The False Equation of Time & Money
We are challenged by stress every day. It might even be intensified by several factors ranging from inflation to general loneliness. Such stress makes personal moments of reflection and self-care increasingly important. Yet, while we all know the benefits of daily practices of gratitude and meditation, how many of us actually do it?
Admittedly, we’re all busy. We have work, families, chores, and any number of other things that eat up our seemingly scant 24 hours. Illustrated here by Gallup, the transition to hybrid and remote offices has at least empowered us to seize more control over those 24 hours. Nonetheless, there remain those who yearn for the days of rigid office structures, even going so far as to tout daily commutes as being mentally beneficial. All this despite US Census Bureau data depicting how such commutes were steadily stealing more of our time each year.
Seldom is a rush hour commute more relaxing than it is stressful. This isn’t to say that today’s flexible offices evade all instances of unwarranted time consumption and the stress thereof. While hybrid and remote teams typically yield higher productivity, due to being more focused on tasks than on gilded watercooler distractions, that heightened productivity occasionally comes from an inability to shift mindsets from home-office to home-home.
Though the argument for physical offices continues to linger like the odor of microwaved fish in a breakroom, such arguments tend to ignore large swaths of information, delineated here by Entrepreneur Magazine. What remains undeniable, however, is the finite nature of our time, philosophically summarized in this video.
How we spend time matters. What also matters, asserts researcher Brad Aeon in this TED Talk, is that we resist deceptive abuses of our time. The core of time management, after all, is one of philosophy—not money. The miscorrelation between the two only exacerbates daily stress.
This week, consider where and how our time is spent. Are we giving our 24 hours to meaningful people and purposes? Are we giving time to ourselves? Or are we losing it to the false equation between time and money?
“You get to decide where your time goes. You can either spend it moving forward, or you can spend it putting out fires. You decide. And if you don’t decide, others will decide for you.”
― Tony Morgan
Author
by Faraz Gafoor
Faraz Gafoor is a content strategist, writer, and human-data aficionado. His passion for scientific analysis of everything—from the presentation of data to the way we communicate—is driven by a deep love of understanding how we process and make sense of our surroundings. His curiosity and a never-ending search for prolific and poetic perfection poignantly fit his Prism Personality of a double Scientist.
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