How to Make the Most of Time

Time is free and like most free things, we rarely attach importance to it until we get to a point where we realize how much less we have left.

Up until that point, most people spend it doing stuff that adds little to nothing to their lives.

But just like life, we don't have a second chance on time once it is lost.

Whether we do anything with the 24 hours we have today is up to us. A few months and years from now, it will be obvious how we use that precious gift to man — time.

The best thing to do with time is to invest it. Doing stuff that adds value to your life. Read, learn a skill, build relationships, learn a second language.

Once you know the value of time, you will understand there is really none to waste.

The simple tasks we fail to do now, but procrastinate on become complex tasks in the future.

Things get better with time. But not when you procrastinate on them. If you postpone what needs to be done now into the future, they rather get worse.

Learn to say no. Say it without feeling guilty. None of us has time enough to do all we should, so why waste it on irrelevant stuff?

Learning to say no is the best time management hack ever. If you haven’t learned that genius skill, please start after reading this piece.

Nothing helps you create more time than the word “No”. So learn to use it and use it often.

Here are some thoughts on the value of time. They are from some of the greatest men that have walked on this planet.

Read them, reflect on them, and most of all, apply them. That’s how to profit from them the most.

If you are set, let’s dive right in:

"It's not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?" — Henry David Thoreau

"The key is in not spending time, but in investing it." — Stephen R. Covey

"Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning." — Winston Churchill

"Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time." — Jim Rohn

"The shorter way to do many things is to only do one thing at a time." — Mozart

"Better to be three hours too soon, than a minute too late." — William Shakespeare

"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin." — Mother Teresa

"Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week’s value out of a year while another man gets a full year’s value out of a week." — Charles Richards

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." — Abraham Lincoln

"One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular." - Tony Robbins

"The common man is not concerned about the passage of time, the man of talent is driven by it." — Shoppenhauer

"Take care of the minutes and the hours will take care of themselves." - Lord Chesterfield

"Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much can be done if we are always doing." — Thomas Jefferson

"Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year - and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade!" — Tony Robbins

"To do two things at once is to do neither." — Publius Syrus

"He who knows most grieves most for wasted time." — Dante

"Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can’t afford to lose." — Thomas Edison

"Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent, and not enough time on what is important." — Steven Covey

"Your future is created by what you do today, not tomorrow." - Anonymous

"The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot." — Michael Altshuler

"The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time." — Abraham Lincoln

Final thought

The best way to make the most of our lives is by making the most of our time. And the first step is knowing the value of time.

Time is precious. Let’s treat it as such. That is how to live with lovely memories of what was done with it.

Thanks for reading.