Your Time Has Value

We worry a whole lot about our money, but our time should concern us just as much, for it too has tons of value. And if you want to determine just how much value it has, take a few situations into consideration.

One way you can determine the value of your time is by taking note of how others treat it. For example, do other people respect you by keeping their appointments with you? When you agree to meet somewhere with friends, do they arrive on time? The bottom line is that there is never a good excuse for being late to any kind of meeting short of natural disasters or freeway accidents. Otherwise, if you have arranged to meet somewhere and that person does not arrive on time, you can be sure they they do not value your time. This is an obvious rule for things like job interviews or business meetings. Those are occasions during which time's value is extremely high.

Also consider how you arrange your schedule. Do you get up early to get certain errands out of the way? A good friend of mine would wake up at 6:30am to get to service appointments at the dealership for his truck. By the time he got home, he had already had breakfast and an oil change and had the rest of the day open to whatever else his heart desired. But there are many of us who won't set the alarm that early. We will sleep in on days when we have a full agenda. We will muck about the mountain all day and maybe achieve half of what we intended to do.

On a personal note, those of you who have read up on my news reports know that I have become unemployed this year. While I was working my time seemed to hold very high value because people knew that I'd be up by 5:30am and home by 4pm. But when you are unemployed, the value of your time drops drastically. There are people who might assume you're available to do their bidding because their time suddenly has more value than yours. For example, I've been asked to run countless errands for the family simply because they think I have plenty of "free time" and can just do what they can't do while they are at work all day. For some favors, this strikes me as reasonable. However, being unemployed does not have to depreciate the value of my time and it should be respected. Why? Because if I ever stop valuing what I do with all the hours in my day, my self-esteem will suffer and I won't meet my personal needs because I will be too busy catering to others.

Think about this when you make plans with people. If you have reserved your time for them and they fail to let you know that they will meet with you, they are basically telling you that your time is not as important as their time. When you purposely show up past the time that you said you would arrive, you better be sure that your arrival didn't affect the event at all. Don't get me wrong, there are times when you just have to be late, whether it be for personal comfort or because of an insane schedule. But if someone is depending on you to be there, show them that you respect their time. Maintain this professional perspective, even if it's for friends, family, or acquaintances. Your time is valuable and so is theirs.