This past weekend, I found myself in a zone I haven’t been in in a long time. I’m the type of person that when I get engrossed in something, I can lose hours of my life and not be able to tell you anything I did during that time. It’s like being abducted by aliens, but not really. This happened to me on Saturday night and part of Sunday. The difference here being that I could tell you exactly what I did. And I had a pretty strong realization from it.
I was working on freshening up SBM with a facelift. One of the tasks was to get our new logo to the top left of the screen. Sounds simple right? Nah yo. It was hell in a waffle cone It required me to go into the code matrix with an oxygen mask on looking for the right combination of 0s, 1s and <tags>. I started this process around 10pm on Saturday. Next thing I knew, it was midnight. I still hadn’t figured it out and (desperately) finally decided to reach out to a designer friend to see if she could solve the caper. Within five minutes, she did. I was tight and elated at the same damn time.
*R&B croon* It’s 4 in the morrrnnnninn!
After getting her help on a couple other technical areas, and finding out there would be a fee for more of her time, I bid her a Facebook adieu and started working on some other site stuff..which you probably don’t giveth two phux about. Next thing I knew, it was 4am. There I was at an obscure hour struggling to update code like a developer, not a bawse. Wasn’t nobody there shootin’ wit me in the gym.
I’d eventually go to sleep and wake up some time after 10 only to find myself right back in front of the computer messin’ with some widgets. I’d ultimately figure things out, but had to ask myself at the end of it all if it was worth it? It felt great to save us some money by not engaging someone for the project (and to feed my ego and pride by solving the majority of the technical issues). It was awesome to leprechaun kick to the left and right (true blue, we tight like glue) repeatedly until I couldn’t breathe. But was it worth it for me to spend ten hours of my weekend trying to save a few dollars by doing all this technical work myself?
Was it worth the post pitches, actual posts, and partnership emails I didn’t get to write? Was it worth starting Monday a little anxious because I didn’t accomplish what I’d planned on Sunday? Nah, it wasn’t. Those ten hours were worth $400 plus sanity tax. What I spent my time on, someone more experience could’ve knocked off in an hour. Even if they charged $100 for what we needed, I’d still have won.
As I’ve gotten busier, the value of my time has steadily increased. Time lost is money lost, and freedom comes with a price. I’m not trying to have my card denied because I spent too much time saving less than I could’ve earned had I been doing something I was actually adroit at. Sometimes I need to pay. Rather, sometimes we need to pay what seems like a premium price to save ourselves the one thing we can’t get back: time.
I think I’m gonna start a time fund for projects just like this. I’m pretty sure the interest rate is incredible.
What’s your time worth?
Well at least you learned how to do it and that is valuable too. I like the little G icon.
At some point that G will disappear and it’ll be an S for superman. lol
I’ve had to learn this with contractors and doing physical stuff around the house. It’s not that I don’t have the time to figure out the wiring to fix the doorbell or troubleshoot the dishwasher, I’d just be more willing to spend that time doing something else. I just budget for that and I’m good.
I am a firm believer in paying folks to do what they know how to do which I don’t know how to do or have the time to do. It’s great that you were able to figure it out (read: stroke your ego), but in the end you were off target on getting some other things done and therefore had to crunch time. Yeah being cheap is not always cheaper. Great post!
Following up on this, because of the catch up work, it’s thrown my night off this evening too. The repercussions of it all!
you know what’s crazy.. I’ve been having to place a price on my time lately. This is for my personal life. I find people that add nothing to my life want me to come out my house and “chill”.. I don’t mind chillin, but I find that I need something more..
Mind you, the people asking me to chill don’t support me or my blog. Have never read anything I’ve written and don’t want to talk about anything uplifting. I can’t. I refuse. Because honestly, they’re fast asleep in their beds when I’m awake writing at 2am because I spent all Saturday “chillin.”
I need more than that..
You wasn’t with me writing in WordPress!!!!
OH!! and I LOVE the option to edit the comment.. reminds me of the good old days..
Have you seen this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fsm-QbN9r8&feature=related
What you said about being up at 2am writing reminded me of this motivational speech.
I have done this too many times. So I say “those who can do do, those who can’t… pay someone who can” lol It’s not worth it to waste your whole day, mentally and physically draining.
I think it was in the Four Hour Workweek where i read this same principle of maximizing your time and not wasting it if you arent skilled. I get into those ruts a lot with my site and I WENT to school for ish like that!
If we were high school or even college kids, or jobless with mad time on our hands, it would make sense to learn. Now? Its called a business expense bro
Digging the new layouts!!!! Yeah I can’t stand when I get super absorbed and the feel effed over (by myself that is)
You did a really good job on SBM, LOVE THE RED COLOR
Thats definitely a lesson you learn as you get older and learn the value of time. Recently I went to Miami and instead of flying out of my city airport, I drove to another city about 1.5 hrs away, to save 200 bucks. Never again! I thought I was leaving early but obviously not early enough because I got stuck in traffic. By the time I got to the airport I was extremely frazzled. The 200 bucks was definitely not worth the headache.
I hope you didn’t fly Spirit Airlines…because that’s not worth it either.lol
Lol! You sound like you speak from experience! But it wasnt Spirit!