Rest and the Value of Time

One thing I want to be very cautious of is confusing prosperity and productivity. Not that there's anything wrong with getting stuff accomplished, but that's not all there is to life. I like the maxim to work hard and then play hard. Because prosperity means not only having a good life, but living in a way where you can enjoy that good life.

Instead many people work hard and then don't play at all. Part of this comes from a culture that values earning power over all other criteria. It also comes from what I see as a foolish cult of time valuation. This concept that if you earn about $50 an hour at work, all your time is somehow magically worth $50 an hour. Look, my work time may be valued at a predictable amount based on my pay, but I'd be silly to insist that my veg out in front of the TV time is also worth that much. And my one-on-one time with my daughter? Well, it's actually "worth" way more (in the sense that you'd have to pay me way more than I make at my day job for me to give it up).

Truthfully, I don't think it makes sense to put a price tag on time at all.

Does that mean it's a good idea to spend hours of your life trying to save like $3 in cash? No, of course not. But that decision has less to do with some dollar value of your hour and more to do with the value of your time in non-monetary terms (I could be doing some else that's more fun or worthwhile) and of your piece of mind and lack of stress versus the money you'd save.

Even if I ran my very own flexible business (where there might be a very direct connection between hours working and income generated), that doesn't mean that time to rest and reflect is a bad investment. In fact it's a necessary component of productivity and of a healthy life. No one may be paying me to read a good book, but there are facets of value that don't have anything to do with money.

In contrast to those people who are all about the dollar value of their time and work work work are those who neither work nor play hard. Instead, these people putter. When they are working, they are constantly distracted and lack focus. When they are supposed to be relaxing, instead they continue to fuss with tasks they need to do.

There's a perfect example when it comes to camping. My local "family" has a similar take on setting up camp. You get there, work together hard to get things completely setup and everyone fed... and then you chill. You just relax. Now, relaxing on a camping trip can mean enjoying a stroll or hike, having a wade or swim, collecting rocks or leaves... but the point is that these activities are those that you do simply for enjoyment. What you do not do is spend all night slowing setting things up, with frequent short breaks, and many distractions. That's puttering and it drives me nuts. Because you don't work productively and you don't get any real rest or relaxation either! You're in a constant middle state where you're never done.

In any case, a combination of working hard and playing hard are important for a life of prosperity. Because both working hard and playing hard make us feel happy and satisfied, in addition to potential monetary rewards.

More on being prosperous versus feeling prosperous in a future post. But for now, in the spirit of playing hard, I will be away from the computer for most of this upcoming week. I may have a few things post automatically, but won't be trying to meet my goal of a post a day that no one reads.