Consider you want to decorate your house. You want to add a painting to one of the walls. You have some basic painting skills that you picked up when you were younger. So, you decide to give it a try before buying something online. You dust off that old painting kit and spend an entire weekend putting together a fine masterpiece. Congratulations!! 🥳 You saved some hard-earned money!! Or did you?
If you read it again carefully, what sounds like normal use of words is actually an important detail -“Spend an entire weekend”. Essentially, you have traded time for money. What could have been a $50 or ₹3,000 expense has become an 8-hour activity. Now the question is “What is the price of time? How to compare time and money?” Well, you probably know it, but you don’t realize. If you are earning – divide what you earn by the time you spend. E.g.: your salary by your work hours. If not, you just have to compare time and time – in the weekend you’ve to spend painting, what else could you accomplish: finish your favorite TV series, spend more time with your family, or even do something to make up the money you’ll spend on the painting. Then think about what would you rather be doing – paint or that other thing?
Another factor to consider is if there are any immeasurable upsides to this activity. Maybe this helps you disconnect for regular chores and focus on yourself – like meditation. Or, maybe you entertain your kids by having them give you ideas and even help you. At this point, you have automatically moved to the second type of comparison – time vs time.
Essentially, one of the most prized possessions for anyone is the eternally depleting commodity – Time. You can never earn it, make it, or reverse it. It is what we all trade to earn money which in turn gets us the rest of the things we buy, own, and value. Shouldn’t we be valuing it to start with??
So, use your time wisely, understand its value and spend it on the most important things. Ultimately, TIME is of the essence!
