It is Time

“Time is a created thing. 
To say 'I don't have time,'
is like saying, 'I don't want to'.” 
― Lao Tzu

Imagine someone put $1440 in your bank account every morning. Any takers? Ok, too easy, let's add two stipulations: First: every minute you lose $1 and Second: at some unknown point, without warning, these deposits will stop forever.

Where would that $1440 go? Take ten seconds and think about what you would do in this situation. 

That ten seconds was about 17¢, thank you for paying yourself attention.

Those 1440 minutes are what every human has per day, the constant of human value. What we chose to do with that time in all the past 24 hour periods determined who we are today; what we choose to do with this current 24 hours determines who we are tomorrow. The great myth of human freedom is that we can choose to do something tomorrow. The only thing we know for sure about tomorrow is that it may not come. So how do we make the most of the time we have?

Timebnb

With this question in mind, it's important to broadly look at how time is used. Continuing with the "time is money" motif, let's think about how the ledger looks. If you work at an hourly rate, the value of your time is x/hour. If you're salaried, you can take your yearly rate/yearly hours worked + benefits value. You could really get down into the weeds depending on what your benefit package looks like, but I'd say for the sake of simplicity to focus on multiplying out paid vacation and 401k match (n.b. health, dental, disability, etc. is an insurance equation, and as such would be much more complicated to conceptually monetize). 

For example: Your salary is $60,000/year and you work a typical 40 hour work week. Generally speaking companies give 10 or so paid days off in holidays, so we'll use 50 work weeks. $60,000/(40 hours/week x 50 weeks) = $30/hr. In addition, you have a great company that gives you 20 paid vacation days ($30 x 8 hr x 20) which is worth $4800. In addition, you get 3% 401k contribution match, and as a smart individual who wants to secure your future, you put 3% in per paycheck. Your company thus gives you another (3% x $60,000) $1800. This extra $6600/yr equates to a $3.30/hr bump.

Your total compensation from your employer for your time is thus $33.30 per hour. I'd refer to this type of time investment as renting out your time (and, truly, your life) or Timebnbing, if you will. This constitutes a large percentage of where your time bank goes, and is of course of critical importance in your overall feeling of fulfillment.

Wasting Time

But it's not all work. In fact, we have more play time than ever before. If we work 8 hours per day for 5 days, or $480 minutes per day, how do we spend the remaining $960? Even more so, how do we spend the entire $1440 when we get it twice a week? 

The answers are going to vary greatly depending on your state in life. If categorized, however, one can say it is broken down into three categories: wasting time, spending time, and investing time. These things, by and large, are going to be things that you've habitualized, with some smattering of chaos thrown in. If you have kids, you get to account for much more chaos.

Imagine (or better yet actually sit down and take 30 minutes to do it) that there's a pie graph which shows the activities and time spent during the day on each. The more detailed, the better. When constructed, you could then theoretically organize these into time wasted (used to no purpose), time spent (used deliberately to low return), and time invested (devoted with an eye to an outsized future return). This is budgeting your time, and just like creating a budget for your finances, allows you to see where you can more effectively invest it through small changes, as well as actively track it.

In reality, wasting time is itself just an investment of time, though not the best in terms of return. Wasting time could be better defined as using time carelessly. To watch a popular show isn't a complete waste of time. It could lead to a future bonding with a new friend that could lead to all sorts of opportunities. It's a way to give your brain some rest if it was under strain during the workday. It's thus an investment in the health of your brain (similar to sleep for your body) and for future interpersonal relationships. I'll just collect my fee for my plug for Netflix and end this post...

Investing Your Time

...They declined. Their loss. So if activities such as watching t.v. (which in 2006 averaged more than you'd think) don't constitute the best return of investment time, what does?

There are seemingly infinite ways to invest ones time. Audit a class, play a sport, read a book, 'yak on the lake, climb a rock wall, listen to a podcast, learn to code, collect things, train for an event, learn to play an instrument, birdwatch, etc. The sheer scope of the time-investment field is daunting, especially for the young, for just like in financial investment, every choice you make has compound interest. If at 4 years old a child develops a passion for piano, and that passion is nurtured, what a pianist that child will become! Seems to me that many parents know this, and they try to foster this development in what they see as important. Yet it is for the child to embrace. It is the child's time to invest.

The important thing here is that it is your time. You thus must deliberately figure out what values you hold dearest, and then how you can strengthen your skill and knowledge surrounding them. Everyone holds different things as most important, so the investment activity that will yield the most outsized return depends on that person's overarching goal.

Focusing on investing your time is a great perspective to have. The idea is that you invest your time and resources while you are operating at peak capacity: young, healthy in mind and body. As you get older, you transition into spending more of your time than you invest, and the more wisely you invested your time, the more you have to spend. This culminates in the halcyon years of retirement, the golden age where we reap what we sowed.

Unfortunately, when traditional retirement age rolls around, 9% of people find themselves able to pull $65,000 per year in retirement. It's your time to spend, but for me that means 91% of people in the didn't invest that time wisely enough. How many people at age 70, when their bodies no longer have the nigh-indestructibility of body and lucidity of mind, must try to pull a paycheck to support the passage of time? How many people realize that they'll have to Timebnb to get by? I've heard people bash the corporate greed of Walmart, but they provide livelihood to these people who struggle so much to find it with the part-time greeter role.

Conclusion

I hope that these musings offer you some perspective, which may help you attain more joy and fulfillment your life. That's what it is all for: living life to its fullest.

When you wake up with your time bank running the next morning, how much of your time will you spend and how much will you invest? Are you willing to put in the time and deliberation to change who you are tomorrow? 

Honestly, that's a bit much for my brain first thing. So if I may, I'll end here with a simple quote from Maya Angelou, which helps me set a positive tone to my day:

“This is a wonderful day, I have never seen this one before.”