When we spend 20 minutes of our time trying to save $5 by availing a painfully hard to avail deal, we implicitly value our time at $15 per hour.
We also neglect the opportunity cost of that time – time we could have spent relaxing, exercising, conversing with family, and so on. As the saying goes, penny wise, pound foolish.
For those of us who grew up in circumstances where money was relatively tight or for whom the desire to optimize everything to the best possible outcome takes over when dealing with money, it becomes particularly important to set an explicit value of our time.
It makes it easier to stop ourselves from spending one more hour to save a few bucks off the price of that table.
And, most importantly, it forces us to focus our energy on the areas that will actually move the needle on our happiness and productivity.
