Issue #2: Three Pillars of Time Wealth

⚡ TL;DR

After reading The 5 Types of Wealth by Sahil Bloom, I’ve learnt that “time wealth” comes from mastering three things: awareness of time’s fleeting nature, attention to focus on what matters, and control over how you spend your hours. In this issue, I dive deep into each pillar with personal lessons and tactics. You’ll learn how each pillar dramatically improved my life – and how to measure and improve your own relationship with time.

The Wake-Up Call

I thought I understood how precious time was – until life smacked me upside the head. A few months ago, I found myself lying in a hospital bed after a sudden health scare. (I’m okay now, but it was terrifying.) In that blur of beeping machines and sterile white lights, one thought echoed in my mind: I might not have as much time as I assumed. It’s the kind of realization that hits like a truck. We know intellectually that life is short, but nothing drives it home like coming face-to-face with your own fragility.

Even before that scare, I’d been reading books and essays on mortality and the brevity of life. Each one was like a small alarm clock, nudging me awake. A line from Seneca stuck with me: “It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.” Ouch. Between ancient Stoics and modern thinkers, the message was clear: time is my most important asset, and I’d been squandering it. But knowing this and living it are two different things. My hospital scare turned that knowledge into urgency. I promised myself: no more taking time for granted.

That promise led me to examine what I now consider the three pillars of time wealth – awareness, attention, and control. Let’s break them down one by one.

Pillar 1: Awareness – Remember Time Is Finite

Awareness is the foundation of time wealth. It’s the why behind everything. Simply put, it’s the constant conscious awareness that our time is limited. Sounds morbid, but it’s actually motivating. When you truly internalize that every hour is a non-renewable resource, it becomes harder to waste it.

In the past, I lived like I had an infinite supply of tomorrows. I’d say yes to pointless meetings, mindlessly scroll social media for hours, or procrastinate on my dreams because “I’ll get to it later.” After my wake-up call, that changed. I started reminding myself daily that time is ticking. One practical thing I did was to literally count my time: I estimated roughly how many healthy years I might have left (if I’m lucky, maybe 50?🤞). Then I broke that down into months, weeks, days. Seeing the number of days (around 18,000) blew my mind. It’s large, but not infinite. Every day that passes is one less in that bank.

This might sound heavy, but awareness doesn’t mean living in fear; it means living with intention. Here are a few ways to cultivate this pillar:

• Memento Mori – Adopt the old Stoic practice of remembering you will die (in a positive way!). This could be as simple as a daily reflection each morning: “I have one less day remaining – how will I make it count?”

• Visual Reminders – Use a calendar or app to track days or weeks of your life. Some people use a “life calendar” with boxes for each week of 90 years and tick one off every week. It’s a stark reminder to fill those weeks with meaning.

• Gratitude for Time – When you wake up, take a moment to be grateful you get another day. When you go to bed, ask if you used the day well. This simple habit keeps the value of time front and center.

By increasing my awareness of time’s fleeting nature, I’ve found a new fire lit under me. Books, personal reflections, and that health scare all combined to wake me up from my autopilot. I’m far more choosy about how I spend my hours now. Awareness set the stage – but it wasn’t enough on its own. After all, knowing time is precious doesn’t automatically stop you from wasting it. That’s where the next pillar comes in.

Pillar 2: Attention – Focus on What Matters

If awareness is knowing time is gold, attention is how you spend that gold. This pillar is all about focus. In a world drowning in distractions, attention is a superpower. And let me confess: for a long time, I was terrible at this.

I used to feel “busy” for 8+ hours a day yet accomplish shockingly little. Ever have a day where you’re at your desk the whole time, but by evening you ask, “What did I actually do?” That was me. I’d plan a task that should take 2 hours… and somehow the whole afternoon would disappear. Why? Because I allowed my attention to be sliced and diced by a thousand distractions: Slack pings, email dings, Twitter scrolls, random web browsing, you name it. I was busy but not productive – a hamster running in place.

