Value for Time

While I earn a reasonable income as an individual, we're a single income family with four kids. It's important for us to get value for money.

One way our family achieves this is by shopping at Salvation Army seconds stores from time to time. It's a bit of thrill of 'the hunt'; finding a nice shirt, a pair of shoes or a pair of pants that you would otherwise be literally paying ten times the price for. No matter which way you look at it, it's a good deal!
Another example of value for money I'm pretty proud of is the purchase of my bicycle. I bought it, in almost new condition, for $300, approximately half its original retail price.  Shortly thereafter, I started to commute to work on it, saving myself around $7 for everyday I rode instead of catching the a bus, equating to a potential of around $1,200 that year!

While prudence with our finances is important, money, once spent, can be re-earned. Time however, once past can never be reclaimed. I've been considering the value for time in the things I do day to day. As I've been thinking about this these past weeks, I was reminded of a simple object lesson that was taught in a Sunday school class at church one Sunday. (A simpler version of the rock, pebble, sand and water time management analogy)

The teacher had in front of the class a large glass bowl. Alongside, there were three smaller bowls. The first contained small rocks, another contained tiny pebbles and the last had fine sand. The teacher then asked the class in what order would they have to fill the large glass bowl in order for it to hold the contents of all three smaller bowls. After some discussion, it was clear that to achieve that goal, the small rocks would have to go in first, followed by the small pebbles and lastly the fine sand. The teacher then explained what each of the items represented.

• The space available in the large glass bowl was the time we had.
• The small rocks represented the most important things in our lives; those that would contribute to our long term sustainable success. These things, if repeatedly carried out over a long period, become our constructive habits. I call these 'staple' activities.
  These, for me, include time with my family, date nights with my wife, exercise, scripture study, church responsibilities and activities that improve my professional skills. 
• The tiny pebbles represented moderately important things. While not absolutely necessary, these activities help to enrich our lives that little bit more.
  These, for me, include taking family holidays and trips, reading a book, learning new skills.
• The fine sand represented things of little value. While they have their place, it matters little whether or not we do these things.
  
  These, for me, include aimless playing of video games, watching television and surfing the Internet. Note that I qualified this last statement with the word 'aimless'. Purposeful participation of these activities qualifies them for the first two categories of activities. For instance, as much as I'm not a big fan of Nintendo Smash Brothers, I partake from time to time as a bonding exercise with my kids.

The instruction given to us from the Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 9:51 seems apt in relation the challenge of using our temporal resources wisely.

"Wherefore, do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labour for that which cannot satisfy..."

 



 Have a great week!