How to Invest Your Time Like Money by Elizabeth Grace Saunders Summary

How to Invest Your Time Like Money by Elizabeth Grace Saunders reimagines time management through a financial investment lens. The book outlines a 5-step process to eliminate time debt, create structured schedules, and maximize productivity. Key strategies include tracking time expenditures, setting realistic priorities, and automating routines to align daily actions with long-term goals.

Professionals, entrepreneurs, and anyone feeling overwhelmed by competing demands will benefit. Saunders’ methods are ideal for those seeking to reduce stress, improve work-life balance, and make intentional choices about time allocation. The book’s actionable frameworks suit both productivity novices and seasoned planners.

Yes—readers praise its concise, practical approach to overcoming time anxiety. The 75-page guide avoids vague theories, focusing instead on tools like time tracking, ROI analysis, and the “Why are you awake?” alarm to foster discipline. Critics note its financial analogy is light but commend its actionable steps.

Elizabeth Grace Saunders is a time management coach, founder of Real Life E®, and contributor to Harvard Business Review and Fast Company. With clients across six continents, she specializes in helping individuals and organizations achieve clarity and confidence through structured scheduling.

Time debt refers to overcommitting beyond your available hours, akin to financial overspending. Saunders advises auditing time expenditures to identify imbalances, such as excessive work hours or neglected personal priorities, and creating a “balanced budget” to align actions with values.

The book recommends blocking time for non-negotiable priorities (e.g., sleep, family, core work) first, then filling gaps with secondary tasks. This mirrors budgeting essentials before discretionary spending. A base schedule reduces decision fatigue and ensures consistent investment in high-ROI activities.

Some reviewers find the financial analogy underdeveloped but praise the book’s practicality. Unlike traditional time management guides, it avoids overpromising productivity hacks, focusing instead on sustainable habit-building through structured frameworks.

Saunders’ approach is less about rigid efficiency and more about strategic alignment. While books like Atomic Habits focus on behavior change, this guide emphasizes time-as-currency decision-making, helping readers allocate hours to match personal and professional priorities.

This tool involves setting a nightly alarm to prompt reflection on bedtime consistency. It reinforces the importance of protecting sleep as a foundational time investment, ensuring energy and focus for the next day’s priorities.

The book teaches readers to assign time “budgets” to different life domains (career, relationships, health). By treating time as finite, individuals can avoid over-investing in one area at the expense of others, fostering sustainable balance.

In an era of remote work and digital distractions, Saunders’ emphasis on intentional scheduling remains critical. The book’s principles help navigate modern challenges like burnout, hybrid work demands, and the pressure to constantly “do more”.

A standout line is: “You need to learn the skills to invest your time like money.” This encapsulates the book’s core message—approaching time with the same deliberation as finances to achieve clarity, reduce stress, and amplify impact.