My rude awakening here came when I started tracking my focused work time. I began using the Pomodoro technique (25-minute focus sprints with 5-minute breaks) and an app to log those sessions. At first, I thought, “Sure, I worked 8 hours today, maybe my focus was like 6-7 hours?” Ha! Try 3 hours. On a good day, maybe 4. Seeing a weekly report of my actual deep work time was humbling. It was clear I’d been fooling myself. The appearance of working (being at the computer, looking busy) is not the same as true focused work.

Realizing this, I got serious about improving my attention. Here’s what helped:

1. Single-Tasking – I banned myself from multitasking (which was really just rapid task-switching and losing focus). During a focus block, I do one thing only. Browser tabs closed, phone on Do Not Disturb, door shut. It’s amazing how much more you get done when you aren’t trying to do five things at once.

2. Scheduled Deep Work – I now block out time on my calendar specifically for deep work on important tasks. Treat focus time like a meeting with yourself – non-negotiable. Others eventually learn not to expect instant replies during these sacred blocks.

3. Distraction Audit – I listed my common distractions and systematically attacked them. Social media? Logged out during work sessions. Email? Closed it and only check at set times. Phone notifications? Turned off non-essentials. I even use website blockers for particularly tempting time-wasters.

The result? Tasks that once dragged on forever now finish faster, within those planned 1-2 hours of real focus. By reclaiming my attention, I found I actually freed up time. I can get in 4 hours of solid, meaningful work and accomplish more than I used to in 8 scattered hours. That’s a win for time wealth – making each hour count more. And bonus: you feel way less exhausted when you’re not constantly context-switching.

If you feel drained and busy but not productive, chances are your attention pillar needs some reinforcement. The good news is this pillar strengthens with practice. Focus is like a muscle – train it, and it grows. It’s still a struggle for me some days (I’m human), but I’ve seen dramatic improvement by being intentional with my attention.

Pillar 3: Control – Own Your Schedule (As Much As You Can)

The third pillar of time wealth is control – specifically, control over your time. This one is huge: it’s about who decides what you do with your day. Do you truly own your schedule, or are you at the mercy of others’ demands?

A year ago, I felt I had almost no control. I was saying “yes” to everything and everyone. Work projects I didn’t care about? Sure, I’ll do them because my boss asked. Social obligations that drained me? Okay, I’ll attend out of guilt or habit. My calendar was basically a dumping ground for other people’s priorities. It’s no wonder I often felt resentful or detached – I wasn’t driving my life, just riding along.

Fast forward to today: I’m much more in control, and it’s a night-and-day difference. Part of this came from a career shift – I moved into a role (and project) that I genuinely enjoy and that offers flexibility. I understand not everyone can up and change jobs easily, but even within a job, I learned to negotiate for autonomy. I communicated my working style to my team, carving out chunks of my day when I would be in deep work (and offline). To my surprise, not only did they accept it – they respected it when they saw the results. I also started setting boundaries politely but firmly. Simple things like not agreeing to every meeting without question, or blocking an hour at lunch for my workout (no, that recurring meeting can’t eat my gym time anymore!). Bit by bit, I took back control of my day.

Control also extends outside of work. I became more deliberate with personal time too. Instead of getting roped into every plan or favor, I practice saying, “I’d love to help, but I have other priorities right now.” The world didn’t end! In fact, people ultimately respect you when you respect your own time.

Here are some tactics to build more control over your time:

• Learn to Say No – Every yes to something is a no to something else (often something that matters more to you). It’s not easy, but start small. Decline a meeting that isn’t crucial. Skip a social event if you need a night for yourself. Protect your time by default, and give it intentionally to what truly matters.

• Delegate or Automate – Look at your routine tasks. Are there any you can delegate to someone else, or automate with tools? This might be something like automating your bill payments (saves you mental load each month) or delegating a work task to a colleague who’s looking to grow. Freeing yourself from low-value tasks directly gives you more controlled time for high-value ones.

