The Value Of Time
The Value Of Time
“If you don’t learn history, you’re doomed to repeat it.”
We’ve all heard this phrase. We understand it. Most of us even claim to believe it. And yet, generation after generation of human beings continue to get to the end of their life with the same word on their lips: regret.
“I wish I had the courage to do ___.”
“I wish I hadn’t given up on ___.”
“I wish I hadn’t wasted so much time ___.”
We understand this is the definition of insanity while at the same time running into the same buzzsaw of our ancestors. Why?
Perspective.
Let’s talk about time.
Consider this: A big chain donut store offers free donuts to anyone with a limited-time coupon. People flock to locations wait for hours, all to save a few dollars and pump their bodies full of carbs and sugar. Do you know anyone who would stand in line for hours just to get something for free? Are you one of them?
These stories are common, and my reaction is the same: What the heck is wrong with these people??
The answer: These people place zero value on their time. It’s free. Like the air we breathe, they’re convinced that time is abundant and in endless supply. It’s as if their lives are immortal and that they have so much more time ahead of us to do other things.
This is why it is said that “youth is wasted on the young.” We understand INTELLECTUALLY when we’re younger that time is more important than money, because after all, you can never get time back. And yet, we live like gods. We ‘kill time’ until work is over, we watch 3 hours of Netflix at night because we “deserve it” after a long day, we go into our “free” weekends with zero plan and *blink* it’s Monday again.
(side note: Take the phrase “I deserve” out of your vocabulary. “I deserve” is the disease of complacency)
Part of the reason we feel invincible when we’re young is how slow times to go by relative to as you get older. Neurologically, this is because when we’re younger we experience more novelty than when we are older. Thus, our brain is taking more in, and time seems to last longer. As we age, our brain filters more and more out which speeds up our perception of time.
When you’re 5, 1 year is 20% of your life. When you’re 40, 1 year is 2.5% of your life. So, life is 9x faster as a 40 year old than a 5 year old. If you adjust for that shift in perception of time speed, your midpoint (“middle age”) is closer to 21 than it is to 37.
Here are some cold, hard facts in 2025:
1. Only 3 in 10,000 people will live until age 100
2. Average mortality for men: 74
3. Average mortality for women: 81
4. The most significant decline mobility is between the ages of 60 and 65
5. 95% of Americans have at least 1 chronic disease by age 60
6. The average 1st-time homeowner is now 40 years old
Meanwhile, most people’s entire financial plan is to trade away the best years of your life in servitude and *hope* you have enough by the ages described above to live “the good life?”
There are three main differences I see off the top of my head between how rich people and poor people look at time:
1 – Rich people are rich because they create “leverage,” ie they start a business and multiply their efforts with other people so they’re not trading their life 1:1
2 – Rich people value time more than poor people and it gives them a tremendous sense of urgency that poor people lack
3 - Rich people buy time, poor people buy stuff (see the next section on Parasitic Debt below). Rich people use time to buy skills, poor people use time to buy distractions
Guess which side of the line the following person lives on based on their habits:
· They sleep until noon
· They binge hours of sports and streaming shows
· As soon as they get a little bored they jump to Instagram and waste the next 30 minutes scrolling through reels
· They spend more time watching the lives of other people online than creating one for themselves
· They have 1,000 wins on Fortnite
INDENTURED TIME IS THE PRICE OF FREE TIME
There are two kinds of time that your life consists of: FREE TIME, and INDENTURED TIME.
For most people, you’d probably consider your free time your weeknights and weekends where you are not busy trading your time for money.
Here’s the million dollar kicker: Your free time isn’t free. It’s bought and paid for with indentured time.
-You enjoy a 2 week vacation because it was paid for with 1 year of indentured time
-You can watch football at night because it was paid for with 8 hours of servitude during the day
How about a trade: You give me $5, and I’ll give you $2 back. Sound good? No? Why not? Because trading 5 of anything for 2 of anything is an obviously bad deal. And yet, that’s how most of us trade our lives for money.
And the irony? Even those 2 days you get back for your 5 days of servitude for being a good boy or girl isn’t free because you’re using at least one of those to ‘recover’ from the previous 5.
PARASITIC DEBT
But it gets even better. What do we do with this hard-earned ransom? A brief respite for our labor?
We add to our enslavement with parasitic debt.
What is parasitic debt? Consider: You don’t pay for things with money, you pay for things with your life. You know, that valuable substance you can never get back?
That $300 suit cost you 10 hours of your life at $30 an hour.
That new car with 60 monthly payments just added 5 years of enslavement.
That $400K home that you just put a 20% downpayment on for a 30 year mortgage? What about the additional $381K in interest you’ll end up paying over those 30 years? Fun fact: did you know that the word Mortgage in Latin broken down into its base components means “Death Grip?”
