The 24-Hour Currency: Redefining Time Waste and Worth

Recently, I’ve become increasingly intolerant of wasting my time. Whenever I spend time without doing anything meaningful, I start feeling annoyed and stressed. My wife says she can tell from my facial expression. I don’t want to waste a single minute. An hour or a day is unthinkable.

I’ve been contemplating why this is the case, as I did not think about it much in the past. Upon reflection, I can identify at least a couple of reasons for this impatience regarding wasted time:

(1) A couple of weeks ago, I reread this book “How to Live on 24 Hours a Day” by Arnold Bennett for the second time. I had read it about four years ago, but it did not resonate with me as much as when I read it for the second time this year. The book, written in 1908, is a true classic in my opinion regarding how we should view time in our everyday life. The author argues that if there is one thing in this world, only one thing that everyone – poor, rich, healthy, sick, no matter who you are – has in equal amount every single day, it must be 24 hours we have. We all have exactly 24 hours every day, no more and no less. We can’t pre-spend it ahead of its arrival. We can’t get back any amount we waste. Every morning, we all start with a fresh allotment of 24 hours.

Now, since everyone’s starting point is the same in terms of how much time we have, what makes a difference is how we’re going to spend this income of 24 hours. Arnold Bennett argues that the wrong question to ask is: How to live on a given income of money? Instead, we should be asking: How to live on a given income of time?

As mentioned, when I first read this book about four years ago, it did not impact me as strongly as it did upon my second reading earlier this year. We all should be counting our time in minutes (or even seconds), not in hours or days. Hours and days are too crude a way to count time. Time is too precious to waste in such large increments.

(2) I am at a stage in my career where I want to have an impact. I want to accomplish something significant. To achieve this, I must focus my energy and time on important things, whether that’s learning, doing research, teaching, or reading analytically. In truth, there is far more information than we can master in a lifetime. Therefore, we need to prioritize and spend our precious time – every minute of it – on the most important things.

(3) I believe there is an obvious gap between where I am now in terms of my skills, knowledge, and career advancement and where I want to be in all these areas. In essence, I’m not satisfied with my current position. There were times recently when I felt confused and lost my direction. To narrow this gap, I need to allocate every minute of my time effectively. That means not wasting a single minute in honing my skills. To do great work, important work, we must acquire valuable skills, which requires dedication and effort.

One could argue that sometimes we need to “waste” time to be more effective when we’re doing serious work. I generally agree with this statement. But we need to be clear about the nature of the waste. Let me take an example to illustrate my point. Some days ago, we had a guest family visiting us for the night. It was mid-week, so I went to work as usual. We were told that the estimated time of arrival was 5 PM. So I wrapped up my work around 4:30 PM and headed home. We planned for their arrival at 5 PM. But it was 5:00 PM, then 5:30 PM, and finally 6 PM when the guests eventually arrived. As a result, the hour between 5-6 PM was completely wasted – an unexpected and unaccounted for waiting period without purpose. Since I was expecting the guests to arrive by 5 PM, I did not schedule anything other than preparing for their arrival. The entire hour was spent on guessing the time of their arrival.

In my opinion, this was the worst kind of time-wasting. No purpose, no goal, unexpected, nothing planned. Even daydreaming on the couch would be a better use of time than this kind of situation.

Another type of time-wasting occurs when we’re aware we’re wasting time but just can’t help it. For example, scrolling through Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, or Twitter endlessly. You know that you should stop scrolling and start doing your work, but you just can’t help it. It’s addictive. Whether we have critical awareness of this kind of waste can make a significant difference here because it determines if we ever think about doing something about it. If you’re not even aware that you’re wasting time, how do you think about addressing it?

There can be a third type of “wasting” time. I used quotation marks here because different people might have different opinion on this one. For instance, I like walking a lot. As long as I can remember, I have been walking extensively throughout my entire life. I walked to my elementary school, walked/biked to my middle school, and walked to my classrooms from my dorm in high school and during my undergraduate years. I walked almost two hours every day during my master’s education. I walked at least one hour every day during my PhD. And now I walk to my office from home every day, whether it’s hot summer or cold winter. Long story short, I like walking. I have been walking my whole life. Even if I can take a bus from point A to point B, I’d rather walk if the distance is not too long, let’s say within an hour’s walking distance.

My point is that some people might view walking as a waste of time. They feel like they can do some other work using the time they “waste” in walking, or they can save this time to do something else. In comparison, for me, walking has never been considered a waste of time, not even for a minute. In fact, I’ve come to increasingly realize the importance of walking in my life. Why? I think, I reflect, I plan, I ask myself questions while I walk. My mind has rarely been idle when I walk. If I’m stressed, I take a walk. When I’m happy, I take a walk with my wife. If I need some fresh air, I walk. Walking has been responsible for many solutions that I’ve come up with in my life.

This is just one example where one activity might feel like wasting time for some while being extremely valuable for others.

But ultimately, what’s important is to have a clear definition and awareness of what wasting time means to you. Identify what kind of activities you view as wasting time, and then try everything you can to avoid wasting time. That’s the goal: not wasting time, not wasting a single minute.

So, my question to you is: how do you want to live on a given income of 24 hours every day for the rest of your life?

THE END

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