Make time-centric decisions

Put time at the forefront when considering options

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is to make time centric decisions. It's easy
to undervalue time in our choices, but since time is

(00:24):
the ultimate limited resource, we want to honor its value
as much as possible. Today's tip, like another this week,
comes from Ashley Willen's new book Time Smart. Willains argues
that we need to do a better job building time
into our mental accounting. Plenty of us focus more on

(00:45):
another metric, money when choosing jobs. Most of us focus
too much on salary and prestige, easy to measure metrics,
and not enough on the value of the time will
spend in the job, or the ways a job will
allow us to shape our time outside work. She writes,
it's not that a time focused person isn't willing to

(01:07):
work long hours. It's just that this time focused person
wants to enjoy those hours, and if she somehow winds
up in work that she doesn't like so much, she's
careful to limit the time cost so she can enjoy
her time outside of work. Willand's notes that people also
make lousy time decisions about where they live. People often

(01:30):
want big houses and lots of space, but at least
in the pre COVID world where people went into the
office every day. In order to have those things and
high paying jobs, people often have to live on the
very outskirts of major metropolitan areas, and that can mean
a long commute. Commutes are the most miserable part of

(01:51):
the average person's day. Really, there is time use research
supporting that is, getting an extra bedroom in a bigger
garage with losing an extra twenty minutes every morning and
evening for years. Maybe sometimes we have to take factors
like school districts and our spouses jobs into consideration, and
who knows, maybe we'll get the opportunity to work from

(02:13):
home long term, but on the margin we might get
used to a smaller house, but a commute will be
misery over and over again. I think there's something to this,
and I also know that it's easy to undervalue time.
I write about time, and even so I sometimes find
it hard to make time centric decisions. I've taken on

(02:34):
projects I wasn't so excited about because the pay seemed decent.
I have flown at inconvenient times because the tickets cost less.
I have stayed inside on nice days out of a
vague sense that I was behind on email. Sometimes it
makes sense, but we can make more money, we can
never make more time. Once a second is gone, all

(02:59):
the money in the world can't buy it back. And
while money can do wonderful things, making money centric decisions
tends to make people less happy. As Willen's rights. In
her research, students who prioritized time were more likely to
report that they were working at something they wanted to

(03:20):
do as opposed to something they had to do. So,
as you're making your decisions today and going forward, ask
if you are properly valuing your time. Maybe you are,
but many people aren't. And that's why we let push
notifications interrupt our free time for no reason whatsoever. Don't

(03:42):
just give away something that's valuable. Make time centric decisions
and you won't. In the meantime. This is Laura, Thanks
for listening, and here's to making the most of our time.
Ye Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You

(04:06):
can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E the number four. Then
Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me an
email at before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot
com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.

(04:29):
Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For
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