CREATE MORE TIME LEVERAGE IN YOUR LIFE
Now that I’ve thoroughly depressed you, what’s the good news? The good news is that since time is more of a perception than something based in cold, hard reality, you can change your future regrets now by your mindset around time and your actions. Assuming you have typical responsibilities (a demanding job, family obligations, spiritual commitments, etc), here are some recommendations:
1 – Build networks
Tired of trading your life 1:1 for money? Create leverage. Wealthy people (those with time and money) do one of two things at a high level: 1) Invest in a network, 2) Build a network. The former requires lots of capital or cashflow, which is why I’d recommend #2 first. Robert Kiyosaki (paraphrasing) likes to say that financially speaking, you can either ‘get a job, or build a network.’
2 – Reframe your fears
Success building a network requires massive action, but the biggest roadblock is often fear. In life, you will be driven by one of two fears: the fear of failure, or the fear of regret. You may not ever completely get rid of your short-term fears, so instead of trying to get rid of your fears, reframe them and pick a much bigger fear to force you through your lesser fear (i.e. use your fear of regret 25 years down the road to bypass your fear of performing actions that build your business right now)
3 – Adopt the Entrepreneurial Time System
Divide your calendar into three types of days to protect high-value time and prevent burnout.
"Free Days" are dedicated to rest, recharge, and personal life
"Focus Days" are for deep, high-impact work on your 10x long term goals (i.e. read the book ‘10x is Easier Than 2x’ by Dr Benjamin Hardy)
"Buffer Days" handle preparation, transitions, and administrative tasks. This system shifts from reactive busyness to proactive freedom, allowing you to achieve more by strategically allocating energy.
-Look at your focus days on a monthly basis instead of just weekly to account for weeks that are busier than others (I personally aim for at least 16 Focus days in the month)
-At least 10 hours of uninterrupted time each week to grow your business or at least 40 hours per month
-Use the credit-hour rule they suggest to you in school for your studies – i.e. 1 hour of study for every 1 hour of work; and vice versa, 1 hour of work for every 1 hour of study so you don’t become information-obese. In other words, business and success is just as much about becoming a mental & emotional professional athlete as it is physically putting in the work. Try to maintain a 1:1 balance.
-Based on that previous point, can you find 80 hours in a month out of 672 hours (in other words, can you devote 11.9% of your month to your dreams & goals)?
Example:
1 - Sleep - 224 hours (8 hours a night)
2 - Work - 200 hours (50 hours a week)
3 - Health - 56 hours (14 hours a week)
4 - Family - 68 hours (1 hour a weeknight and 12 hours on the weekend)
5 – Business / dreams & goals - 80 hours (20 hours a week)
Leftover - 44 hours to do whatever else you want to do.
4 – Break Your Days Into 3 Mini-Days & Prioritize Your ‘Green Zone’ Energy
Ed Mylett advocates dividing your 24-hour day into three "mini-days" (e.g., 6 AM to noon, noon to 6 PM, and 6 PM to midnight), treating each as a full, separate day with its own focus on work, relationships, and reflection.
This compresses time, allowing you to achieve three days' worth of output in one calendar day, while building in moments to recalibrate and avoid burnout.
He credits this hack with transforming his own life over 25 years, noting it creates a sense of abundance in time and compounds results through consistent urgency.
Imagine having 1,095 days in one year where everyone else gets 365? Talk about maximizing your year (or 3 in this case)!
A couple additional suggestions for maximizing this strategy:
a) Automate your 1st day (6am – Noon) with routines to reduce decision fatigue to begin your day strong; willpower is a finite resource as your day progresses, and the less you use up in the morning the more you’ll have in the evening for other things
b) Maximize your ‘green energy’ zones.
In his book “At Your Best”, leadership expert Carey Nieuwhof describes dividing a typical day into three energy zones to manage productivity and avoid burnout: Green (peak energy), Yellow (moderate energy), and Red (low energy). He emphasizes that these vary by individual, but based on his research and work with leaders, most people (including the average person) follow this general pattern:
Green Zone (High/Peak Energy): 3–5 hours per day
This is when you're most alert, creative, focused, and productive. Nieuwhof recommends reserving it for your most important, high-impact work.
Red Zone (Low Energy): 1–2 hours per day (often in the late afternoon, e.g., 4–6 p.m.)
This is when energy crashes—you feel drained, distracted, or need caffeine to push through. Best for rest, low-stakes tasks.
Yellow Zone (Moderate Energy): The remaining hours in your waking day
Energy is decent but not peak—suitable for routine tasks, meetings, or administrative work.
5 – Pursue Wormholes
Dr. Benjamin Hardy, an organizational psychologist and bestselling author, uses the metaphor of a wormhole in his book ‘Slipstream Time Hacking’ (2015) to explain accelerated personal development and goal achievement.
He draws from physics and science fiction: a wormhole is a hypothetical shortcut through spacetime that connects distant points, allowing travel with far less time and distance than the normal linear path. Big goals ‘require’ wormholes—if your ambitions don't involve seeking these shortcuts, they're too small.
