3% Formula to invest in yourself.

If you want to grow, you need to invest in yourself.

Due to being part of N number of side-hustles & projects along with my current job, I usually don't get much time to track my growth. But last week, a medical emergency, gave me an opportunity to take a pause. And I found that my schedule was highly disorganized. I was spending a major chunk on low-priority or unproductive tasks. So, I decided to restructure it, in order to have a specific investment back in myself every day.

But, the very first question is how much & how to invest in yourself?

Well, the 3% formula from the book No Excuses by Brian Tracy helped me decide on this. It talks about investing 3% of your total income back in yourself. So, basically, whatever amount you are earning, invest 3% of that amount in personal development such as buy & read a book every month, attend conferences related to your field, etc.

This concept is really powerful as it keeps you disciplined and pushes you to a better version of yourself. I decided to tweak the concept a little bit and added a couple of things for myself.

Invest 3% of monthly income in me
- Buy online courses related to my field
- Attend webinars or events
- listen to podcasts
- read a book every month
3% tasks every day, for personal development
- everyday, In the morning I prepare a list (I prefer using pen & paper) of tasks which I need to complete in the day
- keep 3% of tasks related to my personal development
- It might be learning a new concept
- Or, writing a blog on whatever new I learned
- Solving one programming problem every day
Invest 3% of the everyday time in me
- Apart from my scheduled tasks, I make sure to allocate at least 3% time to just take a pause from everything and do stuff that I love.

Over time, I have learned that setting a system is much more effective than setting a goal. I don't have any specific goals from my side-hustles or writing blogs. I just love being part of it & enjoy the process of building, writing, and sharing.