$3.15 Seems Astonishingly Low

I was thinking about the $3.15 an hour price tag and how this seems low to me. But then I started to figure that if it costs me $3.15 an hour, I would need to make $75.60 every day to keep my family going. For an eight hour workday, this would be $9.45 an hour, if I worked 7 days a week. For a 40-hour work week, I'd need to make $13.23 an hour. This works out to a little less than 28 kilodollars per year.

All of a sudden, $3.15 an hour seems a little high.

So, spending additional money, say, $7.50 every three months for Tilex, is just additional burden. It would raise the overall figure of $3.15 an hour by almost half a cent, and it wouldn't bring in additional income unless I come up with some task that will take up those two minutes and earn some money. Making money is not really what I intend to do with my morning.

Be it hereby resolved that I do not wish to spend an additional dime to accomplish the 10-minute morning routine. At least, I want to squeeze the routine for every last drop before I resort to spending money.

Motivation Monday! Time is Money!

So, the startling revelation that, if I save an hour of my time doing a task, I effectively make that task cost me $3.15 less (appropriating the cost of keeping my whole family alive for my tasks alone; I don't think there's a big problem with that approximation), gives me something to ponder. The whole concept seems to have a hole in it somewhere, which is exciting.

I'm the kind of guy that loves solving problems, mainly because it leads to understanding. Deming talked about "profound knowledge," and I think I'm a profound knowledge junkie. So, when I see a model that doesn't quite work, that means there's more knowledge to go and get. Exhilarating!

The part of the model that doesn't quite work is how to handle opportunity cost. I know, I presented that it was such a big breakthrough for me to determine the rough estimate of my time cost independent of my income. However, what else am I going to do with the time I save? That time still has the $3.15/hr price tag, but what if I generate income with that time, so that I have a net gain?

I think the model has to be on a task-by-task basis. If I know that a task will have a specific income attached to it, I can figure for that. I think this calls for a holistic schedule with price tags on it!

Thrilling. And I mean that. :-)

$3.15 an hour

Apparently, our cost of existence, for the whole family, is $3.15 an hour.

I figured this by taking all of our monthly expenses (not counting savings, tithe, etc.) and dividing them out over the month. $3.15 an hour is about 5.2 cents a minute. So, if I reduce a task by 2 minutes, it better not cost me more than 10.4 cents to do it. This means that a $7.50 bottle of Tilex would need to last over six months if it saves one minute per day, over three months if it saves two.

This is paradigm-shifting information. I need to think about this for a little while.

How much does a minute cost?

How can I evaluate the cost of a minute?

It's tempting to think of time in terms of how much money I could make if I were working with that time. I could divide out my salary over the course of my year and then know how much my time is worth if I spend it "productively." But that's not really accurate, in my opinion. If I free up a minute, I'm not really using that minute to earn a paycheck. What am I really doing?

I'm reducing the cost of the tasks I'm optimizing. Rather than think about how my income should change if I free up minutes, I should consider that I am paying money to keep myself alive. This amount is somewhat independent from income. I'm not saying that every minute I free up is now billable per my regular pay; I'm saying that each minute I'm alive costs me X dollars and that the task of, say, showering, now costs me less.

So, if I go to Tilex or some other spray to prevent soap scum and mildew, rather than use a squeegie and a towel, I need to quantify the costs of the task for either alternative. Time costs money. So does Tilex. So does infrequent squeegie replacement and regular towel-washing. Let's assume that the squeegie is replaced twice a year and that washing the towel costs nothing. How much does Tilex cost?

$7.50.

Tomorrow I'll try to figure out how much a minute costs, which should be useful for all kinds of things in the future.

Showering

Showering. It uses up a considerable amount of time each morning.



So there's your proof. 16 minutes out of 41 were spent on the "Showering" category. What are the elements that comprise a shower?

I don't want to get too...um...technical, but here's a quick breakdown of how my morning went, including shower details:



So, what's the first step? Eliminate unnecessary elements. I would challenge "washing the wall," which is a process involving squeegie-ing the tile walls, then wiping all of the walls with a towel. This is to prevent the buildup of soap scum and/or the development of mildew. The cost is 3 minutes a person a day. Is there a faster way? And, if so, is it worth it?

Snoozing, Reading, Folding, etc.

Well, I snoozed this morning, I read too long during bio-break, I left diapers to be folded this morning, and now it's time to go. At least I know what ate up my time!

What more can I do to get rid of the snoozing? It was ten minutes this morning!

Well, according to the Plan, I should prioritize it along with other elements. So, rather than spend time getting rid of it, I should spend time trimming down my #1 time-eater: the shower. I'll record again tomorrow and try to break down showering into smaller pieces. It's 'bout to get personal.

Better Make it Motivational Tuesday

It's been a rough week. All I can say is that if I get to bed by eleven post meridian, I'm doing well right now. We've been looking around for a minivan, and I've been going into work early to make up time I was going to be at the dentist, and I didn't take any of this into account for the morning routine.

I'll circle around and hit this effort again tomorrow.