Personal development is like a wormhole because true growth isn't always gradual; it's often about spotting and courageously taking nonlinear shortcuts that collapse time and effort. This can happen a few ways:
-A mentor (read ‘Who Not How’ by Dr Benjamin Hardy’) - instead of figuring out "how" to do everything yourself, find "Whos" (team members, partners, or experts) to “wormhole” yourself past blockades with your weaknesses or skill/knowledge gaps.
-Deep Work (becoming a voracious reader & listener and student)
-Environment (physical, relational, inputs, emotional)
- Wake up earlier to maximize your ‘Green Zone’ energy (most wealthy people do this)
6 – Focus only on studying skills that make you money and add value to others
Pinpoint the specific skills that financially successful individuals have, and invest only in those traits. This creates radical efficiency, as you stop wasting time on weaknesses and multiply results through specialization. In my opinion, these are:
1-Resource management (time, energy, money, priorities)
2-Communication / sales skills
3-Leadership
7 – Use the 4 C framework
1 - Apply Commitment (decide on 10x goals)
2 - Courage (cut non-essentials on Focus days, establish boundaries during business hours, etc)
3 - Capability (build skills and systems) - Routinize mornings and evenings (bookends) to eliminate decision fatigue (requires waking up before everyone else)
4 - Confidence (from past wins) as a cycle for transformations.
8 - Shift from Time Management to Energy Management
Stop tracking hours and instead prioritize activities that energize you during peak states (e.g., mornings for deep creative work). Eliminate "shallow" tasks that drain energy without high returns. Protect your energy by scheduling recovery (like Free Days) and entering flow states intentionally—aim for sessions where time feels expansive ("Kairos" quality time). This multiplies your output because high-energy work produces disproportionate results.
9 - Raise Your "Floor" by Setting Non-Negotiable Standards
Define minimum standards for opportunities, relationships, and tasks (e.g., only pursue projects that align with your 10x vision and excite your future self)
"Would my 10x self do this (spend time with this person, watch this show, eat this junk food, stay up late, go out with friends instead of commit to the time I said I would follow up with some customers or network, distract myself with home chores instead of activities that 10x my future self)?”
This eliminates low-value distractions automatically, freeing massive time for high-leverage pursuits.
10 - Practice "The 80% Approach" for Bold Elimination
Regularly audit your life on a weekly or monthly basis with the question: "What 80% of my current activities, commitments, or possessions can I let go of to free up space for 10x growth?" This isn't incremental tweaking—it's a radical drop of the non-essential to invest fully in your transformed identity.
11 - Adopt Impossible Goals as Filters
Set goals that seem unattainable with your current self (e.g., 10x revenue or impact in the next 12 months). These force simplicity because few paths exist to achieve them—naturally filtering out complexity and busywork. Review progress quarterly from your "future self" perspective to reframe obstacles as necessary transformations.
It’s not about the goal itself, it’s about changing your lens.
12 - Eat the Frog
Tackle your biggest, most daunting task first thing in the morning when your energy is highest. This builds discipline and triggers endorphins, creating a "positive addiction" to productivity.
-This is why successful people work out right away because everything else feels easier by comparison after doing it and it creates momentum going into the day because it clears your head and primes your body
13 - Avoid Phone Distractions in the Morning
Figure out a system to completely nullify distractions on your phone until lunch time, only giving yourself access to platforms that have to do with moving your goals forward. Most people completely waste their Green Energy because of their stupid phone
14 - Set Clear Goals and Use Structured Planning Tools
With your 40 hours in a month, ONLY do things that contribute directly towards growing your dreams & goals
Create and maintain lists: a daily schedule (built from an annual calendar), focused to-do lists (3-4 urgent items), a people-to-contact list, and conference planners for meetings.
This regimented system ensures you're always advancing toward your vision.
15 - Measure Performance Daily and Maintain Urgency
Act with the pace of an elite performer, as if your goals are right in front of you—wake earlier, finish stronger, and sprint through life rather than jogging.
If God told you going into this week that however you lived it, that you would be forced to live every week after that doing the exact same things you did over the current week, productive things and distractions and all until you died, would you most likely die look back on your life with regret or satisfaction? This should give yourself more urgency because you don’t know how long you’re given to live.
16 – Eliminate Laziness
Replace “Interest” with “Responsibility” (mature people don’t rely on ‘feeling’ motivated, they generate it because they choose to)
Replace “Self” with “Others” (your success isn’t about you)
Replace “Motivation” with “Obedience” (God will judge you someday with the relationships, opportunities, and resource he gave to you; nothing on this earth truly belongs to you, you’ve just been given it to steward)
Replace “Entitlement” with “Gratitude” (re-read the section above on how precious time is)
Replace “Big picture ideas (dreamer tendency)” with “Routines”