Don’t Waste Time Asking “What Do I Do Now?”

Don’t Waste Time Asking “What Do I Do Now?”

October 28, 2018 · by · in Uncategorized

Time can be used for a variety of activities.

 

Over time, money can be spent, depreciated, or invested for a return.

 

Over the past few years, unplanned situations have lead me to ask “What do I do now?” for both time and money.

  • What’s the best thing for me to do for the next 3 hours?

  • What should I do with this $300?

 

I’ve asked this question so many times that it seems to me that setting a default answer to the question would be beneficial, and help waste less time figuring out what to do every time you ask that question.

 

Time Investment

 

A default use of time is one of those ‘Important but not Urgent’ activities that has no impending deadline, can be broken into bite-sized chunks that fit into downtime, and that you enjoy.

 

  • Learning a Foreign Language

  • Understanding Financial Terms life LIFO, FIFO, and NOI

  • Building an Extensive Network

  • Building a Following on Social Media

 

Learning a foreign language (German) is my ‘Default’ time investment.

 

Skimming a few vocabulary words, reading Investopedia definitions, sending connection requests on LinkedIn, or re-posting cool social content… these activities can take as little as 30 seconds or fill hours of time.

 

Money Investment

 

Once you have baseline liquidity for emergencies, put dead money to work in a ‘default investment’ that you’ve vetted and that seems fairly low-risk, earns a return of some kind, and requires no effort to invest in.

 

For me, this is British Petroleum stock with a 5% dividend. I’ll put money here instead of in a bank account where it earns nothing and loses value.

 

Setting A Higher Benchmark For Your Time And Money

 

Pre-determined ‘default’ uses for time and money brings the value of all your resources above the true default, 0.

 

All your time is spent at least learning, and all your money earns at least a 5% return.

 

The main benefits are clear. You will actually speak German in a few years and you will have dividends to spend each quarter.

 

A fringe benefit is that you begin to value all your time and money more, as ‘chill time’ is an investment in relaxation and money in the bank is an investment in liquidity for the unexpected.

 

There is no perfect way to spend your time or invest your money but you can at least bring your default value above ‘0’ by answering the question “What should I do?” in advance, perhaps right now.