"While I think time spent in evaluation usually gives you far more time than you put in,...etc."
In the context of reality, it does not really have a meaning. It is one of those poorly constructed sentences that we sometimes encounter.
Realistically, it is an impossibility actually gain time by spending it. Time is a continuum.
Time is neither decreased or increased in a realistic sense. We only write of what we do with our Time in a figurative way.
Time has a cyclic period shorter then our periods of perception.
Evaluation can be a means of acquiring knowledge or data; but it is not going to increase Time.
The author of the sentence may have become a little confused concerning what they intended to communicate.
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