You’ve probably heard of the axiom “Time is Money”, but how often have you heard “Money is Time”?

There is an important distinction here. While not all time can be converted into money (having more time doesn’t automatically mean that you can make more money with that time), money can usually be turned into more time.

You can pay to have someone clean your house. You can pay to have dinner made for you. You can pay to ride the train (or be driven) rather than drive yourself.

This comes back to another axiom “Money can’t buy happiness” … but according to our current society, it can buy more time (which can lead to being more happy).

This is one of the reasons that more ‘well off’ people tend to have a higher level of happiness in general. They can afford to have more time to relax, recharge, and find ways to make more money without getting burned out!

So the question becomes: How much is my time worth?

How long would you wait in line for a $100 gift card? How much would you pay to have someone do a task that would take you an hour?

There is a way to find out!

The folks at Clearerthinking.org have come up with a calculator to help put things in perspective. You fill out the form below (with questions similar to the ones above, combined with things like your income, how many hours you work, etc.). It only takes about 15 minutes (and no matter how you value your time, it is probably worth the knowledge)!

If you are a small business owner, or ‘just short on time’ (like most people), having this knowledge will help put into perspective some of those tasks that you can outsource for more time, or do yourself to save some bones.

What does this have to do with fitness and health?!

All evidence is pointing to the fact that exercising and taking care of your health (nutrition, sleep, etc.) is going to make you happier, live longer, more productive, more fun to be around, and more. If you are reading this, I don’t need to convince you that you need to exercise to be ‘better’.

This brings up an interesting point: how much are we investing time/money-wise into our fitness and how do we maximize this investment?

What if you just go to a globo gym and do some basic cardio for that time? What if you work out on your own without coaching or seeing your friends?

If you do, you probably aren’t getting the most efficient use of your time.

If you aren’t following a program that has aerobic exercise, strength training, skill work, prehab/mobility, fun, friends, accountability, nutrition advice… If you aren’t sticking to the program consistently for months/years on end… you aren’t getting the most out of that training time!

If you are wasting your time doing a routine that doesn’t get you to your goals quickly or puts you at risk for injury, you think you are saving money by not having a gym membership (or a really cheap one), but you are not.

By investing in a good gym/coach, you are getting more than just the basic health and body composition benefits for the time spent. You are coming out ahead in the money/time exchange!

Let’s do a little math (a ‘little’, I promise!)

A year of membership at a “Globo” gym at $30 per month works out to be $360. If you were more consistent than most, you’ll probably go about 3x per week for about 48 weeks of the year, or about 144 times (most people would probably go less on average). Assuming you are super disciplined and get in and out in an hour, that is 144 hours of time.

144 hours of your time at $40 per hour (about the average for many people in the report) would be $5,760 plus the $360 for membership. That works out to be $6,120.

Compare that to going to a good gym with great coaches and a stellar community. Not only will you get the benefits of a better program, accountability, and less injury risk, you’ll also get the ‘perks’ of having fun and being around awesome people that you like to hang out with.

In this environment, you should be able to achieve the same results (if not more) in 4 months compared to one year. Let’s say that you love it so much that you end up averaging more like 3 and a half times per week over those 4 months. That works out to approximately 60 hours of time invested.

We’ll also go with the fact that this service is more expensive (probably because you did some extra special classes and/or got some personal training). Maybe you also invested in some dietary changes and/or supplements that your coach recommended. Let’s say this combined cost is $225 per month.

60 hours at $40 per hour is $2,400, plus 4 months at $225 ($900). This works out to $3,300.

Here are your options:

1. 1 year to get results, 144 hours of time, $6,120
2. 4 months to get results, 60 hours of time, $3,300

Option B gets you the results 3 times as fast…

For less than half the time invested…

At almost half the cost…

Does that seem like a worthy investment to you!?

It is kind of like hiring that ‘friend of a friend contractor’ who has another career and will ‘cut you a deal’. Do you want to live without your kitchen for an entire year (with possibly ‘less than great’ results)? Or would you rather hire a professional who will give you an accurate quote up front, cost more, but get it done in a month or two with guaranteed quality?

So the next time someone asks: “Why do you go to such an expensive gym?”

You can tell them that you are actually saving money and time, while getting the results faster, and that the added ‘perks’ make it more than worth it.

Curious about how you value your time?

Take the survey here!

Thrive on.

-jj

(PS For Gym Owners: I HIGHLY recommend you take the quiz. Use this as a way to be more strategic about your time in the business. Since you are here, you probably understand that this saves you 3-5 hours a week. That works out to about $700 per month just in time (not including that invaluable head space). But where else can you invest in some time-saving outsourcing to get some more time for yourself and to work on your business?)