• Flexibility Agreements – If you work in a team, have an open conversation about flexibility. Propose a trial where you work remotely or on a schedule that fits your productivity peaks. When people see you producing great work on your own terms, they often become more flexible with your time.

Having a strong control pillar doesn’t mean absolute control (life will always throw curveballs), but it does mean you steer your ship more than you used to. Since I’ve gained more control over my schedule, not only am I getting more done, I’m happier. I wake up (mostly) excited for the day, knowing I have chosen much of what fills it. That’s a profound shift from feeling like a prisoner of my calendar.

How to Measure Your Time Wealth

We’ve covered the three pillars: awareness, attention, and control. Now the big question: How “time wealthy” are you? Of course, there’s no simple metric for something as subjective as your life, but I find it helpful to do a quick self-audit. Think of it like a personal scoreboard for your time wealth. Here’s a simple way to evaluate yourself on each pillar:

1. Awareness: On a scale of 1 to 10, how present is the idea of life’s brevity in your day-to-day life? Do you frequently remind yourself that time is precious and act accordingly (high score), or do days slip by without you ever considering it (low score)?

2. Attention: On a scale of 1 to 10, how well do you focus on what matters when you’re working or spending time with others? Are you fully engaged and undistracted during the things that count (high score), or constantly pulled away by every distraction (low score)?

3. Control: On a scale of 1 to 10, how much autonomy do you have over your schedule and commitments? Do you mostly spend your time on your own priorities (high), or do you feel your time is mostly controlled by work, obligations, and demands outside your control (low)?

Be brutally honest with yourself. It helps to jot a few notes on why you gave yourself that score. For example, you might rate Attention low because you realize you’re checking your phone every 10 minutes, or Control high because you’ve managed to design a flexible work schedule.

Now, add up your three scores. This gives you a combined Time Wealth score out of 30. It’s not scientific, but it’s illuminating. For instance, if you scored 8 Awareness + 5 Attention + 7 Control = 20/30, you can already tell which pillar is lagging (Attention, in this case). A higher total (say 25+) suggests you’re doing pretty well at maximizing your time wealth. A lower total (say under 15) is a warning sign – you’re likely losing a lot of time to neglect, distraction, or lack of autonomy. Most of us will land somewhere in the middle, with one pillar weaker than the others. That’s normal! The goal is to identify your weakest pillar so you know where to focus your improvements first.

Revisit this self-audit regularly – maybe monthly or quarterly. It’s a way to keep yourself accountable. Over time, you want to see those numbers rise. But even more important than the numbers is how you feel. The true measure of time wealth is a sense of fulfillment: that you’re spending your hours on what matters and not letting life slip through your fingers. The pillars are just a framework to help you get there.

Make It Count

Reflecting on these pillars, I’m struck by how interconnected they are. When I became more aware of time’s value, it motivated me to reclaim my attention and assert more control. Gaining control over my schedule freed up bandwidth to focus my attention better, which in turn gave me more meaningful results in the time I spent. It’s a virtuous cycle – strengthen one pillar and the others get stronger too. Conversely, if one is weak, it can drag the others down.

The point of all this is not to be perfect (I’m definitely not a perfectly efficient time monk!). The point is to be conscious and intentional. Most people never take a step back to think about this stuff – and that’s how years slip away in a haze of trivial busywork and regrets. By reading this, you’re already breaking that pattern. You’re becoming what I call a “Timekeeper” of your own life – someone who actively keeps and guards their time, rather than a sleepwalker who drifts through it.

Take a moment this week to evaluate your time wealth. Be honest about what’s working and what’s not. Then take one small step to shore up the pillar that needs it most. Over time, those small steps compound into major gains. Imagine a life where you’re keenly aware of time’s value each day, fiercely focused on your priorities, and largely in control of how you spend your hours. That’s a life rich in time. That’s a life lived on your terms.

Time is the one thing we can’t get back once it’s gone. But right now, you and I do have some time left – our job is to make the absolute most of it. Let’s keep each other accountable to that.

Until next time, remember: every second counts. Let’s make the next ones count together.

Cheers,
Joesurfio