Find Effectiveness and Purpose: The Value Exchange Assessment

Time is our most valuable resource, which is a phrase you’ve probably heard before. The truth is that to be able to develop our full potential in daily life we have to master effectiveness, and that requires the wise and purposeful use of our time.

Effective time management is the art of extracting true purpose from all moments in life. To discover more purpose in life, we have to start thinking, behaving and being more purposeful.

Purpose is a reason something exists or why something is done or created. To understand if something has a purpose it is beneficial to develop awareness of the correlation between the resource exchange and the perceived or expected value to be gained.

Heading to the shop and handing over a hundred-dollar note in return for nothing would be somewhat purposeless. Giving that same note to a beggar on the street, a charity organization or to purchase a new pair of shoes may be considered a purposeful exchange. Money is exchanged in return for a product, service or experience that may lead to some psychological benefit.

Whether tangible or intangible the value of the exchange must be perceived fair to all parties involved. External parties do not need to see fair value in an exchange, and this shouldn’t matter unless the exchange indirectly affects them in some way.

For example, people with a higher degree of compassion may intervene when they witness or perceive an exchange that results in one party experiencing misfortune or suffering. Often such exchanges can be witnessed in our daily lives, exchanges that we really wouldn’t wish to experience ourselves.

Effectiveness results from the purposeful utilization of our resources. The one resource that we all have available to exchange is time. However, as we all know, time is limited. We cannot get more of it. For this reason, time is our most valuable resource. From an external perspective, this may not appear to be the case.

Many of us spend a great deal of our time thinking and doing things that don’t have much purpose. Becoming aware of what we value and what matters in life is a great way to start thinking and acting with greater purpose.

Simply being more mindful and present will allow us to better appreciate each moment with more clarity and importance. In doing so, we are likely to spend our time in such a way that holds more value and meaning to our lives. We become more purposeful.

A way to live a life without purpose, without meaning, without fulfillment or happiness is to be unaware of how well we use our time and not carelessly using our time. When we become clear on our vision as to how we wish to be in life, we can then act with better intent to help us in our journey towards that destination.

This will assist us to do what is necessary for effectively creating the life we desire while also helping us remove all that is unnecessary. The lives that many of us live are filled with so much clutter and waste it’s little wonder why many of us feel a lacking of purpose.

You’ve no doubt heard the case that it’s not about working harder; it’s about working smarter. This statement carries some profound truth. We can easily find ourselves busy running from one task to the next, but if each task lacks purpose or results in minimal or no gain time is wasted.

Pareto’s principle states that 20% of the invested input is responsible for 80% of the results obtained. Which means 80% of our input is responsible for only 20% of the gain. If we were smart, we would do more of that which is responsible for the largest results and reduce that which is of little value. That would be a purposeful utilization of our time resource.

This is precisely where I started. I began to look at all the things that cluttered my daily schedule. Those that were not purposeful went to the trash. Those that were of little value for my time exchange I outsourced. And those that were of little value but necessary for me to take care of went to the back of the list after the most important tasks were dealt with first and only if time permitted.

Outsourcing, particularly by utilizing that services of Virtual Assistants (VA), was one method that had the greatest benefit on my effectiveness. A Virtual Assistant is a skilled worker who works remotely. Hiring one allowed me to delegate my way to greater time freedom.

They took a lot of work from my hands. Work that was necessary but not critical or even works that I lacked in skill and for which they could do better. Most importantly it allowed me to focus and spend my time on purposefully doing things that returned greater value to my life.

Effectiveness is a skill that can be learned. However, like all skills, we have to be mindful about where and on which skills we spend our energy and time improving. Learning effectiveness will benefit us all, but there are other skills we are better off leaving to the experts.

Anders Ericsson, the person behind the 10,000-hour rule, suggests that to become an expert 10,000 hours of practice is required. With this in mind, we can choose to spend our time trying to improve many skills at once, but it will limit our ability to become an expert in a particular one and extend the time it takes to mastery.

This is another reason why hiring someone to take care of those skills that we are not proficient at is beneficial. It will allow us to focus on what’s more important so we can be more purposeful with our time. We will likely find greater effectiveness and reward by investing our time and energy in a skill that we already possess and wish to master while outsourcing the rest.

How we use our time now will reduce the time we have available to dedicate to something else. You can spend five dollars on a coffee or five dollars on a digital book. A question that we should ask ourselves is, “Why?”

Why am I thinking this? Why am I doing this? Why does this matter? If in searching for an answer we cannot see clear purpose or value in exchange for our time then maybe, we should be doing something else.

We can use the value exchange assessment to be more purposeful and effective in both business and personal life. Seriously, why spend time on things that don’t get you that little bit closer to your ultimate goal in life. Mine is happiness. I live with purpose to keep me on that path—so far, so good. I sincerely hope you can, too.

Further Reading and Resources 

TED Talks: Ideas worth spreading

Psychology Today: Psychology Today is devoted exclusively to everybody’s favourite subject – Ourselves

Life Hack: Tips for Life

Elite Daily: The Voice of Generation Y

Four Hour Work Week: How to escape the 9-5, live anywhere and join the new rich.

The Minimalists: How to pursue a minimalist lifestyle and be happier.

Mind Hacks: Tips and Tricks for Using Your Brain

Rich Roll: Plantpowered Wellness Advocate

The Art of Charm: Build confidence, feel comfortable and networking differently.

American Psychological Association: The largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United State

The Art of Manliness: Encouraging men to be better husbands, fathers, brothers, citizens.

Tiny Buddha: Simple wisdom for complex lives.

Brain Pickings: An inventory of cross-disciplinary interestingness, spanning art, science, design, history, philosophy, and more.

Mind Body Green: Lifestyle media brand dedicated to inspiring you to live your best life.

Zen Habits: Find simplicity and mindfulness in life.

Creative NonFiction: “true stories well told.” 

Addicted 2 Success: Motivation & Inspiration Website full of quotes and inspiring articles for entrepreneurs.

Barking Up the Wrong Tree: science-based answers and expert insight on how to be awesome at life.

The Positivity Blog: Practical articles on happiness, self-esteem, productivity and social skills.

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