# How important is time to you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 18, 2015, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-is-time-to-you/728172 "2015-08-18T13:57:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-is-time-to-you/728172/1 "2015-08-18T13:57:09Z")
Something that I am pondering is how important time is to you? To me, it is worth more than the material cost of any product. That is something that many people (including myself) seem to waste without realizing just how important it really is. Of course, this brings up the minimum wage topic as well and many other items ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-is-time-to-you/728172/2 "2015-08-18T13:59:46Z")
I couldn’t live without it. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-is-time-to-you/728172/3 "2015-08-18T14:05:33Z")
It is essential to keep everything from happening all at once. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-is-time-to-you/728172/4 "2015-08-18T14:09:01Z")
Given that I could, presumably, take on more work such that I had no free time, the fact that I haven’t means that I’m effectively paying for my time. So it’s worth a fair chunk of money, at least. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-is-time-to-you/728172/5 "2015-08-18T14:16:02Z")
Jungle Love was cool. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-is-time-to-you/728172/6 "2015-08-18T14:21:53Z")
Time is on my side. Time has come today. Time won’t let me Wait that long. The fundamental things apply As time goes by. The time is gone, the song is over, Thought I’d something more to say. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-is-time-to-you/728172/7 "2015-08-18T14:58:36Z")
**Moderator Action** Since this is more of an opinion and informal poll type of thing, let’s move it to our opinion forum. Moving thread from General Questions to In My Humble Opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-is-time-to-you/728172/8 "2015-08-18T15:13:15Z")
Could use more of it. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-is-time-to-you/728172/9 "2015-08-18T15:18:26Z")
I value my time at $100 per hour. If you can save me $25 on a product or service that I’m going to buy anyway, but it requires more than 15 extra minutes for me to take advantage, I won’t bite. ---
**Author:** ![JerrySTL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e274bd/32.png) [@JerrySTL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerrySTL)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-is-time-to-you/728172/10 "2015-08-18T15:38:45Z")
Without time, everything would happen all at once. That wouldn’t be good. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-is-time-to-you/728172/11 "2015-08-18T18:26:04Z")
I get the OPs question, even if no one else does. At a certain point in your life, time is more important than money. I have the money to buy more books and puzzles and toys than I can ever use. At least now. I’m looking forward to retirement not because I hate my job - I don’t - but to have time to do all the things that have been piling up. There is an interesting book about 25 years old, called “Competing Against Time.” It notes that you can fudge budgets at work and borrow money but you can’t borrow time. Measuring time can be an excellent way to be efficient. ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-is-time-to-you/728172/12 "2015-08-18T19:47:23Z")
Thanks Voyager. That is exactly what I was getting at. Time is something that no one ever gets back. I even realized that even when I was young and right now, you get to the point to where the mind is willing but the body is not. ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-is-time-to-you/728172/13 "2015-08-18T19:53:46Z")
Time is important enough to me that I don’t bother listing things for sale online for under $10, certainly not for a penny like some Amazon merchants. It’s not worth the time to describe the condition, buy more supplies, package the item then stand in line at the post office. Also, I’ve calculated that’s it’s not worth the time to pick a penny off of the street. More and more, I value my remaining time and realize how much of it I squandered during my youth. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-is-time-to-you/728172/14 "2015-08-18T20:03:58Z")
My wife and I chose where to live based on how short a commute it would give us. We each commute 4-5 days per week, so a small time savings each time we drive that route really adds up. The [average commute time here in the US](https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=average+commute+time) is about 25 minutes; we’re probably at 12 minutes. So if I save 24 minutes a day, that’s two hours every week. Imagine you have your regular commute, but every Friday you get to leave two hours early. I think the dollar value of your time also depends on your financial worth and your day job salary. Someone working a minimum-wage job might choose to work 60+ hours per week in order to have the cash flow they want/need; their spare time isn’t worth much if they don’t have the cash to make it comfortable, so they sell a good chunk of their spare time for minimum wage. My day job pays me quite well, so I don’t think I’d want to work an extra 20 hours per week if I got paid 50% more. As it happens, I have also had a side job for several years now that pays me, per hour of labor, about 4 times what my day job pays. For that, I willingly work an extra hour per weekday. These are valuable hours in my middle age, but by earning extra money now and investing it, I’m buying _years_ of early retirement. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-is-time-to-you/728172/15 "2015-08-18T20:16:25Z")
It’s not worth picking up that penny. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-is-time-to-you/728172/16 "2015-08-18T20:24:44Z")
I waste – even slaughter wholesale – a lot of time. Geeze, I’m posting here when I could be doing a billion things more worthwhile! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-is-time-to-you/728172/17 "2015-08-18T20:37:04Z")
I live, in certain ways, quite a bit like a shut-in because I resent wasting time so much. I don’t have a bit of social phobia or agoraphobia or anything like that. I’m completely happy to go out to do something _enjoyable_ like have dinner with friends or see a show, because those things aren’t wasting time. They’re using time to the fullest. When it comes to wasting time though I admit I’m downright weird. I don’t understand how anyone can continue wasting hours of their life running into places like Walmart or where ever, when they have the option of spending 5 minutes on Amazon and moving on to something they actually want to do. If I needed something badly enough to go into a store to buy it, I’ve often turned and walked out if there was more than 2-3 people waiting in line. I’m well aware it’s pretty weird, but I don’t care. I’m just infuriated by wasting time on life-necessitated errands. I also have a hard time wasting time talking to under-trained call center employees. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-is-time-to-you/728172/18 "2015-08-18T22:29:47Z")
I need more time in a day because there’s never enough. But as for how much I value _my_ time as it translates to getting paid for it? Depends on how much I love the work. If it’s a profitable hobby, I probably won’t care how much I make off it. If I’m punching a clock though on something that’s just to get by, I’d like to be reimbursed adequately. Funny thing is, I see an over-estimation of this all the time (heh), and it’s often to the detriment of the individual who is setting their own price. Take today for example. A friend showed me some crafted pieces she’s hoping to make a few bucks off of. The place that was willing to showcase this stuff for her was going to pay her $5.00, but she wasn’t interested because she’d put nine hours of labor into each item. Sadly, she should’ve jumped at it due to the fact that, even if there’d been an entire month involved, no one will pay more than that for switch plates covered in buttons. No matter how fancy they are or invested she is. So, there ya go. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-is-time-to-you/728172/19 "2015-08-18T23:54:28Z")
Time is an illusion. Lunchtime, doubly so. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-is-time-to-you/728172/20 "2015-08-19T00:30:39Z")
Time flies like an arrow. If you can avoid having any arrows in your home (or keep them in the freezer), you can avoid an infestation of time flies. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-is-time-to-you/728172.md?page=2)