I would like to respectfully disagree with what I’m sure is
countless thousands of people, if not millions, who have ever said, “Time is
money!” Sometimes this expression is used by people whose lives really are
lived by the standards of a demanding time-for-money trade (which, suggested by
statistics by economists like Robert Kiyosaki, makes up about 95% of all people
in America). In these cases you’ll hear it used by, say, a businessman who is
keenly aware of a deadline, telling a subordinate, “C’mon Johnson, I need that
proposal on my desk yesterday! They’re being submitted to Smith on the 12th
and we’re still behind! Time is money!”
For anyone who earns a living in what are called the “E
(Employee)” and “S (Self-employed)” areas of the “Cash Flow Quadrant (again,
something coined by Robert Kiyosaki)” there is a real element of truth
to that expression. Such types, including me at this point in my life, and
millions of others, do live out a veritable trade of their time for their money
as they give away 8, 10, 12 or more hours per workday in exchange for the pay
from their employers. Self-employed people tend to do this more on a
task/project-for-payment basis, not so much hourly, but the principle is the
same.
“Time is money” quoters, whether they really mean it or are
just saying it loosely because they’ve heard it before, are really reflecting a
powerful reality of life for many who will remain subject to it: you can’t have
all the time and money you want. Those with true wealth will tell you
that you don’t have it (i.e. wealth) unless you have both of its components:
money AND time. But this is more of a topic for another time.
Let me clarify what I meant in my first statement.
I don’t disagree with the reality that, for some, time is
money. I disagree that it ought to be that way. When it comes to the
economic state of your life, there are other means to wealth that aren’t
obtained in the traditional “income” parameters that most live by.
Entrepreneurs, a dying breed these days, due to the shrinking presence of free
thinkers in our society, and in part because of the oppressive impact of a
regulation-happy government, will tell you that a system using duplication and
leverage of combined efforts is a better, more efficient path to money and
lifestyle.
But enough of that. That’s all still a topic for another
time.
My real contention with the expression in question today is
because the sentence is written wrong. Orrin Woodward, in his best-seller Resolved:
13 Resolutions for LIFE, speaks of the importance of time-management. His
comments in chapter 1 of his book, discussing the idea of purpose in life, led
me to the realization that the expression should really go like this:
“Treat time like it’s
money.”
Woodward says,
“In order to live a life of
purpose, a person must learn to focus his time on purpose. Time is the stuff
that life is made of, making time-management a crucial skill. But developing
effective time-management without directing it towards one’s purpose is to
efficiently manage the wasting of one’s life.”
At first, that last sentence sounds awfully strong. But
consider a quote from later in the same passage, where Woodward references
Hyrum Smith in The Ten Natural Laws:
“Time is just like money. When you
decide to spend one hour watching TV, you have also decided not to spend the
time on what? Everything else (emphasis added). You would be very upset
if someone gained access to your bank account and sole all your money. Most
people, though, don’t blink an eye when all sorts of culprits sneak into their
lives and steal their time.”
So in other words, not practicing good time-management is
like having no security system and no vault for the bank of your life’s time.
In fact, when you think of how often we’re seeking out or falling passively for
the lure of “time thieves,” we may as well add a doorman to that picture too,
who’s standing outside waving every shady character inside the door to the
bank. I don’t know about you, but I know I have definitely wasted a lot of time
in my life. This portion of Woodward’s book really was a gut-punch.
The idea here is also not only that time-management itself
is critical; that simply results in productivity. I agree with Orrin Woodward,
that purposeful productivity is what’s desirable – in other words,
accomplishments that point you toward your personal purpose, or, put another
way, the thing God made you to do. After all, like Henry David Thoreau said,
“It is not enough to be busy. So too are the ants.”
Ever feel like you’ve spent an entire day, or worse, an
entire week, running around like crazy, doing this, doing that, and by Friday
or Saturday (whichever is more your personal wind-down time) you find yourself
thinking What the heck did I even do this week? What did I accomplish? I’m
wiped out and I don’t feel satisfied!
Whenever you feel this way, it’s your soul telling you that
you may have wasted some or much of your time. Maybe there were a lot of urgent
things to do, or things you had seemingly no choice but to do. But were they
all important? Were they all necessary for taking another step towards
fulfilling your distinct purpose?
If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably had to admit to
yourself that days and weeks go by when the answers to those questions didn’t
sit too well. We know deep down that we’re here on Earth for something bigger.
That’s unique to you, the individual. We’re not all here for the exact same
purpose. Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Maybe we
should examine our lives, and ourselves, more often. Are we checking our
current reality against what that subtle voice always lingering within is
telling us about what we feel called to do with our time here?
“But Jeff,” you tell me, “There are so many things on my
plate. They all have to go somewhere!” To that I respond, yes and no. No, not
everything has to go on your plate. Use a filter on everything that presents
itself for time expenditure: Will ______________ get me closer to my purpose
/ help me live my purpose today? If so, excellent! Keep it in your list to
be prioritized towards your purpose. If not….I’m afraid you have to chuck it!
If you don’t, you will waste your time.
Think of it objectively. Remember: “Treat time like it’s
money!” Let’s pretend for a moment that the currency value of our dollar was
much higher than it is. Then we’ll pretend that every hour of a day is like a
dollar. So there’s 24 of them to be spent as wisely as possible each time we
cross 12:00 a.m. If you had to shell out a dollar for every hour doing the
things you do on a consistent basis, knowing you only had 24 to work with til
you’re broke, would you be ok with that? I imagine many of us would be more
frugal with what we would do with those hours. Maybe they’d get spent more
often on playing with the kids, doing something to have quality time with a
spouse, reading something of value (the Bible, history, economics, poetry, or
whatever keeps you feeling informed in a sensible way, or mentally stimulated),
exercising, being out building a business, volunteering time at church or for a
charity, working on a hobby like sewing or wood-carving, etc. But no, how do so
many hours get spent when we’re not working, sleeping, eating, or doing
necessary housework? Facebook, Twitter, reality TV shows, video games, going to
the bar….These are the usual time thieves because, while ok or good in small
doses, they don’t have a quality about them that generally gets us closer to
our true purpose in life.
My proposal is: Treat time like it’s money.
You walk around each day with a fistful of time-dollars. When you encounter
something, will you hand over the dollar and go about that thing because it’ll
leave you satisfied and purpose-bound, or will you shake your head and motion
for it to move on til another time?
For additional, far wiser encouragement on how to discern
how best to spend those hours each day, I highly recommend a book called First
Things First, by the late Steven Covey. In brief, what he outlines is
something a lecturer once taught a crowd with: He put a large jar on the table
on the stage and put some fist-sized rocks into it until it was full. When
asked if the jar was full, the crowd shouted, “Yes!” But he went on to show the
crowd how, since he had started with the big rocks first, there was still
actually space left to pour in gravel, then sand, and then even water, to
ultimately truly fill the jar.
Use this “Big Rocks First” philosophy with your
time-management. Approach each tomorrow with thoughts of what’s most important
(big rocks), that needs most attention. Proceed in order of importance, and you’ll
find room for the rest accordingly. But most importantly, you’ll put your head
on your pillow each night knowing the truly important things – maybe even your
true purpose itself – were accomplished that day, and you spent your
time-dollars wisely.
“The heights
by great men reached and kept
Were not
attained by sudden flight
But they,
while their companions slept,
Were
toiling upward in the night.”
-
Henry Wadsworth Longellow
(quote from Resolved: 13
Resolutions for LIFE, chapter 1)
