Early in my career, I worked for a leader whose superpower was outsourcing. She knew what activities brought her energy and fulfillment, and she would schedule her day around those activities. The tasks she didn’t particularly like or wasn’t good at were thoughtfully delegated.
She approached client meetings and team member one-on-ones with enthusiasm and curiosity. She read sales reports like a kid approaches Christmas morning. And although she was a master note taker and understood the value of customer relationship management data, she let her sales partner attach her notes to customer files. She did the design work for client presentations but routinely delegated the construction of the PowerPoint slides to skilled marketers.
I loved working for this woman. She was clear about her purpose and values, and she structured her life accordingly.
In a typical day, we all face trade-offs between time and money. These trade-offs play out in major life decisions like choosing a higher-paying job that demands more hours versus a job paying less money that allows for more autonomy. We also see these trade-offs between time and money in more mundane decisions like choosing to spend a Saturday afternoon grocery shopping versus paying to have food for the week delivered to your door.
Time and money are both scarce resources, yet research (paywall) shows that individuals who prioritize time over money tend to be happier. Ironically, when you ask thousands of Americans (representing a range of ages, income levels and occupations) whether they want more time or money, 64% (paywall) report wanting more money. Apparently, many of us still don’t understand what my former leader knew:
Valuing time over money gives a person more intrinsic satisfaction.
When researchers dug into the data, here’s what they found about time-valuing individuals:
- These individuals are more motivated to engage in behaviors associated with well-being (exercise, travel, hobbies, cultivating relationships, etc.).
- These individuals are more self-reflective than their money-focused peers.
- These individuals tend to spend money on experiences versus material goods.
So if having more time contributes to happiness, connection, self-awareness and experimentation, how do we all create more of it?
- Identify your values and embody them via the choices you make about using the 1,440 minutes you have each day. Not sure what you value? Take this free VIA Survey.
- Identify your strengths and work-style preferences so you can select where to spend your energy. Any of these self-assessments can give you an orientation: DiSC profile, CliftonStrengths or the Enneagram.
- Cultivate a consistent and reliable support team. You want experts on your side — bookkeepers, babysitters, virtual assistants and webmasters. Need help finding help? Investigate TaskRabbit, BELAY or Upwork.
- Let go. In other words, don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good. Don’t spend time on tasks that don’t fill you up or ones that others might do more effectively.
How we spend our time is how we live our lives.
Tasks expand to fill the time they’re given. Consider what you might get done and how good you could feel if you chose to delegate more. And in the space you create, choose to focus on activities and tasks that you excel at, contribute to your well-being or create a lasting memory with someone you love.
