Though you may not have to endure harrowing commutes while working from home (WFH), many employees complain that their workloads have increased. As employers and bosses overwhelm workers with projects, Zoom meetings and tight deadlines, you’re really pressed for time. A persistent feeling of time poverty can have detrimental effects on both your productivity and well-being. In her new book, Time Smart: How to Reclaim Your Time & Live A Happier Life, Harvard Business School Professor, Ashley Whillans, argues that we need to change how we value our time.
While most people place a premium on making money, growing more time affluent may actually have a more potent influence on the quality of your life.
She begins with a sober reminder that time is a finite resource as none of us is immortal. Yet, most people pursue money, career growth and productivity relentlessly, thereby making a trade-off with their limited but precious time. Many of us don’t realize that after a certain level of basic comfort is realized in our lives, time is more significant than money in terms of enhancing our well-being.
People who perceive their hours and minutes as invaluable are happier, more sociable and also report greater job satisfaction because they tend to pursue jobs that resonate with them as opposed to ones that pay the maximum.
Additionally, people who feel they have sufficient time on their hands are more likely to volunteer and be eco-friendly.
A reason why we devalue time is because it’s worth is hard to measure.
Whillans exhorts us to be more ‘deliberate’ regarding how we spend time. While most of us are careful not to fritter away the rupees in our wallets, we are less circumspect about the moments that constitute our lives. So, the first step involves becoming more aware of how you actually spend time by keeping a log of your activities for a typical day.
Classify your activities
Next, Whillans suggests that you classify each of your daily activities on two dimensions- pleasure and productivity, while also evaluating them on meaningfulness.
So helping your kid with his school project may not rank highly in terms of pleasure or productivity (though people are likely to have varying views on this), but is highly meaningful to you.
Binge-watching Netflix may receive a high pleasure grade, but dismal ones on productivity or meaning. For activities that are neither pleasurable nor meaningful, Whillans asks you to examine whether you can spend less time on them or even transform them into joyful ones?
So, listening to a podcast might make the wait at the dentist’s office less onerous.
Even at work, identify tasks that you dislike and see if you can alter them to suit your interests better or even delegate them to someone else who is a better match.
Further, if your day is, by and large, filled with purposeful activities that matter, then you are more likely to chug through dreaded but unavoidable tasks. While it may sound oxymoronic, Whillans also suggests that you plan your leisure as well. Active leisure, such as socializing, engaging in a hobby or volunteering is more rewarding than passive leisure that includes watching TV or mindless surfing of the Net.
In a telling experiment, Whillans compared material purchases with time-saving ones.
Working adults were first given $40 dollars to buy things on a weekend. On a following weekend, they were given the same amount and told to spend it on anything that would save them time.
While they bought clothes, games and makeup the first weekend, the next time people indulged in cabs instead of taking the bus, ordered food instead of cooking and had their groceries home-delivered. Subsequent surveys revealed that people felt happier and less overwhelmed when they made time-saving purchases.
So, the next time you are impelled to check out at least five stores for the best price for a new TV, ask yourself if the money saved in getting the best bargain is worth the time spent visiting five outlets.
Whillans also points out that even if you love your job, working longer hours is likely to deplete your happiness. If you are earning a reasonable salary, hankering after a larger paycheck is unlikely to enhance your contentment. Instead, remind yourself of the import of priceless moments, like witnessing your son’s first annual day or doing yoga against the backdrop of a setting sun. When deciding how to parcel your time, make considered choices instead of treating time like a free, renewable resource.
Reflecting on why you are engaging in various activities can help you ration your time more judiciously, thereby living a more meaningful and fulfilling life.