Typically, I write on innovation, startups, and the future, but today’s let’s talk a little about productivity.
Right before the pandemic, I thought I was going to do a lot of traveling so I bought a really small, really light laptop. I thought – this would be great since I’m going to be lugging it around, then I thought – let me buy the most powerful ultrabook that I can find.
Of course, then the pandemic hit, and it had this really nice, slim laptop, but it didn’t have a very long battery life, and it was a bit underpowered for the massive spreadsheets that I was working with.
So I went in search of a new machine. Where did I look? In which world do you find ultra overpowered machines? Well, in the gaming world, of course. So I went out and bought a tricked-out high-end gaming laptop. Since my future meant a lot of Zoom calls, I went out and bought high-resolution camera gamers on Twitch used. Finally, I realize that I needed really good sound (once again, due to the Zoom calls). I didn’t care so much for the quality of the headphones, but I did care a lot about the quality of the microphone, I want to make sure that I was heard during these calls. Herding hundreds of cats on multimillion-dollar project executions meant that I couldn’t afford to have crappy equipment. So I got the best wireless gaming headset that I could find.
Once I had all of this equipment, which wasn’t cheap, I started working on it. There was one final piece to the puzzle, my internet speed. I realized that I needed to improve the entire experience, so I called my internet provider and got the highest speed service I could get, and spend another pile of money on a mech network for my home so I could get gigabit speeds to my desk.
This had a curious effect. Once I had the fastest laptop, the highest internet speed, and the best mesh network, I realized that I could get all of my work done faster. On the first day, I had the full setup I actually could stop working on my daily tasks nearly a full hour earlier than I used to.
How did this happen? It was a revelation. I realized that all of those seconds we sit and wait for this and that to load – your software, your web pages, your apps, all of the time we spend staring at loading GIFs, all of that time adds up. Over the course of the day, the seconds here and the seconds there that you waste could conceivably add up to a decent chunk of time. Time in which we could use to do more (or do less – or use for wellness).
Right there, I realized once again that time is the most supremely important resource we have. We constantly sacrifice time for money, but time is a much scarcer resource than money. A few extra dollars spent to save time is worth it.
The next time you are sitting, waiting for a web page to load or an app to download, just think of all of the time you’ve spent doing that. Add it all up together and it’s a substantial amount of time. Just think of what else you could be doing with that time.
If you really want to do more in less time, shave those seconds. Spend the money on the best possible tech, the best possible network, the best possible experience. The faster your experience, the more time you’ll save, and time is always more precious than money.