I know, it sounds weird because we have always been told you can buy everything but time. However as much as believing bananas are fruit is a myth (they are herbs!), inability to buy time is a myth too and science proves it.
All you need to do is to shift your mindset from looking for products as life saviors to looking for services that can ease your life.
We used to think vacuums, or dishwashers, or irons can help ease our life. But guess what: you can have all the best tools, but if you do not have time to use them, they are useless. So, let’s not look for tools and start shopping for services.
Here is your guide in time buying:
Buy services and memberships that take some responsibilities off your shoulders.
Home cleaning services: If you are a parent, full time employee, student, partner and community member, you should not do all the cleanings, shopping and maintenance.
Often paying for a service ends up saving lots of energy and headache. Consider not buying that cute shoe or cool gadget and instead use the money to buy time by paying for a home cleaning service. Sometimes you do not even have to have a contract with a big company for that. Look in the community around you, find a reliable and trusted person who can use a small income and ask them if they are interested in helping you around the home for less than what companies charge.
- Pay for that Amazon Prime membership once a year and save a lot. We all know the more we actually visit stores, the more we spend on things that are not on our shopping list. Stay at home, and order what you need through Amazon. It’s fast, has free shipping, gives you access to almost everything you can imagine for a reasonable price. It saves you time that you would stay in line at actual stores, is less temptational, has less gas expense and more importantly it frees much needed time so you can spend your time with family, resting or even catch up with work. (let me know if you know a better online shopping outlet).
- Consider paying a teenager in the neighborhood, or even your child, to do smaller tasks such as mowing the lawn, or ironing your cloths. You end up paying less than you would pay a dry cleaner or mowing company. Make teenagers happy and free some time to take care of more important tasks around you. ( keep safety and age appropriate tasks in mind)
To make a long story short, stop buying stuff and start looking to do things differently.