Do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of.

Return on investment (ROI) is a term you hear frequently, usually in relation to business and finance. The goal (obviously) is to maximize return on the money you invest. The implications of this concept go much deeper when you start to think of time as your primary investment rather than money. Everything you do is an investment of time. When you watch television, you’re making an investment in entertainment. If you watch a show that sucks, you’ve made a bad investment and receive a poor return for your time.

In many ways time is more valuable than money. You’ll always have the opportunity to make more money, but once time has been spent it’s gone forever. When you think of time as a commodity, and all of your actions as investments, it changes the way you approach every day decisions.

We spend time in many different ways: working, eating, sleep, exercise, entertainment, etc. All of these things are important. When we start investing too heavily in one area and not enough in another we create problems for ourselves. The key is investing our time in a manner that perfectly balances each of these areas and forms a productive and pleasurable life.

Deciding how to invest our time is a formidable task. Unlike business, there are no percentages or spreadsheets to reference. We have to rely on experience and intuition. I’m far from a master at this, but these are a few principals I use to guide my decision making.

1. Look for Multiple Positives
A multiple positive is an activity that generates a positive return in more than one area. These are great for ROI because they multiply returns and incur fewer losses. One of my best multiple positives is working on this website. It’s something that I find extremely entertaining, it contributes to a small (but steadily growing) stream of income, and it develops skills that I’ll be able to use the rest of my life like writing, web design, and networking.

Every individual will have different multiple positives, the important part is finding ones that work for you. A multiple positive for a software developer might be working on open source or a personal project. It can even be as simple as playing basketball, a fun game that’s also great exercise. The key to finding multiple positives is finding areas where different positive actions intersect. If I can find a way to get paid to eat delicious food I’ll be golden.

2. Avoid Multiple Negatives
Multiple negatives are the same as multiple positives, except the complete opposite. These are activities that detract from multiple areas of life. One of my favorite weaknesses is going out drinking. This hurts me in three ways: the time spent isn’t productive, drinks are expensive, and the effect of staying up late and being hungover usually ruins the following day. If I don’t have a good time, this is basically the worst possible scenario.

I’m not saying you should never go out and have a good time. To be happy we need socialization and excitement. My point is that we should always try to minimize the negative impact of our actions. I try to do this by minimizing the amount I drink and only going out when I know it will be enjoyable. Often we get caught in a pattern of poor investment. Over time, the benefits fade away and what remains is mostly negative, but we keep doing it out of habit. This can be avoided by periodically analyzing our behavior. Is it still a good investment, or is it time to make a change?

3. Utilize the Power of Compounding
I’m sure that everyone reading this understands the power of compound interest. When you invest money you earn interest. Then you start earning interest on the money you earned from interest. Over many years this continues to compound and eventually leads to a very large sum of money. The same concept applies to time. If you invest time by working hard when you’re young, you put yourself in a position to succeed that will continue compounding for the rest of your life. If you waste time when you’re young, you can’t make up for it later because you’ve lost the opportunity to utilize the power compounding.

Many people my age fail realize this, in fact I didn’t, or at least I didn’t act on it, until fairly recently. The primary reason is that we’re trapped in the childish mindset. As a child, your only responsibility is entertaining yourself. You needn’t worry about investing your time because Mommy and Daddy are there to take care of you and they’re usually happy as long as you stay out of trouble. These days many young adults ride the childish mindset straight through college. After graduation we’re expected to adopt the adult mindset (and the responsibility of investing our time) instantaneously. A lot of people don’t get it, and every year they waste trying to extend the college days is an opportunity that can never be replaced.

Many people think their time isn’t valuable when they aren’t working, so they throw it away on activities that have a poor return on investment and don’t build for the future. The truth is, no one else is going to consider your time valuable until you do. If you want to acquire the wealth that will provide the freedom to live your ideal lifestyle, start thinking of every decision as an investment. Nothing is insignificant.

One mental model that can help you make better decisions is imagining that your life is a corporation and you’re the only employee. If you were the CEO of John Doe Incorporated, and were obliged to maximize profit on behalf of investors, what would you make yourself do? You’ll find that this sort of analysis simplifies many decisions and increases return on investment.

不要浪費(fèi)時(shí)間，因?yàn)檫@是生命的組成。

你經(jīng)常聽(tīng)到投資回報(bào)率（ ROI ）這個(gè)詞，通常與商業(yè)和金融有關(guān)。目標(biāo)（顯然）是對(duì)你投資的錢(qián)獲得最大限度的回報(bào)。當(dāng)你開(kāi)始考慮把時(shí)間而不是金錢(qián)作為一種投資時(shí)，這個(gè)概念更深刻。

看電視，你是在為娛樂(lè)投資，如果沉迷于電視劇，你的投資就不明智，對(duì)你付出的時(shí)間的回報(bào)的收獲就少。

很多時(shí)候，時(shí)間投資比金錢(qián)投資更有價(jià)值。掙錢(qián)總是有機(jī)會(huì)的，但是時(shí)間一去不復(fù)返。把時(shí)間看作商品，你所有的行動(dòng)都是投資，它會(huì)改變你每天的決定。

