In short: You have a choice to make when implementing a new process or tool that will save you time: do more, go deeper, relax, explore something else. Our default is often to do more, but there is more value in the other opportunities. To avoid to be trapped in the default we have to "budget" for what we'll save and assign that budget in advance before we even put in the new time saving tool or process.

Save time to go deeper

New tools, new processes, making AI do parts of our work can help us save time. But if we fill that time that we saved with more tasks and work are we really saving anything? Aren't we making things just worth?

In an article that Megs Armour shared, she said that when we save time because of new tools we have two routes to go: do more, or do better / deeper. I feel the default for many of us is to do more, but what if we went better / deeper instead?

The money analogy

Saving time is like saving money. If you stop using money for something, but you don't intentionally make sure you'll put that money on the side, you'll end up spending it in other ways without noticing it.

A tiny example

When my kid started to do swim classes, I thought that this would give me extra time during that class to relax or read books. But for the first few times, what I did was working, quickly do some grocery shopping, answering a few late emails, etc. I got some extra free time, but I ended up filling it with a bunch of random tasks. Then I started to take a book with me when I brought my son to the swim class. Suddenly I was doing what I wished for. I used that time to relax and read books.

The trick: budgeting before you save time

The approach that has worked for me a few times, is to reflect before putting a place that will save me time. I try to ask myself: for what positive, healthy, passion thing will I use that time that I'll save? And then I try to find a way to either block it in the calendar or have a routine that reminds me that the time saved is for this important thing. This helps to avoid small unimportant things to fill up the time I saved.

Backstage of this article

This article was illustrated on a refurbished Remarkable II tablet. The text was typed on the same tablet with a keyboard folio case. You can see the original note below as a PDF if you are curious.