TIME AFFLUENCE
Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend ~ Theophrastus.
Affluence implies being able to spend – having sufficient money to choose how, and when, you wish to spend it without agonising over the consequences. Most people aspire to this level of comfort, whatever their interpretation of affluence may be.
What Theophrastus is talking about, however, is \’Time Affluence\’. This is the ability to spend time in a way that is personally meaningful, and that brings you joy and fulfillment. \’Time Poverty\’ sits at the other end of the time spectrum. That is where you feel unable to do what is important to you, and sense that you are missing out on what makes life worth living.
Recent research confirms that time affluence is strongly associated with well-being, irrespective of how much money we earn.
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IDEAS FOR CRAFTING TIME AFFLUENCE:
Time affluence has universal application – whether we are still working and perhaps battling with time poverty, or whether we have already shifted down a gear and moved away from fulltime work and are now re-crafting our idea of time affluence.
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If you are currently employed, and feel caught up in the cycle of time poverty, here are some thoughts …
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Greenberg & Maymin (2013) found three common drains on our productivity that contribute to time poverty.
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We are overworked. Constant access to technology and a global 24/7 accessible business environment means that we do not disconnect.
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We multitask too much. Multitasking does not work! It makes us flip-flop between cell phones, emails, admin and unnecessary interruptions. A recent study found that we can lose up to 40% of our productivity from \’flip-flopping\’ between tasks. In an 8-hour day that means 3 hours are lost!
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We procrastinate. We do not start or complete tasks for many reasons, including the \’need to please disease\’, where we allow interruptions, or we are paralysed because we think our work needs to be perfect, or maybe we have just not planned effectively.
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If we can \’take ourselves to task\’ and critically evaluate possible bad habits in each of these areas, we can increase our time affluence.
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If you are retired or planning to gear down in your working life:
Perhaps re-work the well-known Nike ad from \’Just do it\’ to \’Just plan it\’. Prof Martin Seligman uses the acronym of PERMA for describing well-being (think PERMA-nent well-being). PERMA represents five pillars of well-being. Evaluating how you would like to construct each of these pillars can be immensely helpful in
planning or re-evaluating your new life structure.
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| P = POSTITIVE EMOTION |
| What activities / people do you need in your life in that will bring positive emotion such as love, laughter and comfort? |
| E = ENGAGEMENT |
| What activities will bring "flow" where you are so involved in the moment you do not notice time passing? |
| R = RELATIONSHIPS |
| What social networks (close and within the broader community) do you wish to actively build on? |
| M = MEANING |
| What will provide you with meaning and purpose as you move forward in your life? |
| A = ACHIEVEMENT |
| What can you do that will continue to provide you with a sense of accomplishment in your life? |
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If we approach any transition with PERMA in mind, we can move into that new space in a far more constructive and mindful way, and create time affluence before bad habits become entrenched.
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IN CONCLUSION:
Ideally, we want to build a strong relationship between our financial affluence and our time affluence.
Wealth-being and well-being can definitely go hand in hand.
Take the time to visit your financial planner to discuss what the balance in this relationship needs to look like
for you – it will be time well spent!
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REFERENCES
Greenberg, M & Maymin, S (2013): Profit from the positive. New York . McGraw Hill Education
Wissing, M., Potgieter,J., Guse, T., Khumalo,T .& Nel, L. (2014). Towards Flourishing. Contextualising Positive Psychology. Pretoria. Van Schaik Publishers.
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