Time’s A-Wasting

WHAT DO BEN FRANKLIN, Charles Darwin and David Cassidy all have in common? All have advised us not to waste life’s precious time.

Almost everything about money translates into time. Money can buy us time—either more free time or more time spent on higher-value activities. Money can purchase a nicer house or car, a luxury vacation, greater financial support for our children, fun toys or experiences, reduced financial stress—and, eventually, a comfortable retirement. The financial independence-retire early, or FIRE, movement is really about controlling our future time.

As a retiree now reflecting on my life, my biggest regret has absolutely nothing to do with work, marriage, parenting, leisure, house or financial decisions. No, my biggest regret is the significant blocks of time that I let slip away.

College was my first opportunity to manage my own time. I didn’t lose much time, if any, to haircuts, shaving, washing clothes, keeping my room tidy, exercising or eating a balanced diet. But like many students, I spent countless hours socializing, partying, listening to records over and over, endlessly debating social issues and initiating my discovery of adult-ish norms.

Despite plenty of wasted time in college, I did manage to obtain an engineering degree and met the best wife ever. Better time management in college or higher grades wouldn’t have led to any significant changes in my life’s outcome.

On the other hand, I can look back and identify plenty of squandered time in the years since. Here are the six biggest time wasters that I now regret:

Watching TV. While not a big television fan, I have watched too much TV, particularly in my early adult years. Since acquiring a Betamax, at least I’ve skipped past the commercials. Today, my wife and I generally require a 75% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score before pressing “play.” Unlike most of my contemporaries, I still haven’t seen a single episode of Friends, Game of Thrones, Seinfeld or The Sopranos.

Surfing the web. Admit it, we have all been sucked in by click-bait to check out the biggest, smallest, scariest, longest, shortest, best, worst, happiest or saddest whatever. Twenty pageloads later, we discover we’ve been swept down a rabbit hole into the web cesspool. Much of the web is just a huge time waster. Fortunately, I have largely avoided its biggest time sink of all—social media.

Fretting excessively over schedules and expenses. As consummate planners, my wife and I have spent countless hours stressing over—and trying to perfect—time and cost issues. Our planning perfectionism has perhaps been our life’s biggest discretionary time waster. These days, I find that the 80-20 rule or a “good enough” solution will usually suffice.

Doing low-cost work. My wife and I performed nearly all household chores throughout our adult lives. As the children of Depression-era parents, it just felt right. This approach saved money, provided exercise, felt fulfilling and set a good example for our two kids. But in hindsight, as our financial circumstances improved, we probably should have loosened the purse strings a bit and paid for more services.

For example, we now fork over $40 to have the grass cut. The two workers use expensive, commercial-scale equipment to cut, edge, blow clean and remove the yard waste on nearly three-quarters of an acre in less than 25 minutes. I couldn’t compete. The work would take me three hours or more, plus a significant financial outlay just to get the equipment.

Shopping. My wife and I are careful shoppers—perhaps too careful. We’ve spent far too many hours penny-pinching and fine-tuning our purchases. For perspective, let’s assume a $20-an-hour wage for basic labor translates to 33 cents per minute. On that basis, to be worthwhile, coupons, sales or penny-pinching activities ought to provide a greater return on the time expended. That means, if we use a 15-cent coupon, the total time we spent to find it, print it, cut it out and process it at the grocery store should ideally take no more than 30 seconds.

Today’s 15-cent coupon is equivalent of a nickel coupon from 40 years ago, when we spent plenty of time managing nickel coupons. I’m not sure it was worth our time then. It certainly isn’t now. Similarly, purchases that are made solely because they’re “on sale”—rather than because of need—have a high likelihood of being a net time sink.

Commuting. Long commutes were my life’s biggest block of squandered time, yet I don’t fully regret them. I willingly powered through my drive so that our family could live in a resort area that we all enjoyed.

The next logical question is, what would I have done with any additional time? I have no idea, but I hope I would have devoted it to something more worthwhile than extra TV watching. I doubt the great American novel is within me. But snippets of additional time could have allowed me more exercise, sleep, family time or writing time—all of which increase my peace of mind.

As I age, I’m more careful with time, particularly if it falls into the six time-wasting categories listed above. As seniors, we’re more aware that our time is starting to run out. That’s why the best advice is always, “Don't waste your time.”

John Yeigh is an author, speaker, coach, youth sports advocate and businessman with more than 30 years of publishing experience in the sports, finance and scientific fields. His book "Win the Youth Sports Game" was published in 2021. John retired in 2017 from the oil industry, where he negotiated financial details for multi-billion-dollar international projects. Check out his earlier articles.

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