Every time you spent time doing something, it’s an investment decision you made - in this case you invested your time.

As in financial investment the basic idea to invest in something and hope it will have return that’s greater than the initial investment - e.g what you get out of it is more than what you put in, obviously time is a consideration - a great output with minimal input, but it takes a long time to get the output might be worst than a mediocre output with just above minimal input, its all depend on personal circumstance

Here are a list of things I think will offer the best Return On Investment (ROI) for me and I will try to do any many of these as possible

There will be more added when I found them, but as you can see most of the activities don’t cost anything, but these activities offer enormous benefit and happiness, so I do believe some of the best things in life doesn’t cost much, just need to look carefully for yourself.

Sleeping

Sleep is so important that we spent a huge chunk of our life sleeping! if you have a problem, sleep on it can solve it, too tired and no energy? sleep will fix that… hence its very important to have good sleep, this is biggest struggle I have, I’m still trying to have too sleep (too much worry/thinking in my head - what if I did this differently, what if the business is collapse tomorrow, overthinking people…), will try to do everything I can for good sleep.

Running

I felt good after running, even its short distance like 3k, it so easy to do - all you need is get on your shoes and run (don’t worry about anything else, as you not running for half marathon, if you think there is a problem, just stop - simples), running also help make my mind tougher because I just plough on when feeling tired (always try to push yourself a little bit - obviously you can’t do that every day and sometimes you just don’t feel like it, that’s ok), keep running as routine always helps - even its very short distance, but the important thing is doing it.

Walking

Walking is a good way for me to have intermediate rest, which is very important when you trying to solve problems or had too much food, I feel fresh after walking (sometimes its hard to get out the room - its cold/rain/hot outside, but once you out its good, just need the inertial momentum to set off the motion)

Writing

For me, writing has two very important benefits,

  1. Remember things - my memory is not good, hence writing down acting as memory storage, which you can look at it later (sort of acting like repetition which has the effect of making what you try to remember into long term memory)

  2. Clear my thoughts - it cost mental energy to hold different kind of thoughts in the brain, that’s why multitasking is very energy-intensive and make you feel tired easily, writing it down help to offload the thoughts, so the brain doesn’t need to think about it, hence free up the energy to do something else. A corollary rule - if a task can be done in a minute, then do it immediately, because doing it will use less energy than leaving the task floating around in your brain and you constantly think about it

I’m very bad at writing as can tell from this, but the most important thing is keep writing.

Drink Water

The average human body is around 60% water, so I guess it must be important to drink plenty of water.

Meditation

This is a game-changer when I first started, it helps me calm, notice even more life details, gave me perspective and clear my thoughts. It only takes about 10/15 minutes a day, but the important thing is the do it every day which I sometimes struggle to do, but the return on investment (benefits) is massive.

Swimming

Around 70% of the earth is covered by water, with global warming, it will probably go up, so I think its life skills to be able to swim (doesn’t need to be fast or anything). Luckily I’m able to do the swim for half an hour continuously without any problem, but I do need to work on my speed or more importantly how to rescue others in the water.

Drawing

Drawing is another way to express your thoughts or things in life, like when you want to communicate to others about your idea, you can draw it, or if you want to show another person something they never saw before, drawing it will help them to understand it. Doesn’t need to be good at drawing, the important thing can draw something that makes others understand you.

Exercises

These are simple exercises that don’t need any gears, so there is no excuse not doing it, simply spend like 10 minutes every day will yield a lifetime of benefit, a few push-ups and sit-ups will help with the body muscles, simple stretches can make your body more flexible. These exercises cost nothing, start doing it every day and make into a daily habit, then it will become automatic

Storytelling

Human is a social animal that we like to socialise with others, storytelling is a great way to communicate with others and make your ideas more interest, good story connect with people and make you not the boring guy in the group. This is one of the skills I need to learn a lot more

Magic tricks

Simple magic tricks can bring smiles to other people’s face or make a serious situation less intense, doesn’t need to do those amazing tricks, just need to learn a few simple tricks, I need to learn magic!