Time – The New Wealth

Future Work Strategy #3

Dec 15, 2024

Welcome back to my Future Work Series, where I share tangible strategies and approaches to shift towards a more fulfilling work life – contributing to a healthier self, society, and the planet.

I can't offer you "the one" correct answer - the "recipe to success". And that is not my intention. I hope to inspire you to explore concepts that may resonate with your situation and encourage you to further build on my ideas:

New Ways of Working
Future Work Strategy #1: Embracing Inner Diversity
Future Work Strategy #2: Allowing Self-Actualisation
👉Future Work Strategy #3: Time – The New Wealth
Future Work Strategy #4: Rewriting The Rules of Work
Future Work Strategy #5: Envisioning

We're in this together, and the time is to develop a new way forward collaboratively. I'd be happy to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

The Performance Party: Why Busyness Is Not Productivity

We live in a world that often feels like a constant performance party. People rush through offices, engage in endless conversations, send countless data, and present themselves with lists, charts, and PowerPoint presentations. If we're allowed to work from home, beware to make sure your Teams status is constantly "online". This hectic activity and constant availability are often misunderstood as productivity, stimulating our feeling of being seen and needed. But in truth, it's usually just that: busyness.

Trust me, I've been there. Looking back, I can identify multiple reasons I kept so busy. Sometimes, I put immense pressure on myself to deliver results I thought were valuable—only to realise no one really wanted them. Other times, I found myself acting on behalf of others, chasing their priorities and agendas instead of my own.

My time was rarely about what truly mattered—to me or to others; it was always about what seemed urgent at the moment. Even as part of the upper management team, I was barely managing my own tasks—often I was supporting others to appear busy. Thinking back to all those endless synchronisation meetings instead of co-creation meetings, I still feel dizzy.

The problem is that this type of operation has become a habit in many organisations. From a systemic perspective, it is partially normal for long-term existing organisations to start focusing on internal processes instead of market needs. But that's worth another whole article to come.

We have reached a point where busyness has become a marker of success and the foundation for performance measurement, compensation, and promotion. Businesses often identify those who visibly showcase how much they do as top performers. However, the ability to appear busy within an organisation is different from fostering genuine professional creativity or driving true innovation.

How Time Poverty Is Making Us Sick—and Hurting the Planet

The constant feeling of not having enough time doesn't just stress us out. It makes our society sicker and our environment worse. In a world where we're always rushing, the consequences appear in two critical areas: our health and our ability to make sustainable choices123.

The Health Toll of Time Poverty

Time poverty leads to increased stress and chronic strain and leaves little room for self-care or exercising. While we neglect regeneration and recovery we affect our health in the long term. Exercise is skipped, doctor's appointments postponed, and rest becomes a luxury we can't afford. Under time pressure, we turn to fast food and convenience meals—quick, cheap, and unhealthy. These habits fuel poor nutrition and further weaken our well-being. Over time, this neglect wears us down.

When time is scarce, our health is often the first casualty. The relentless stress of trying to keep up can lead to burnout, cardiovascular diseases, and mental health conditions like anxiety, depression, and panic attacks.

Why the Environment Suffers Too

Time poverty affects the planet as well as us. When we're short on time, we take shortcuts. We’re lacking time to reflect. Instead of walking or cycling, we jump in the car or plane because it's faster. Instead of cooking with fresh, local ingredients, we grab pre-packaged food shipped across long distances and wrapped in plastic.

More importantly, time scarcity keeps us from thinking deeply about our actions. Reflecting on how to make climate-friendly decisions—like reducing waste, choosing sustainable transportation, or eating greener—requires time we don't feel we have.

Time for a Shift in Perspective

As early as the 1970s, Frithjof Bergmann highlighted that our approach to work would lead to significant challenges4. For him, keeping society "busy" was alarming and made clear that "nothing is as important as revitalising, energising, and strengthening people."

The question, then, is: How can we move away from busyness and exhausting work, shifting from inefficient labour to meaningful, self-determined, and fulfilling work? How might we foster a new culture—one that establishes values, institutions, and relationships that are more humane, intelligent, and joyful, empowering individuals to realise their full potential?

One key to breaking free from the relentless busyness cycle lies in rethinking the time-money relationship. Why do we continue to reward long hours and visible effort when real results are what truly matter? Imagine shifting the focus 180 degrees: rewarding efficiency, flexibility, and outcomes rather than mere presence and time spent.

