Seth Godin asks, “What will do with the time you save?”

It’s a good question.

We read books and articles about productivity, buy courses, download apps, adopt new strategies, and tweak what we’re already doing, in an endless quest to get more done in less time.

But why?

Why do you want to save time? What will you do with it?

Would you go home (shut down) earlier? Start a side business? Write a book?

Would you read more? Exercise more? Sleep more?

Would you work on improving your skills? Spend more time with your family? Indulge in more “me time”?

Or, would you simply do more billable work?

The answer, of course, depends on what’s important to you–what you want to accomplish and the lifestyle you want to create or maintain.

But you could be wrong about what you want, or change your mind.

You might start doing more billable work and find that you only have so much energy each day and the quality of your work starts to suffer.

Or, you might use the time you save by working a shorter day, only to find that you’re bored.

You could try to figure out what you would do in advance, so you have a goal to work towards, or you could save the time first and then decide what to do with it.

It’s nice to have options. And to know there’s a purpose behind all the time you spend figuring out how to save time.