Time is the Only Resource

Every resource is renewable except one: time.

Money? You can make more. Skills? You can learn more. Relationships? You can build more. Health? You can improve it. Energy? You can restore it.

But time? Once it's gone, it's gone forever.

This is the most important realization of my life. And it changed everything.

When you're young, time feels infinite. You have decades ahead. You can waste a year and it doesn't matter. You can spend months on the wrong thing and course-correct later.

Then you hit 30. Then 35. Then 40. And you realize: Time is not infinite. It's the scarcest resource you have.

"You have roughly 4,000 weeks in a lifetime. Maybe 2,000 productive weeks. Maybe 500 peak performance weeks."

How many have you already spent? How many do you have left?

Every decision has an opportunity cost. When you say yes to something, you're saying no to everything else.

When you spend an hour in a meeting, you're not spending that hour building. When you spend a day on low-value work, you're not spending that day on high-value work. When you spend a year on the wrong business, you're not spending that year on the right one.

"The question isn't 'Is this worth doing?' The question is 'Is this the best use of my time right now?'"

If the answer is no, don't do it. No matter how good it seems. Because good is the enemy of great.

Track your time for a week. Every hour. Every activity. Every distraction.

Then categorize it:

• →High-leverage work: Activities that create disproportionate value. Building systems. Creating assets. Strategic thinking.
• →Low-leverage work: Activities that need to happen but don't create value. Admin. Meetings. Email.
• →Waste: Activities that don't need to happen at all. Scrolling. Procrastination. Busywork.

Most people spend 10% of their time on high-leverage work, 50% on low-leverage work, and 40% on waste.

Flip that ratio. Spend 50% on high-leverage work. Delegate or eliminate the rest.

Think of time as an investment, not an expense.

Some activities have a negative ROI. You spend time and get nothing back. Scrolling social media. Watching TV. Complaining.

Some activities have a neutral ROI. You spend time and get equivalent value back. Most jobs. Most meetings. Most tasks.

Some activities have a positive ROI. You spend time and get more value back than you put in. Learning. Building systems. Creating assets.

Some activities have an exponential ROI. You spend time once and get value back forever. Writing. Building products. Creating leverage.

Optimize for exponential ROI activities. They're the only ones that compound.

Urgent things feel important. But they're usually not.

The email that needs a response now. The meeting that can't wait. The fire that needs to be put out. They all feel urgent. They all demand attention. They all steal time from what actually matters.

Important things are rarely urgent. Building a business. Developing relationships. Learning skills. Creating systems. They don't have deadlines. They don't demand attention. They're easy to postpone.

"The urgent will always crowd out the important unless you protect the important."

Time is the only resource that matters because it's the only resource you can't get back.

Every hour you spend is an investment. Every day you waste is a loss. Every year you spend in the wrong direction is a year you'll never recover.

The question isn't "What should I do?" The question is "What's the highest-leverage use of my time right now?"

Answer that question honestly. Then do that thing. And nothing else.

That's how you make the most of the only resource that matters.