What is Time Poverty?

Time Poverty: Being weighed down by obligations in life. To the point of not being able to enjoy life. 

If you’re already familiar with time poverty and just looking for some quick tips. Look no further.

Tip	Explanation	Examples
Food prep	A quick checklist of things to prepare before you go to work.	Veggies chopped, meat seasoned, sauces prepped
Mobile ordering	Waiting in line is a thing of the past. Every company has an app. Take advantage of it. Waiting in line is a thing of the past.	Coffee, grocery shopping, DMV
Services	Not possible for everyone. But if you can afford it. A definite time saver.	Lawn care, cleaning laundry
Bunching activities	Knock out as many activities in the drive as possible.	Hitting the bank on the way to the mall. Then grocery store on the way back.

It all started with a dishwasher.

My mom recently bought a house and our life changed positively because of it. Surprisingly, the most noticeable was having a dishwasher.

Crazy right?

But seriously, no more fighting over who’s doing them. No more time wasted scrubbing and rinsing. Just set it and forget it. I got in the habit of doing a load before I left the house in the morning.

But it made me wonder.

“How many other homes have this luxury and how many are still scrubbing away.”

Statistics:

So I went digging and I found some interesting statistics.

A lot of households have dishwashers and let them go to waste:

80 million households have a dishwasher: 16million(20% don’t use it)

This ranks them as the most underused appliance.

As expected the lowest income household has the least amount of appliances. A real shocker there.

38.3% of lowest-income households have a full set of appliances

All these households are wasting the most valuable commodity of all.

Time!

Who Does it Affect?

Time poverty can affect everyone. Regardless of income.

A busy executive may spend 15 hours a day putting out metaphorical fires at his work and spend 3 hours commuting. Leaving him with MAYBE 6 hours to sleep. That’s it.

Or you could be a struggling single mom who works two jobs. And then has to cook and put their child to sleep.

It doesn’t matter what is eating up your time. It matters that your time is being eaten up at all.

Our Soldiers in the Fight.

But fret not. The war with time and poverty is not one we are destined to lose. Thanks to technology. And not just dishwashers. So here are some quick tips on controlling your time.

-Pay for convenience, not for lack of preparation:

Ordering coffee through your phone so you don’t have to wait in line is convenient. Ordering pizza because you didn’t have anything prepared for dinner is a lack of preparation. One you did to save time, the other you did out of lack of time.

Now I’m not saying treat yourself but don’t use your money on things you wouldn’t have bought if you had time. 

A little preparation goes a long way.

-Bunch up your activities:

Think of every time you get in the car as a bowling ball. You want to knock over as many pins(errands) as possible; in one go. This takes some thought and with gas prices, your wallet will thank you.

Sometimes you may have to leave earlier than usual for your main task just to knock out the smaller ones. A minor inconvenience at the moment that will pay dividends when you don’t have to go out for just one thing.

In my case, my work, my barber, and my physical rehab place are in the same strip mall. So I often see my physical therapist, get a haircut then clock into work. My gym and bank are also nearby so I often hit the bank after the gym.

-Remember time is more valuable than Money!

An extremely common reason why people don’t better their situation is “lack of time”

But that’s wrong. The time is there but you have to take it back! Small incremental improvements can add up to whole hours during the day.

There is nothing more valuable than your time on earth. Use it to work at something you’re passionate about. Use it to make memories with your loved ones or to simply appreciate life.

Conclusion

A sincere shout out to my dishwasher for leading me down this rabbit hole. Appreciate you, buddy.

Are you part of the 20% that doesn’t use their dishwasher?

What are some ways you can take your time back?

Let me know below and have a great day.