INVEST: DECIDE WHERE YOUR TIME WILL GO

“Your result enables you to identify the activities that will produce it.” — Benson Agbortogo

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time…” — Ephesians 5:15–16 (ESV)

You have established your TARGET.

You know the measurable result you want to produce.

Now comes the next question:

WHAT ACTIVITIES AND TIME INVESTMENTS ARE MOST LIKELY TO PRODUCE THE RESULT?

This is where planning moves from destination to execution.

A TARGET tells you where you are going.

But knowing your destination does not automatically get you there.

You must decide where your time will go.

That is INVEST, the second process in the TIME Multiplier Framework.

Your Result Should Determine Your Activities

Many business leaders plan backward.

They begin with activities:

“We need to make more sales calls.”
“We need to have more meetings.”
“We need to post more on social media.”
“We need to improve our processes.”

But before deciding what you should do, establish what you are trying to produce.

Suppose your weekly TARGET is: Add 10 fully qualified prospects to the sales pipeline.

Now you can ask: What activities are most likely to produce those 10 qualified prospects?

Perhaps you need to research potential prospects. Perhaps you need to qualify them against specific criteria. Perhaps you need to conduct direct outreach. Perhaps you need to follow up with existing opportunities.

The result gives you a filter for deciding which activities deserve your time.

That is why TARGET comes before INVEST.

Your result determines where your time should be invested.

Not Everything That Demands Your Time Deserves Your Time

This is one of the greatest challenges facing business leaders.

There will always be something demanding your attention: emails, meetings, phone calls, employee questions, customer problems, notifications, and administrative tasks.

All of them may appear urgent. But urgency and value are not the same thing.

“Not everything that demands your time deserves your time.” — Benson Agbortogo

The question is not simply: What needs to be done?

The better question is: What activities are most likely to produce the result we have decided matters?

That distinction moves you from spending time to investing time.

A time spender reacts to what demands attention. A time investor intentionally allocates time to activities expected to produce a return.

Identify Your Daily Multiplier Activity

Once you identify the activities most likely to produce your TARGET, determine which of them requires daily consistency.

We call this your Daily Multiplier Activity (DMA).

Your DMA is a high-value activity worth doing consistently because it increases the probability of producing your TARGET.

For example:

TARGET: Add 10 qualified prospects to the pipeline this week.

DMA: Spend 30 minutes each day researching and qualifying prospects.

Notice the difference.

“Prospecting” is simply an activity. “Spend 30 minutes each day researching and qualifying prospects” is a time investment commitment.

You have identified both what you will do and how much time you will invest doing it.

Ask yourself: What activity, if consistently performed each day, would increase the probability of achieving my TARGET?

That may be your DMA.

Identify Your Weekly Multiplier Activities

Not every important activity needs to happen every day.

Some activities require a concentrated block of time once or twice each week.

We call these Weekly Multiplier Activities (WMAs).

Continuing our example:

TARGET: Add 10 qualified prospects to the pipeline this week.

DMA: Research and qualify prospects — 30 minutes per day.

WMA #1: Build the preliminary prospect list — 60 minutes per week.

WMA #2: Review qualified prospects and update the pipeline — 30 minutes per week.

Now your weekly execution plan is becoming clear.

You know the result. You know the daily activity. You know the weekly activities.

But there is still one critical step.

Give Every Priority a Time Budget

“A priority without a time budget is still competing with everything else.” — Benson Agbortogo

We understand budgeting when it comes to money. If you have $10,000 available, you decide where that capital should go. Marketing receives an allocation. Payroll receives an allocation. Equipment receives an allocation. Operations receives an allocation.

Why should your time be treated differently?

Time is capital. And unlike money, the time available to you today cannot be stored for tomorrow.

If an activity matters enough to help produce your TARGET, determine how much of your time capital you are willing to invest in it.

Don’t simply write: Prospecting. Determine: 30 minutes per day, five days per week.

Don’t simply write: Review sales pipeline. Determine: 30 minutes every Friday.

Your priority now has a budget.

Put Your Time Investments on the Calendar

A time budget tells you how much time you intend to invest. Your calendar determines when you will invest it.

This is where intentions become appointments.

“Your calendar reveals where you have decided to invest your time.” — Benson Agbortogo

Open your calendar.

Schedule your DMA as a recurring appointment on the days you intend to perform it. Schedule each WMA on a specific day at a specific time.

If your DMA requires 30 minutes, reserve 30 minutes. If your WMA requires 60 minutes, reserve 60 minutes.

Name the appointment based on the actual investment: Research and Qualify Prospects rather than Work on Sales.

Specific appointments make execution clearer.

Your calendar should not merely record where other people want your time. It should reveal where you have intentionally decided to invest your time.

Protect the Investment

Scheduling the activity is not enough. You must protect the appointment.

“Scheduling your priorities is the beginning. Protecting them produces consistency.” — Benson Agbortogo

Urgent requests will appear. Meetings will be proposed. Emails will arrive. Problems will surface.

If every urgent demand is allowed to displace your highest-value activities, your TARGET may remain important in theory but unsupported by your calendar.

Treat your scheduled Multiplier Activities as investments.

If an appointment genuinely must move, reschedule it rather than simply deleting it.

You are not protecting an arbitrary block of time. You are protecting the activity you determined was most likely to produce your desired result.

Stop Asking, “Do I Have Time?”

There is a subtle but important shift that occurs when you begin treating time as capital.

Instead of asking: “Do I have time to do this?”

Ask: “How much time am I willing to invest to produce this result?”

The first question makes your priorities compete for whatever time happens to remain. The second intentionally allocates time to them.

You don’t find time for your priorities.

You invest time in your priorities.

Turn Your TARGET Into a Time Investment Plan

Take the measurable TARGET you established and complete this simple exercise:

MY TARGET
I will ______________________________________________.
By __________________.

MY DAILY MULTIPLIER ACTIVITY (DMA)
The activity I will consistently perform each day:
______________________________________________.
Time Budget: ______ minutes × ______ days per week.

MY WEEKLY MULTIPLIER ACTIVITY #1
______________________________________________.
Time Budget: ______ minutes per week.

MY WEEKLY MULTIPLIER ACTIVITY #2
______________________________________________.
Time Budget: ______ minutes per week.

Now calculate:

Total Weekly Budgeted Time = DMA Time + WMA #1 Time + WMA #2 Time

Then open your calendar and schedule those investments.

Your Calendar Is Your Time Investment Plan

This is where the TIME Multiplier moves from an idea into execution.

TARGET: What measurable result are you pursuing?

INVEST: What activities and time investments are most likely to produce the result?

Once you have answered both questions, you have connected the result you want with the time you are willing to invest to produce it.

Now you can execute.

But at the end of the week, another question becomes necessary:

Did I actually invest the time I committed to invest?

That brings us to the next process in the TIME Multiplier Framework: MEASURE.

Because you cannot consistently improve an investment you are unwilling to measure.

THIS WEEK’S ACTION

Look at your TARGET and identify:

1 Daily Multiplier Activity

Up to 2 Weekly Multiplier Activities

Then:

Budget the time.

Put the time on your calendar.

Protect the appointments.

Your desired result should determine your activities.

Your activities should determine your time investments.

And your time investments should appear on your calendar.

Stop Managing Time. Start Investing It.

Benson Agbortogo, MBA

Founder | The Currency of Time | Chief Consistency Officer