BY LAURA VANDERKAM
TREAT TIME LIKE IT MATTERS For all we claim to be starved for time, I’m not sure we, as a society, treat time like it matters.
It took a pandemic for a critical mass of organizations to realize that maybe a daily commute wasn’t absolutely necessary. Personal finance literature rails against the daily cost of coffee shop lattes. There’s less ire about the time it takes each morning to wait in line for that fix. This is all the more curious since time is absolutely limited in a way that money is not. Let’s say you paid $4 for coffee every workday morning for a year. Someone could decide to give you $1000 tomorrow, and you’d be back at roughly the place you were before you made those purchases. But once those minutes have passed every morning, they are never coming back. Not for all the money in the world. If you enjoyed them — great. If it was just waiting for time to pass, that’s a different matter.
Sometimes time gets wasted despite anyone’s best efforts. But sometimes this is more within our control. Being wise stewards of time means treating time like it matters. Not so much to be miserly with it, but more because — since we are all on a limited budget with time — it’s even more important to be tight when things don’t matter so we can spend big when they do. So, today, try to look at your schedule with this in mind. What feels like a good use of time? What feels like it isn’t? Sometimes this points to big changes, and much can be changed over time. But often it’s the small things. I’ve wasted hours reading headlines I don’t care about because I couldn’t be bothered to find a book I’d enjoy. I’ve wasted hours on projects I’m not excited about because I talked myself into saying yes. I wouldn’t set money on fire. Indeed, I’d be offended by the idea. Yet somehow it’s easy to do with time. I’m sure we’ve all felt this way — and there’s no point being sad about time that’s now water under the bridge. But we can be more careful in the future. A few good questions can help: How much time do I really think this will take? Will it take more if something goes wrong? What else could I do with that
time? Is there a way that will take less time? (Maybe you make your coffee at home some mornings and sleep 10 minutes later!) Just being mindful can help a lot. When you find yourself doing something, ask why. If the time feels meaningful or enjoyable for you or the people you care about, you’re on the right track. If not, maybe it’s time to redirect. Do this enough and you can be profligate with time on the good stuff. Time not spent waiting in a line you don’t care about could be spent doing something far more enjoyable, even if it’s just staring at the clouds. That isn’t wasted time at all. All the best, Laura Laura Vanderkam is the author of several time management and productivity books, including Juliet’s School of Possibilities, Off the Clock, I Know How She Does It, What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, and 168 Hours. Her work has appeared in publications including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and Fortune. She is the host of the podcast Before Breakfast and the co-host, with Sarah Hart-Unger, of the podcast Best of Both Worlds. She lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and five children, and blogs at LauraVanderkam.com. Reprinted with permission.
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