Time Wealth

The unexpected joy of not optimizing every second

For nearly my entire career my relationship with time has been about one thing, optimization. Now, two months into retirement from Google, I am learning the profound difference between being efficient with time and being wealthy in it. I am loving every minute, second, hour, day, what day is it? My relationship with time is changing. How I understand it. The speed at which I do things is changing. And the result is: I am happier. Let me try to explain what I mean, because I am just starting to understand this for myself.

My watch these days is more for counting steps than telling time.

The Cult of “Busy”

I used to try to optimize every part of my day, especially at work. Efficiency was the name of the game. If you can do more things in less time you are more valuable. Your output to input ratio is high. You exceed expectations. You get things done. You are a super star.

There are tons of books about this topic of time and productivity. Atomic Habits is the latest book I have read on the topic. I just finished the Time Wealth chapters in The 5 Types of Wealth and Four Thousand Weeks is sitting on my nightstand. They all come at time with a slightly different angle, but in the end they are the same. Time is finite in your life. You don’t know exactly how much time you have, but about 80 years +/- 20 years is about it. 4000 weeks is about 80 years, thus the book title. Then if you bring in the calendar work week constraints you only have 40 hours to do work things in a week give or take.

We all know this. There is nothing new here. Except for me, with this transition into retirement, the equation has changed and I think it is changing something in my brain.

In the past I always optimized everything I did for time efficiency. If I was doing a task, I wanted to do it as quickly as possible and in the best way possible. If I was driving somewhere, I used Google maps. I chose the fastest route. If there was a couple minutes faster route, I would take it. Dare I say, I might even open Waze to get a faster route?

Screen shots of Google Maps and Waze from the Google Boulder Office to a Coffee Shop.

When was the very last moment I could leave to get there on time? When was the first moment I could leave wherever I was when I was done to get to the next thing? Checking my watch, estimating transit time, how long will it take to get this or that task done. Pack it in, add it to the calendar, squeeze it in, busy, busy, busy.

How are you doing? Good, busy, but good. Lots to do. We wear “busy” with a badge of honor.

Embracing Flexibility

Now, things are different. Very different.

Now I have flexibility. I have so much more control of what I schedule in the day. This is great. I can do the things that I want when I want. That part was expected. What wasn’t expected was how I engage with other people when I am doing something. Part of my mental energy in the past was spent thinking about what I was going to do next, when I needed to leave, and what I needed to have ready. Now I don’t need to spend energy on optimizing so I am more fully engaged and present. It isn’t that I don’t schedule things, I do. I just schedule a longer slot so I don’t have to worry about the time.

Coffee with a friend in the past: if I scheduled something like that at all, it might have been 30 minutes or at most an hour. Now, schedule 2 hours and if we meet that long, great, I’ve got the space. Going to a friend's house for dinner or having friends over I used to always think, oh we need to get home so we can get to bed, work in the morning. Now, we just go with the flow and see where the night takes us. Traveling down to Denver for a concert, oooh that's late, not sure if I can make it. Now, let's do it!

Frothy mustache after a particularly foamy latte.

The removal of time pressure has made things more enjoyable and I feel more engaged than ever. In the past I was always thinking, is this the absolute best thing I could be using my time for in this instance? And if it wasn’t, I would get a bit annoyed or frustrated. Now that pressure is off and I can find enjoyment in almost anything I am doing.

The Unseen Stress of Optimization

I never really thought that I was stressed that often when I was working. I now realize that this constant time pressure was a form of low level stress on my life that was always there. I had got so used to it I didn’t recognize it as stress. I can tell you that now it is gone I feel much better.

I’m sure folks are thinking, great Brian, if I could just retire then I can deal with this time pressure, but until then I guess I just have to deal with it. I don’t think you need to retire to deal with this potential source of stress. Just understanding the stress is there might be enough for many folks. Schedule less things, make more space, you might need a break more than you thought. Try scheduling a block of “un-optimized” time for just thinking, having a conversation with your spouse or a loved one, or just take the scenic route home. I’m learning that the first step isn’t finding more time, it’s reclaiming the time you already have.

Measuring the Shift to Time Wealth

In The 5 Types of Wealth, there is a wealth assessment you take at the beginning of the book. When I answered the questions on Time Wealth last week I scored a 16 out of 20 (higher is better), which I think is pretty good. I also answered the questions as if I would have a year ago and scored a 8 out of 20. Not good. It was the lowest dimension.

Pre-retirement Wealth Score Assessment

Post-retirement Wealth Score Assessment

I want to unpack all of the dimensions of this wealth score at some point, but of all the dimensions, Time Wealth was the most dramatic shift from pre-retirement to post-retirement. This didn’t come as a surprise. I knew I would have the opportunity to do new and different things that I didn't have time for before. That is true. What I didn’t expect, and what I am really excited about, is that the flexibility and decreased time pressure has made everything I am doing so much more enjoyable and engaging.

For anyone out there in the working world, is there anything you have found that has helped you better manage your time, not so that you can pack more things in, but so that you can be happier and engage more with the people that are most important to you?

Brian