Become Time Rich
I’ve been thinking about time wealth a lot lately. Some thinkers who talk about escaping time poverty seem to do so with an undeniable flavor of privilege. They leave us thinking we have to achieve a certain level of affluence and power so we can make choices that protect our time, often by trading part of our wealth to delegate tasks or pay for solitude.
But there’s another group talking about time wealth as something that is completely separate from how busy you are, how many demands on your time, and how lean the financial side of life is at the moment. With some intentional but simple shifts, we all can feel more time wealth and ease as we go about our day, without lightening the load at all.
How we feel as we go about our work drastically changes the strain work puts on us. I even filmed a video about that last week if you want to see it ((Use Your Stress Response to Fight Burnout Video)). The same is true for our non-working life. The rushed mornings, hurried commutes, and moment-to-moment sense of too-much-to-do make the day’s demands grind on us, depleting our reserves. One powerful solution is to become more time rich.
So today I have a Wild + Brave Time Rich Challenge for you. Pick one of the following three challenges, and take brave action to do it today!
Time Rich Challenge #1:
Set a timer and spend 5 minutes breathing slowly.
Every time your brain interrupts you to say “we have to get going!” or “we have too much to do!!” smile and respond “I DO have time to spend 5 minutes breathing…that can wait while I breathe.” Even if you only do this once, today, this will help your brain feel more safe to be present. Repeated over time, your inner conversation can stop badgering you all the time, leaving more peace and ease as you tackle #AllTheThings.
Time Rich Challenge #2:
Do something new.
Research shows that making the choice to try a new food, go to a new place, or experience something for the first time causes time to slow. Keep this in mind as you make weekend plans…instead of repeating patterns, choosing something new can stop time from spinning and reset you for a better week come Monday.
Time Rich Challenge #3:
Choose to help someone.
We help people all the time…but we don’t always feel we have a choice. Helping can feel like a demand, an expectation. But something changes when we say, “I want to help this person…I can spare a few minutes to contribute to their joy or success.” This challenge has a lot of research backing it up, too…choosing to spend a few minutes sending someone a note of encouragement or gratitude, solving a problem for them, or doing something that boosts their success, like writing a Google review for their business, or taking the coffee carafe around the office to pick people’s spirits up can leave you feeling more confident and calm as you head to do your work. (You may want to set a 10-minute timer on this one to enjoy this activity without sabotaging your schedule.)
I’ve picked up a few books on the topic I look forward to tackling this weekend. The Secret Pulse of Time: Making Sense of Life’s Scarecest Commodity by Stefan Klein and Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth by Juliet Schor. I’ll let you know if they have anything cool to add to the conversation.