How much exactly is our time worth? It’s an interesting question. Really, for how much money would a person be willing to sell one hour of their life? Seems easy. My friends revealed that they would be sold on the offer for as little as 1,000 rupees. "What about two hours? Can I buy it from you for 2,000 rupees then?" I asked. "Well of course!" They replied nonchalantly.
It seemed as if everyone was happy gaining some money even though they were selling a few hours of their own lives. "What about a decade? Would you exchange 10 years of your life for the same rate? One thousand per hour?" This time, the reply was different. "Definitely not! That's a long time." But why? Why were they dissatisfied with the same rate they had agreed to earlier?
Maybe, the value of our time increases exponentially with an increase in its duration. Time is fleeting, of course, so one hour usually might not appear that notable as it finishes so quickly. But a month, which is a more comprehensible time period, becomes a million times more precious even though there are only about 720 hours in a month. So now no one was willing to sell their time to me for whatever money I offered. But I was determined to strike a deal.
"Okay here's another situation. Suppose I take away a decade of your life but all that time is snatched bit by bit whenever you are asleep. So immediately after you doze off, I will take your time and you will wake up. But for you, it will appear normal as if nothing happened at all. There will be zero side effects and you will lead a normal life. Will you be willing to sell this decade for maybe like million rupees?" Bull’s eye! Everyone agreed. However, simple division reveals that that's about 11 rupees per hour, very cheap even when compared to the 1,000 rupees hypothetical deal I had finessed just earlier. Why?
Previously, everyone had rigidly denied the deal for a decade but this time, they almost gleefully rushed to take the offer. Why? The reasoning is not that complicated actually. As an asleep person can do little to utilize their time besides gaining rest and rejuvenating their bodies, it makes sense to sell that time as long as they face no side effects. But it does give a key insight.
Basically, it seems that whenever we think we can utilize time meaningfully to get some fruit or value, time appears more valuable. When we are asleep, time just passes by and the next thing we remember is we are already awake. So maybe the value of time depends more on how much we think we could potentially squeeze out from that particular time than simply the duration of that time.
This does make sense. Three hours of a boring summer’s afternoon generally seems less valuable than three hours in an examination hall where every minute makes a difference. For an Olympic racer, a second might mean the difference between a gold medal and a consolation. But for most of us, the value of one second appears negligible in our lives.
Partly, it also lies in the fact that some moments are once in a lifetime while others are monotonous. So we tend to value time more that we might not be able to receive again, like the last day of school or a graduation party. But removing a normal day of school from my life appears to not be too big of a deal. I will still have 364 more days of the year left as a student of that school (some of it will be holidays of course).
But again, is it so? What I am saying is based on the assumption that we will indeed have time tomorrow; that we indeed will wake up the next day and have another 24 hours to do whatever we want. But life is uncertain, isn't it? It’s hard to say what the future has in store for us. And we often hear phrases like "savor every moment as it might be your last" all the time.
So now, will it be foolish to wish for a boring lecture to end quickly when there always lurks a minuscule, albeit very real, probability that it might be the last lecture I ever experience. It may not be as dramatic as kicking the bucket but life does tend to swerve unexpectedly, sometimes. And when the dust settles down, I might forever regret not using my time properly in the past when I had the chance.
This brings us back to square one. So how much exactly is our time worth? Is it priceless all the time? Does it vary as per context? It’s an interesting question to discuss but let it be for now lest we start running around in circles for days. While we may not know what that day might be worth, it’s definitely worth something -- better make the most out of it!
(Anup is an A-levels student studying in Budhanilkantha School)
(Nepalkhabar requests students to send in their articles on any issues of their interest. The article should be around 500 to 700 words in English and sent via [email protected]. We will select, edit and duly publish them in blog section.)
