When I was in the Peace Corps in Paraguay I had a lot of extra time. We were taught to let go of the idea of productivity as the definition of a good day. Instead, we evaluated our days based on time spent with friends and neighbors and generally staying sane in what is objectively a bizarre situation.
If I had Sunday lunch with my friends, that would be a good day. Laundry, which I did by hand, was always one whole day out of my week. I lived like that for two years and as those two years wound down, I started to be nervous about what lay ahead for me back in my American life.
Besides terror at not understanding the app economy that had taken hold of the US while I played snake on my government-issued Nokia block phone, I was worried about full calendars. I didn’t want to go back to living my life by an imposed schedule, where every half hour between nine and five was accounted for and every evening after was filled with some sort of structured social event.
Fast forward a few years and I found myself running a woman over in the bathroom, not even stopping to apologize. I had a class I needed to get to on time.
My goal in life is for my time to be my own, not bought by a company or predefined by Outlook. It’s too valuable to spend that way. Yet in 2021, we are constantly pulled in different directions for our time. Is this really how we want to live?
Why is time more valuable than money?
To start answering this question, we need to jump into the way back machine. Not the website, our memories. Sometime between the ages of eight and ten we all learn about renewable vs. nonrenewable resources. These lessons are the crux of understanding important concepts, like the fact that we don’t have another Earth once we finish destroying the current one. It’s also the reason why time is more valuable than money.
Money often feels like a nonrenewable resource. Our bank accounts and paychecks give us finite quantities to work with. But we can always earn more money, we can get new jobs with fatter paychecks, launch a business, seek funding for that business, or take on a side hustle. Money in this world is abundant. It’s just a matter of fighting for our access to it.
Time, on the other hand, is the great equalizer. There are 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year. Whether you live on the streets or you’re Jeff Bezos, you can’t buy back time that has been spent.
Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend. – Theophrastus.
The time is money myth
This idea is often attributed to Ben Franklin, and we have used it ad nauseum to spur on unsustainable lives, where we run ourselves ragged. In fact, the American Psychological Association refers to stress as a national mental health crisis.
It’s unfortunate that the entire Ben Franklin quote isn’t cited:
Remember that time is money. He that can earn ten shillings a day by his labour, and goes abroad, or sits idle one half of that day, though he spends but sixpence during his diversion or idleness, it ought not to be reckoned the only expence; he hath really spent or thrown away five shillings besides- Ben Franklin
The original sentiment was about choices and the purpose for which one earns their money, in this case, to go abroad. Ben and I had some values in common. Today, we use this phrase to encourage ourselves to work harder, longer hours. Then we take the money we earn and (ideally) spend significant time and energy deciding what to do with it.
What if we thought about our time like we think about our money?
Right now, the world is gearing up for black Friday. Everyone is excited about the deals that will be on offer. There’s nothing out there like it where we all get in a tizzy because we’ll have extra time. What if we had a holiday that was all about cutting back on unnecessary activity? We all skip scrolling through our social accounts and say no to meetings we don’t need to be in.
There are endless examples of how we spend our time more freely than our money. Some of us will drive in circles looking for a free parking spot. The hyper frugal might wash their clothes by hand. Personally, I research aggressively just to save a buck or two on travel.
Yes, I believe in frugality, but not at the severe expense of the most valuable asset we all have – time.
My hero
My friend’s husband (who I will not name here so as not to get him in trouble) is my guru when it comes to placing value on my time.
He has a very lucrative career in a very fancy pants field in which he is an expert. He also doesn’t work. That’s not to say he doesn’t have a job, he is very much gainfully employed. But, I stayed at their house and I don’t think he logged into his work computer once throughout my whole trip.
He told me if he’s needed he’ll step in. Then he’ll go back to bed. Some might call him lazy (his wife definitely does) but to me, that’s a confidence in his own value that I think we can all learn from. He views his salary as earned for his expertise, not his time.
I know so many people who set up unnecessary meetings, take on extra projects or insert themselves into other people’s areas of expertise in order to fill the work hours in the day. I believe this all speaks to insecurity, a need to constantly prove ourselves. This isn’t to say I blame these individuals, the modern-day work culture is meant to build this insecurity.
Tips for investing your time wisely
- Say no to social gatherings you don’t want to do.
- Before you give over your time to save a few pennies, ask yourself the monetary value of the time you will spend.
- Do less. If you find yourself trying to find more time by multitasking or organizing your time better, maybe the answer is to downsize your commitments.
- Seek jobs where the company values work-life balance. Check Glassdoor reviews to make sure they’re good to their word.
- Delete apps on your phone that suck your time. For me it’s my newsfeed, for others it may be social media or games.
- Schedule boredom into your week. Getting bored sometimes allows you to enjoy doing things more.
While it might not always seem the case, money is a renewable resource. Time is non-renewable, you can never get it back once it’s gone. Place value on your time, manage it the way that makes you happy.
