It didn’t matter where they lived or how much money they had in the present; financial uncertainty growing up led to a higher chronic focus on money as adults.

People tend to focus too much on working and making money and not enough on having more and better time. Most of us, myself included, fail to value time as much as money. This focus on money contributes to the epidemic levels of stress, unhappiness, and loneliness that many societies struggle with. It costs us a lot, financially and otherwise.

You can also find time by adding to your positive experiences. Is there a positive activity (either productive or unproductive) that you want to do more of? For me, reading and listening to music are two of my happiest experiences, so I am purposeful about filling my downtime with those activities. Even a few minutes of your happiest or most

We should pay extra attention to time spent in unproductive activities that make us stressed, and we should ask ourselves whether we can focus more on accumulating productive, pleasurable, or meaningful experiences instead.10 Once you’ve documented your activities, reflect on them. Think about which activities were pleasurable versus painful; which

Statistically, the best predictor of how busy we are going to be next week is how busy we are right now.

Almost everything about having a job is conspiring to make us time poor: the time spent getting ready for work; the commute; unhealthy eating squeezed into our day (or not eating at all because we’re too busy); the after-work decompression. These negative, time-poor activities feed on themselves: if we feel time pressed, we’re less deliberate about

Engineering the default no is a powerful weapon in your battle for time affluence, but most of us are terrible at it. It takes practice.

Prioritizing Time in Our Everyday Lives This chapter and chapter 4 are designed to help you internalize the good practices I’ve laid out in previous chapters and build a time-affluence regimen that you can live by. These strategies are designed to help you walk the talk when it comes to treating time as the valuable, precious resource it is. To

Find Time to Experience Awe Taking scenic hikes or spending a few moments looking up into the sky can rejuvenate you. Awe-inspiring experiences reduce time stress.26 When you’re thinking about what activities to add to your schedule, try blocking in time for a walk in the park—being surrounded by nature—or watching a scenic YouTube video at your