Always be sure to value your time.
An easy way is to literally think about a $ per hour number. Economics model this as an hourly wage, which is fuzzier on a salaried job where more hours != more money. But it’s still helpful to have a number in mind.
Not everyone does this, which means there are arbitrage opportunities — trades that are basically free lunch if you value your time a little bit. Some I’ve noticed for me are:
- Toll roads to save time — especially with multiple people in the car. (3 bucks is worth it to save 3min if two people at 30/hr each)
- Returning the rental car not full — Sure they charge a couple $ per gallon but how much time would you save? Might be worth it.
- Parking — my achilles heel is trying to find free street parking vs just paying for the parking garage…
- Amazon Prime — time savings is how Amazon talks about the value of Prime in its annual report
- Deploying projects — I’ve spent hours and hours trying to make a project work with the free-tier options… instead of just shelling out $5/month to save time.