我們花費(fèi)時(shí)間的方式多種多樣：工作，吃飯，睡覺(jué)，鍛煉，娛樂(lè)等等，這些事情都很重要。當(dāng)我們?cè)谝粋�(gè)領(lǐng)域投入過(guò)多時(shí)，別的地方就會(huì)不足，我們就會(huì)給自己找麻煩。我們投資時(shí)間的關(guān)鍵就是以一種平衡的方式，在每一領(lǐng)域，形成一種能產(chǎn)生回報(bào)的，快樂(lè)的生活。

決定如何投資時(shí)間是一個(gè)艱難的任務(wù)。不像做生意，有百分率或電子表格參考。我們只能依靠經(jīng)驗(yàn)和直覺(jué)。這方面我也不是個(gè)專(zhuān)家，但是我有幾點(diǎn)用來(lái)指導(dǎo)我的決定的原則。

1.尋找多重肯定

多重肯定是一種積極的活動(dòng)，能在多個(gè)領(lǐng)域產(chǎn)生積極的回報(bào)。因?yàn)槎啾痘貓?bào)，損失很小，這種回報(bào)率就很大。我最大的多重回報(bào)之一就是在網(wǎng)站工作。我也感到非常愉快，盡管收入不多（但還是逐漸增加的），開(kāi)發(fā)了技能，我今后的生活還能用上比如寫(xiě)作，網(wǎng)頁(yè)設(shè)計(jì)以及網(wǎng)絡(luò)工作。

每個(gè)人都會(huì)有不同的多重肯定，重要的是找到一個(gè)能為你服務(wù)的。軟件開(kāi)發(fā)商的多重回報(bào)可能是在一個(gè)公開(kāi)資源的工作或個(gè)人事業(yè)。這就如同打籃球一樣簡(jiǎn)單，有趣的游戲也是一種很好的鍛煉。找到多重肯定的關(guān)鍵是找到一個(gè)不同肯定活動(dòng)的興趣領(lǐng)域。

如果我找到一種能享受美食又能有收入的方法，我就是很快樂(lè)。

2.避免多重否定

除了結(jié)果是相反的，多重否定如同多重肯定一樣。這些活動(dòng)會(huì)降低生活的各個(gè)領(lǐng)域。我最大的弱點(diǎn)之一就是喜歡出去喝酒。這對(duì)我有三種壞處：付出的時(shí)間沒(méi)有回報(bào)，酒錢(qián)很貴，很晚才睡，酩酊大醉通常會(huì)影響第二天。如果我沒(méi)有盡興，這就是最糟糕的情形。

我不是說(shuō)你不應(yīng)該外出痛飲，盡情玩樂(lè)。要幸福，我們需要社會(huì)化的活動(dòng)和刺激。我的觀(guān)點(diǎn)是我們應(yīng)該將這種行動(dòng)的負(fù)面影響最小化。我試著通過(guò)花最少的錢(qián)飲酒，只是在我覺(jué)得高興的時(shí)候才出去。通常我們陷入這樣一種模式，沒(méi)有好處，最壞的否定，但是我們改不了。經(jīng)常分析一下我們的行為就能夠避免。仍然是個(gè)好的投資還是該做個(gè)改變的時(shí)候了？

3.運(yùn)用綜合力量

我相信每個(gè)人讀到這里都會(huì)明白綜合投資。投資金錢(qián)能獲利。然后在從獲利中掙錢(qián)。多年以后最終就會(huì)有一大筆錢(qián)。應(yīng)用于時(shí)間投資也是如此。如果年輕時(shí)努力工作，你就會(huì)把自己放在一個(gè)成功的位置上，就會(huì)給你的余生帶來(lái)綜合的回報(bào)。如果年輕時(shí)浪費(fèi)時(shí)間，后來(lái)就要去彌補(bǔ)，因?yàn)槟闶�去了運(yùn)用綜合力量的機(jī)會(huì)。

很多人到了我這個(gè)年紀(jì) 還沒(méi)有意識(shí)到，實(shí)際上我也如此，或者至少還沒(méi)有采取行動(dòng)，直到最近。主要的原因是我們還有幼稚的的思維模式。小時(shí)候，你唯一的責(zé)任就是好好玩，不必?fù)?dān)心投資時(shí)間，因?yàn)橛懈改刚疹櫮�，只要你平安無(wú)事他們就會(huì)高興。如今，這些剛剛步入成年人行列的年輕人將這種有幼稚的思維模式直接帶進(jìn)了大學(xué)。畢業(yè)后，我們立即接受成年人的思維模式，（要為我們的時(shí)間投資負(fù)責(zé)）。許多人不得要領(lǐng)，每天還徒勞的試圖延伸大學(xué)的生活，這是無(wú)法代替的。

很多人認(rèn)為，工作的時(shí)間并不寶貴，因此他們隨意浪費(fèi)，回報(bào)很少，不能建設(shè)美好的未來(lái)。事實(shí)上，只有當(dāng)你需要時(shí)是才知道時(shí)間的價(jià)值。如果你想獲得財(cái)富，過(guò)你想要的理想的生活方式，現(xiàn)在就開(kāi)始做出每個(gè)決定時(shí)都看作一種投資。

任何事都很重要。

一種好的思維模式有助于你更好的做決定。想一想，你的生活就是一個(gè)公司，你是唯一的雇員。如果你是某個(gè)公公司的CEO,站在投資者的立場(chǎng)上，不得不最大化公司的盈利，你該如何做？你會(huì)覺(jué)得這種分析簡(jiǎn)單化了很多決定，提高了投資回報(bào)