Want to Be Happier? Cherish Time Over Money

0:28This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. Back Support is made with a blend of melatonin and L-theanine for both kiddos and grownups. So when your mind won't switch off, you've got something that can help. Erasing thoughts and restless nights won't stand a chance. Find OLLI Sleep Solutions for the Whole Family at OLLI.com. That's O-L-L-Y dot com. Time poverty is a pervasive problem. It's been getting worse, and it affects people all over the world. We often think about poverty in terms of financial terms, not having enough money. But something that's really detrimental to our subjective well-being is not having enough time.

1:07So this idea of being time poor, having too many things to do and not enough time in the day to do them, afflicts 80 percent of working Americans today and affects working employees all over the world and can have stronger negative effects on happiness than being unemployed. I really wanted to understand whether some people were more broadly oriented to thinking about giving up money to have more free time, or whether some people were more strongly oriented to give up time in order to have more money. So I developed this survey tool, which is really simple. Are you more like Taylor or are you more like Morgan?

1:47So Taylor would rather prioritize time over money. Taylor's willing to give up money in order to have more time, such as by working fewer hours. Or are you more like Morgan? Are you willing to give up time in order to have more money so you'd rather work more and have less time off? Does your blood curdle if you think about the idea of paying someone to do a disliked task? Because that means you're probably holding onto your money even if that money could be used to have more and better time. Do you spend a lot of time researching the best deal so you're giving up your own time to save money? If so, you're probably more like Morgan and less like Taylor.

2:26In all of my studies, I find that there's a pretty equal split, but what I find over and over again is that people who prioritize time over money report greater happiness, less stress, better social relationships. People who identify with Morgan who say that they were willing to give up time in order to have more money, on average are less happy, have less high-quality social relationships, are more stressed out. You have a tendency to engage in activities that are likely to make you stressed and unhappy and that you need to be aware of this general tendency. Otherwise, you could end up lonelier than you wish you were, working more hours than you wish you were, having fewer friends and less hobbies than you wish you had.

3:13There are many routes to getting to time affluence, and the first step is to understand exactly this point. what activities bring you joy in a day? What activities bring you misery? Which activities feel like time traps, like you're stuck and you can't get out of those activities and you wish you were doing literally anything else? And then trying to structure your day either by outsourcing or delegating or time management strategies, making it so that your schedule on an everyday basis has a lot of activities that bring you joy, pleasure, and meaning. And so what those activities are are going to look different for everyone.

3:52Some people really enjoy cooking. Other people would give up half of their salary to never have to cook again, which many of us do, like myself included. There's really no one-size-fits-all solution for time affluence, but the first step is trying to understand what activities do I do in a day that I really enjoy. I'm generally a Morgan, even though I study time and happiness. So what I do in my own life is that I try to make some small decisions around the margins to give up money to have more free time. My partner and I actively talk about outsourcing in busy weeks, so we won't cook in weeks where we're both very busy.

4:34So we're willing to kind of trade in some of that money that we're making to have more and better time so we can enjoy our time off together, which is quite limited. One of the ways that people can spend money or use money to gain happiness is to exchange money for more free time. So you can sort of work fewer hours and you can also give up money to have more and better time by outsourcing your disliked tasks to others, hiring a house cleaner, ordering takeout. I also try to add time affluent producing activities into my schedule. I put in a walk or run every day into my calendar and I treat that as the most important work meeting.

5:15I also do a lot of time blocking related to my actual work so that my work doesn't run into all hours of the day and night. Almost being as regimented about time and leisure as I am about work.

5:33A lot of us feel like outsourcing is not for me, but we find powerful benefits of giving up money to have more free time even at really small dollar amounts and And even among college students, a couple of my favorite examples are students who hear me lecturing on these topics and are on a shoestring budget or living in their parents' basement. And they tell me, I've been able to spend money in ways that save me time every day. I had one student who was walking to work and bought a used bike, so that saved them a few minutes in the morning while they were going to work at their local cafe. Another student bought a coffee machine that automatically brews coffee in the morning to save them a few minutes while they're kind of scrambling around in the dark trying to get ready.

6:18And they've said that that has significantly increased their well-being. Some people often push back and say, well, isn't that a nice luxury? And that seems a little bit selfish to focus on time. I should be focusing on others or helping my organizations or my society or money. All my data suggests that focusing on time is the selfless decision because by focusing on time, by feeling in control of your life, you have the bandwidth and the capacity to ultimately focus on others and to support causes and contribute your energy to issues that really matter.