A strategy for investing -- time, energy, and yourself.

What’s your strategy for getting it all done this year? Do you have one that's practical and makes sense to you, or do you pretty much fly by the seat of your pants, making decision as things come up, but with no method to your madness?

My experience tells me that, for most people, it's the latter. One of the biggest hurdles people tell me they have to deal with is how to decide what to do with their time—especially their non-billable time. Billable time, it seems, is easy—they do what’s important to their clients. But the time that no one weighs in on but themselves? Not so easy to figure out.

There’s always something new to read, to learn, to investigate, to listen to—always a new group to join, an activity to take on, a new ezine to subscribe to (and don't get me started on when to read all the free reports!), and even if you're a life-long learner, it really gets tiring very quickly, doesn’t it? I know it makes me tired just thinking about it.

So today’s Bit O’Moxie is a strategy for figuring out where to spend your time and energy (where to invest YOURSELF, ‘cause that’s really what you’re doing) in the hopes of making this year a better one for you, at least on this score. It’s a twist on an Absolute Yes list (where you figure out how to say no to everything that isn’t on your list for at least 90 days).

Within the strategy, first create criteria. The criteria is a short list, if you will, of what you want in whatever you’re evaluating (taking a class, buying/reading a book, choosing an organizational tool, going to a networking event or a conference) that will help you take the emotion out of deciding and show you, quite simply, whether to go for it or not.

You'll find that just the act of getting your emotions out of the way will improve things for you. Having an objective list of things to weigh something against also quiets your brain, and lets the natural answer for you come easily to the surface.

For instance, in evaluating the four-bazillion classes being offered today, you might decide that this year, you ONLY want to invest in live (in person or virtual, but live with an instructor) classes, where what you learn will help you in either/both your professional or personal lives, and that are being taught by people who clearly have sufficient experience to teach them.

Along with the criteria, decide how much of them need to be present to get you involved. Maybe you decide that a class has to offer all three in order for you to consider investing in it. Maybe it has to offer two of the three. The choice is yours!

It’s unlikely that you’ll have just one set of criteria for everything. And it’s fine to make different sets for different things because what’s important to you with regard to classes you invest in may not be the same as what’s important to you with regard to conferences you attend, or potential clients you decide to talk with, or even who you follow on Twitter.

No matter how many different sets of criteria you have, you’ll want to write them down and keep them somewhere where you can access them quickly and easily when you need to. Maybe you put them in a spread sheet that you then keep on your desktop. Maybe you put them in lists in a doc, print it, cut out the lists, and post each to the sides of your monitor. Maybe you write them on index cards that sit on your desk within easy reach.

However you decide to do it is great. Just by creating strategy and criteria, and a process for using them/weighing things against the criteria, you’ll be far better able to say yes to what matters to you, and no to everything else.

What’s your criteria for things this year?