Time Wealth: A Broader View of Well-Being

Time wealth, often seen as the opposite of time poverty, goes beyond having free time. Rinderspacher5 introduced the concept as an extension of wealth beyond material goods, emphasizing enough time, shared time, self-determined time, and uncompressed time. Geiger et al.6 added time planning as a key dimension. Research shows that life satisfaction depends not just on free time but on pace and synchronization—how well our time aligns with others7 (Dengler et al., 2024).

Five Dimensions of Time Prosperity

Time prosperity contains five dimensions that describe the quality and availability of time

Free time: an appropriate amount of freely available time
Pace: sufficient time per use of time
Plannability: sufficiently stable horizons of expectation
Synchronisation: satisfactory coordination of different time requirements
Time sovereignty: sufficiently self-determined conditions

One of the most incredible benefits of a portfolio career is the freedom to control my time. I align work with my natural energy, schedule meetings when I’m most focused, and sync client projects with my other ventures for balance. This flexibility allows me to prioritise quality results over clocking hours. It also extends to my personal life—I can manage work, spontaneous activities, self-care, and time with loved ones without feeling rushed. I even swap workdays for personal days when needed, creating a truly self-determined and balanced lifestyle.

The Inequality of Time

However, more time isn't always better. Long ago, the Unemployed of Marienthal study8 revealed that a lack of structured time led to psychological and physical decline, showing the importance of meaningful time use.

In today's societies, where most sell their time for income, time wealth reflects deep inequalities. Who can afford to work less without pay? Are we willing to accept that mothers sacrifice income due to inadequate childcare support, risking poverty at age? These burdens fall disproportionately on women and essential workers like caregivers9.

Time wealth is not just personal—it raises societal questions: How can we balance individual and collective time needs?

Time prosperity uniquely focuses on "your own time" as a valuable resource. It is a form of immaterial prosperity that is just as necessary as material or spatial prosperity. At its core, time prosperity means having enough time to devote to yourself and the things that matter most, living unhurriedly, and gaining the freedom to shape your schedule. It's not just about personal time, though—it's also about finding a balance between your rhythms and the time demands of the world around you, including the important people and commitments in your life.

A Shared Responsibility for Time Wealth

Achieving time wealth is a privilege not everyone can access. Many are still trapped by the struggle to meet basic needs. They have little room to question how life and work might align differently. However, those who have the liberty and power to pursue time and wealth also carry a responsibility to advocate for those who cannot.

This responsibility extends beyond personal benefit. People often reduce the concept of "New work" to methods that improve productivity or job satisfaction within our existing system. But "New Work" intends to drive profound structural changes. True time wealth is not about efficiency but about rethinking prosperity.

Time wealth must be a collective goal that respects our planet's ecological limits and ensures equal access to the freedom to shape time. Political reforms and societal debates are necessary to create a space where everyone, regardless of their circumstances, can live lives defined not by scarcity but by meaningful, shared, and self-determined time.

Breaking Free: Actions to Support Change

Achieving time wealth requires a nuanced approach. It's about finding that elusive balance between our aspirations—what we genuinely want—the demands of a relentless work culture and the broader challenges we face as a society, from strengthening democracy to building a sustainable future.

Here are three thought-starters to escape the exhaustion, frustration, and pain caused by our current work culture:

Recognise and Respect Your Needs: Take stock of what truly matters. Differentiate between what is essential and what is urgent. Make space for important things and challenge what seems urgent to you and others.
Redefine Success: Challenge the notion that more money equals more value. Success can mean time spent with loved ones, creative pursuits, or simply being and breathing.
Demand Structural Change: Advocate for flexible work models and policies that recognise the human need for balance. Corporations must move beyond treating caregiving as a disruption and see it as integral to a thriving society.

A Starting Point

Time poverty became our norm and inevitably led to our health and that of our planet declining. A shift from financial wealth toward time wealth could be one possible solution. We need policies and systems that allow people more time to care for themselves and live in a way that aligns with their values. This isn't just about slowing down; it's about creating a society where we can thrive—personally and environmentally.

Time isn't just money. Time is health, sustainability, and it is being with people we love and care about. It is something we can't afford to lose.