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 consider the opportunity cost when you're
Speaker 1: deciding whether to take on a new responsibility or accept
Speaker 1: an invitation. Don't evaluate this option in isolation. Instead, consider
Speaker 1: how the option compares to the next best opportunity that
Speaker 1: you have to give up to say yes. In a
Speaker 1: recent episode of the NPR show and podcast Planet Money,
Speaker 1: economists were asked about the most useful ideas from economics.
Speaker 1: Michigan State economist Lisa Cook named opportunity cost, and she's
Speaker 1: got my vote on this one. As you may remember
Speaker 1: from your econ one oh one days, opportunity cost is
Speaker 1: the principle that the true cost of something is what
Speaker 1: you have to give up in order to get it.
Speaker 1: In other words, that new car you're considering doesn't just costs,
Speaker 1: it's opportunity cost. Might be the kitchen renovation that you
Speaker 1: don't have thirty dollars for if you buy the car,
Speaker 1: or maybe you're in a job where in normal times
Speaker 1: you can pick up extra shifts. The opportunity cost of
Speaker 1: the car might be the extra day every other week
Speaker 1: you'll need to work until the car is paid off.
Speaker 1: Or you could invest the thirty dollars and in twenty years,
Speaker 1: with compound interest, have enough saved to retire a year earlier.
Speaker 1: You get the idea. As is often the case, money
Speaker 1: and time turn out to be similar, our choices about
Speaker 1: time turn out to have an opportunity cost too. When
Speaker 1: you choose to do one thing, you are choosing not
Speaker 1: to do something else, such as life. There are no freebies,
Speaker 1: but you want to make sure that your choice is
Speaker 1: both conscious and wise. The key realization here is that
Speaker 1: when you choose to fill your time with something, the
Speaker 1: alternative is not nothing. It's doing whatever else you could
Speaker 1: have done in the same amount of time. So if
Speaker 1: it takes you three hours to make the elaborate dessert
Speaker 1: you saw on Pinterest, the opportunity cost might be reading
Speaker 1: most of that new novel that you keep meaning to
Speaker 1: pick up. Both could occupy the same block of leisure time,
Speaker 1: or maybe your team has set up a recurring meeting
Speaker 1: at nine am on Tuesdays. The opportunity cost might be
Speaker 1: the other work people could have done at that time,
Speaker 1: such as powering through big projects without interruption. When people's
Speaker 1: minds tend to be fresh or in normal times meeting
Speaker 1: clients for breakfast. So is the dessert or the recurring
Speaker 1: meeting worth it. It's entirely possible that the answer is yes.
Speaker 1: But the issue is that people often decide to take
Speaker 1: on activities based on whether they're free, not whether these
Speaker 1: activities are the best use of time. When someone asks
Speaker 1: to meet on Tuesday at nine am, you look at
Speaker 1: your calendar, see that it's open, and say yes. You
Speaker 1: don't consider that maybe come Tuesday your biggest client will
Speaker 1: be asking for a proposal by noon, or that at
Speaker 1: am on Tuesday, your cousin will want to FaceTime because
Speaker 1: after a month of quarantining with his significant other, they've
Speaker 1: decided to get engaged and want to share the celebratory
Speaker 1: news with you. Now, of course, neither of these new
Speaker 1: developments may be likely, but you don't know that. When
Speaker 1: we take on commitments or lukewarm about we may have
Speaker 1: to turn down things we really want to do, or
Speaker 1: throw our whole schedules into flux and create bad feelings
Speaker 1: in order to make the good stuff happen. Better to
Speaker 1: be more strategic when you say yes to something that's
Speaker 1: only a five or a six on a ten point scale,
Speaker 1: you crowd out space for the eights and nine. That's
Speaker 1: the real opportunity cost. Don't assume your time will only
Speaker 1: be filled with a zero. So today, as you're considering
Speaker 1: taking things on, ask yourself what else you could do
Speaker 1: with an equivalent quantity of time. Consider how you'd feel
Speaker 1: if an opportunity to take on something that was an
Speaker 1: eight or a nine wafted into your life, And consider
Speaker 1: that you can often create opportunities for eights and nine
Speaker 1: if you're smart and keep your eyes open. Hopefully this
Speaker 1: will empower you to turn down the mediocre with more confidence.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod
Speaker 1: that's B the number four then breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much.
Speaker 1: Should I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of i heart Radio. For more podcasts
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