Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to add up the full time cost.
Speaker 1: We can forget all the small bits of time attached
Speaker 1: to any project or activity, but seeing the true cost
Speaker 1: can help us make better choices. Today's tip, like yesterday's,
Speaker 1: comes from Ashley Willen's new book Time Smart. In this book,
Speaker 1: she argues that people tend to undervalue their time compared
Speaker 1: with money, but that we're often happier making time centric decisions.
Speaker 1: One way that people undervalue their time is by not
Speaker 1: considering all the time associated with any project or decision.
Speaker 1: When people first look into speaking professionally, for instance, many
Speaker 1: get quite excited by the pay rates associated with the job,
Speaker 1: but of course, earning thousands of dollars for a one
Speaker 1: hour speech doesn't actually translate into a rate of earning
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars per hour. You often have to travel
Speaker 1: to the speech. There's time getting to the airport and
Speaker 1: time spent on the plane. Sometimes you have to stay overnight.
Speaker 1: There's time spent packing and unpacking afterwards. There's the fact
Speaker 1: that traveling takes a lot of energy. All of This
Speaker 1: can be streamlined, of course, but it does lower the
Speaker 1: per hour take. Likewise, Willen's notes that if someone wants
Speaker 1: to have a meal with you to network, you're saying yes.
Speaker 1: Is not just the sixty minutes of the meal, there's
Speaker 1: also the time you'll spend getting too and from the
Speaker 1: restaurant and finding parking. If you budget two hours total,
Speaker 1: she says, you should ask yourself what am I not
Speaker 1: doing with that time that I could be doing? And
Speaker 1: what is the effect on the time around that meal?
Speaker 1: Did you have to rush to complete tasks? Did it
Speaker 1: increase you see your stress trying to make the appointment?
Speaker 1: And did it affect your work afterward? These are all
Speaker 1: good questions. Now, I am not saying that you shouldn't
Speaker 1: go to networking lunches or dinners. You should. You just
Speaker 1: want to be sure that you understand the full time cost. Now.
Speaker 1: I do think that a certain category of us have
Speaker 1: an easier time making these calculations. In my case, I
Speaker 1: am a working mom of five young kids. My husband
Speaker 1: also works full time, and pre COVID, he traveled a
Speaker 1: lot for work. So for many of my activities, I've
Speaker 1: had to figure out the full time cost because I've
Speaker 1: had to calculate the child care requirement. I know that
Speaker 1: a sixty minute dinner isn't just a sixty minute dinner
Speaker 1: because I'm booking the babysitter to show up forty minutes
Speaker 1: beforehand and to stay forty minutes after. I've probably gone
Speaker 1: to fewer things than I should have, precisely because I
Speaker 1: am seeing the full time cost. But if you don't
Speaker 1: have the babysitter meter, taking these things can be a
Speaker 1: little harder to see, and that can affect decisions. So
Speaker 1: when you're considering saying yes to something, be sure to
Speaker 1: understand what it entails. That project isn't just two hours.
Speaker 1: You'll spend at least another two hours negotiating the details
Speaker 1: and setting up pre calls with the people involved. That
Speaker 1: virtual coffee isn't just the twenty minutes. If you'll stop
Speaker 1: deep work ten minutes before and cycle through headlines for
Speaker 1: ten minutes afterwards, add up the full time cost, and
Speaker 1: then ask what else you could do with that time.
Speaker 1: Maybe nothing much, but maybe something important and that is
Speaker 1: worth knowing. In the meantime, This is Laura, Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. M
Speaker 1: Hey everybody. I'd love to hear from you. You can
Speaker 1: send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just
Speaker 1: connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before
Speaker 1: Breakfast Pod that's b E the number four, then Breakfast
Speaker 1: p o D. You can also shoot me an email
Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast podcast. At i heeart media dot com
Speaker 1: that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For
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