“You can’t save up time. You can’t refuse to spend it. You can’t set it aside. Either you’re spending your time. Or your time is spending you.” – Seth Godin
This year at Proof we’ve doubled down in our focus on spending our time wisely. Working smarter, not harder, and ensuring that our clients truly get what they pay for.
For example, if you pay $10k vs. $50k, you should be getting a very different final product. It doesn’t mean that final product is “better” or “worse” than it’s more or less expensive counterpart, but the concept of giving the client what they want at whatever cost to time and money (something we’ve largely had as a mantra over the past 8 years) was leading to excellent work at extraordinary costs.
This “whatever it takes regardless of price” attitude is lovely in theory, but unsustainable from a business perspective – a place where margins matter and time is valuable.
Once you’ve spent that time, it’s gone. To Seth’s point, you can’t save it up, and you can’t get it back. I’m pushing myself, and the rest of my team, to treat the time spent on any task, big or small, intentionally and as a precious commodity. Because it is.