to make the most effective decisions with your finite resources you have to have at least some idea of the things you need and want in life that will enable you to live a fulfilled and happy life. And this will inevitably lead to a simpler less complicated life where your decision making is clearer because your objectives are clearer.
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Since we’re dealing with finite resources there is the obvious issue that you can only spend it once.
Opportunity cost in life
To attempt to make progress in one area of our lives there is an opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is basically it’s an economic principle that says in order to choose X you are not choosing all the other things available.
This is best shown in an example…
Say you have 20 minutes between getting home from work and your next commitment.
You have many things that you could spend that 20 minutes doing.
You could watch 20 minutes of tv, or exercise, scan social media, cook a meal, put on a load of washing, write for 20 minutes uninterrupted. All of these tasks could be completed in that 20 minute block of time, but you can’t do them all and you can’t spend the time twice!
So which do you choose?
Another example…
The same can be said for money say you have $1000 there are plenty of things to buy that could cost that amount. But again once you’ve made your choice you can’t un-choose but also once you spend that $1000 on item X you eliminate the possibility of using that $1000 on anything else. In fact you’ll have to wait until you earn another $1000 to have the next opportunity to spend that cash and then at that point you may have even more options for how to spend that cash. This certainly doesn’t sound so simple! So how do you choose?
It makes sense then that if you have a specific amount of time, money, or energy you would want to maximize the value you are getting. Splitting up the pie gives you more slices sure. But then it takes you longer to get anywhere on one front. When you divide your own efforts into crumbs it becomes harder to see progress in the areas of life that are important to you. Essentially you begin to feed the Doubter in you because you never see any progress or if you do it’s excruciatingly slow.
So simplifying your life and cutting down the to do list helps you in several ways.
There are many benefits to simplifying your life and figuring out what matters most to you. The biggest effect that determining what is important to you is that it makes sure the things you want to accomplish get a shot at becoming a reality. Ultimately this is what makes you feel accomplished and happy, in your life.
It also helps to encourage the Doer and the Dreamer in you and it stops the Doubter from getting it’s claws into your progression and weighting you down. Because you know where you want to go, and you stop dividing your efforts into tiny micro slices you are able to see your progress in areas of your life you actually care about and that make a big difference in how fulfilled and satisfied you feel with your life.
And it creates momentum, because when you see your progress it makes you more inclined to spend more of your time and energy to accomplishing that goal. This doesn’t mean you have more time, energy or money to spend, this just means that you are spending those things wisely and consciously instead of the alternative.
The power of spending your time wisely
Often the reason we feel like we are wandering around in life with no purpose is because we don’t have a direction to channel our efforts towards. This ends up in a complicated mess of split time and effort. Once you know what your passions are it makes sense to spend the majority of your time and energy doing things you love to do when you get the choice to spend your time.
This helps enormously in all areas of decision making, to know where you are heading at least in a broad sense and know what excites you keeps your life from being complicated by things you don’t enjoy doing because let’s face it, life is short and it should be spent doing things that bring you and therefore others joy and happiness.