Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.

Jim Rohn

When you think about your time, what do you think of? Do you think of the time you spend at work? Time invested into children and family? Time relaxing at the beach?

Whatever you think of, there’s a connotation to it. We know, even if only subconsciously, that when we are with our children and family it is an investment of time. When, on the other hand, we sit in the car or bus during a commute we are spending our time. We spend our time, a non-renewable resource, something we cannot get back, to earn a paycheck, money, a resource that is quite renewable.

We spend TIME to make MONEY

But most of us aren’t rich grandchildren of wealthy (and hard-working) businessmen. We don’t have trust funds that can prop us up and keep us from having to spend our time for that resource of the dollar bill. So if we have to work, how can we ensure that we have time for the other things that are important in our lives – family, friends, and our own health?

We can sell our time, but we can’t buy it back.

Paulo Coelho

The answer, at least partially, is that we have to change our thinking! Mr. Coelho, in the quote above, states the common thought process. I absolutely respect the individual who says “I will save money, and I will do this myself.” I still do that for many things in life, and sometimes I enjoy building, cleaning, organizing.

But…

When you say:

  • I want to work out, but I have errands to run.
  • I want to spend more time with my kids but the house needs to be cleaned.
  • I want to work on my business idea, but I need to repair the siding.
  • I want to spend a date night with my spouse, but I need to go grocery shopping.

Each of these things is a decision – whether you realize it at the time or not, you are choosing to do one thing instead of the other, because we all know we have limited time in each day.

Some people answer the question of how to deal with this by saying ‘get up earlier’, or ‘go to bed later’. Give up your sleep and you’ll get more time each day. Sure, sometimes you can do this; sometimes you have to, but losing sleep is not a long-term answer. It will make you less healthy, less effective, and you won’t be able to fully enjoy or make use of the time you freed up.

That’s where we start deciding to reverse the equation:

Spend MONEY to make TIME

That’s right! You can choose, carefully and selectively, to spend money to free up or ‘make’ more time. Time you can then use to exercise, work with your children, visit a family member, or build a business that can free you from the daily 9 to 5 and to do the things that you want to do from moment to moment!

How?

Make use of the services in place today – food delivery, handymen, errand runners. These are people who can do these chores for you and who are trying to make extra cash themselves, so that you can have time for other things.

You might balk at the idea of having someone deliver groceries. Maybe having a handyman work on your house seems scary. What about using a TaskRabbit or Takle person to do some cleaning, fold clothes, mulch the lawn or run other errands?

Yes, it’s uncomfortable, I’m not denying that. It may even feel stuck up – “I’m not too good to run my own errands.” I get that and frankly felt that way too at first. But that’s where the thinking has to change. Take some time and really think about where you are in life. You may be just scraping by, maybe you are working three jobs just to make ends meet. Now probably isn’t the time for this – yet.

However, think carefully about how much your time is worth. How much do you make at your normal job and how many other important parts of life are you missing dealing with things that someone else could handle for you? Is it worth stepping out of your comfort zone to have someone wash and fold your laundry once in a while if the result is that you have time to play catch with your kids?

Sometimes it doesn’t even require money, just some courage. In today’s world many people have already shifted to working from home. If you haven’t, however, it doesn’t mean you can’t ask. If that doesn’t fly, can you have a longer workday? Many companies, as long as they have coverage, are amenable to slightly modified working hours – if you worked 4 days, 10 hours each, what would you do with a three day weekend every single week? Have a lengthy commute and you can’t work from home? Can you move closer? A 2 hour commute (and I know people who have that or longer) that becomes 1 hour or less just freed up an hour each way – 2 extra hours in a day!

Not all companies will go for these suggestions, but they are unlikely to fire you for asking, and oh the rewards! Please, share your thoughts, experiences, and suggestions in the comments. How have you been able to free up extra time for the things that are truly important to you?

Change your thought process a little, decide to invest a little differently, and you won’t just be buying time, you’ll be buying freedom.

Latest posts by Matt (see all)