Greetings my good friends. I trust your plans for the New Year is moving as planned. If yes, continue to invest your time, energy and resources to it. If no, how about considering adding more time to it. Alternatively, consider re-evaluating your plan. This is because you can’t be doing the same thing every time and expect a different result. Since we are in the month of January, I have decided to dedicate this month to planning and executing for the remaining eleven months ahead. According to Abraham Lincoln, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first fours sharpening the axe’. To relate this quote to our topic, in order to achieve real success, before the end of the year, you must spend quality time planning. You can do this by using the 80/20 rule.

We shall be discussing about the value of time and how it can make a tremendous impact on our individual lives, family, relationship, business and life in general. The article will end with an inspiring quote to keep you engaged.  This article explains how to figure out what your time is worth and how you use that information to spend your time more effectively. Understanding how to get the most out of your time starts with knowing—in exact terms—what your time is worth.

It’s quite unfortunate many people don’t utilize the proper use of their time. During the course of our journey in life, we may have wasted or negligently used out time either during our teenage or youthful years. Even as adults, some of us have wasted a huge amount of time in different ways which can be investing in wrong associations, causes, business, relationship, academic or even in oneself. A word of advice, never you be hard on yourself. What matters is, if you have learned from your mistakes.

It’s instructive to note that there’s no short cut to any place worth going, you must invest your time and resources for any project you have in mind. We only create time for what we desire, otherwise, we’ll have an excuse, and this is because nothing is as powerful as we make them to be, if it’s important, you’ll definitely make out the time for it.

In order for you to reap the fruits of your labor, you must be passionate about your cause. Your passion is what gives you the energy to invest your time and resources into it. If you want to know more about a person, check what he/she spends time on. There must be a reason behind every action. Let’s say, you want to be a president of a country, it’s only natural for you to intern with politicians or organizations of interest; join a political party and become engaged in social-political affairs before contesting for an elective position. The same ideology is applicable if you are interested in becoming a doctor or an attorney, professor, athlete or an artist. You must definitely involve your time in knowing as much as possible. According to Benjamin Franklin “If passion drives you, let reasons hold the reigns”.

In the journey of life, time is very relative, you must know what you want to achieve. Time can make a big difference in the life of a rational and progressive mind if properly utilized. People who spend their time doing more profitable work make more money. People who spend their time investing in others build better relationships. Time is like a computer, its garbage in garbage out. You get what you invest.

Whether you want more wealth, more friendship, more freedom, more health or more impact, it all comes down to how you spend and value your time. But you can’t have everything at once, so you need to understand how to effectively manage the trade-offs that you face on a day-to-day basis.

If you have difficulty in knowing your worth of your time or how much to charge for a business, here is a guide or insight to have at the back of your mind. The first step is to measure the total amount of time you invest to earn money, not just the hours you are physically at work. For example, if you spend one hour commuting to work each day and eight hours at work, then it cost you nine hours to earn money that day. Similarly, you should add in any time you spent working on a side hustle or dropping your kids off at daycare. When I was in New York Law School studying Taxation Law as a graduate student, I took a class titled “Problem of Timing” and I can vividly remember my professor saying “a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow”. This is so true if you are to calculate the time value of money. You may want to consult your accountant to understand this philosophy.

Time is truly relative if you truly want to compare it with other components of life. For example, in a relationship, if you really want to commit to it, you must spend quality time with your other partner, children or family to get the best out of it. It’s quite unfortunate some people spend more time working to the detriment of their family. A rule of thumb: Never you be too busy for your family and friends. Time is also like communication, if you don’t commit to it, it dies a natural death. So, therefore, it’s really important for you to define what you truly want and then spend quality time on it.

Finally, time is very precious to all of us. Always value and respect the importance of time. ‘Time is the most valuable thing on this earth”; nothing can be compared with it. Once it goes, never be back.  It may destroy a lazy person as well as strengthen a hard working person.

In conclusion, always learn from the mistakes of others as well as to get inspired from the success of others by investing quality time to learn what they did.

We shall end this article with some quotes on time to inspire and assist you in knowing what truly matters to you and how you can leverage on time to succeed in whatever productive venture you are aiming.

 “A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work”. Colin Powell.

“Time is free, but it’s priceless, you can’t own it, but you can use it, you can’t keep it, but you can spend it, once you’ve lost it, you can never get it back.”  ― Harvey MacKay

 “Lots of people wait around “for the right time”. People don’t know that there is no such thing as the right time. Time is never right nor wrong. The only negative factor of time is that you can lose it and the only positive factor of time is that you can seize it.”  ― C. JoyBell C.

“People who know the value of time are always doing something valuable with their time.”  ― Sunday Adelaja, 

No man can achieve success if he didn’t first know the value of time.”  ― Sunday Adelaja,

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with New York City Department of Correction as the legal Coordinator. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design Your Destiny – Actualizing Your Birthright To Success.