"Spend the right amount of time on it in order to spend the least amount of time with it."
-Author Unknown
This quote reminds us to allocate a proper amount of time for each of our subordinate tasks (i.e. tasks that are a means to something else). We are prone to fall in one of two directions if we do not adhere to this principal.
First, we may spend more time on a task than the task actually warrants (two hours on a task that could be properly handled in 30 minutes). Many people confuse time in the office with productivity, but we know by experience that this is not true. If we persist in this practice, we will waste years of our life.
However, just as bad as spending too much time on something, is spending too little time on it. This is dangerous because too little time spent on a task will ultimately result in having to spend a great amount of time on it later on. For instance, if we do not spend enough time exercising, we will ultimately have to spend a great deal of time correcting the ill-effects we brought upon ourselves due to lack of exercise. This can be seen in any area of life- from monthly reports and work performance, to house cleaning and personal relationships.
We all are very careful in how we invest our money, but what about our time? Most would agree that time is more valuable than money. Therefore, it would make sense to be even more shrewd on our time investment than our monetary investment. This quote teaches and encourages us to be discerning in our use of time and properly allocate our hours to get the maximum "rate of return" on the time spent.
