The Luxury of Time: Why Sometimes Convenience is Worth the Cost
Photo by Thomas Peham on Unsplash
As freelancers and creatives, we're careful about how we spend our hard-earned money.
Convenience often seems like an unnecessary luxury we should avoid to keep costs down. However, we need to be just as prudent about how we spend our time—arguably our most precious and limited resource.
While being frugal is wise, sometimes spending on convenience can actually be a smart investment. The right services and tools that save us time and energy allow us to focus on the high-impact activities that really move the needle in our business and creative work. The added productivity and inspiration can quickly pay for themselves.
Yet we often underestimate the ROI of convenience, thinking short-term rather than how it compounds over time. In this profession, we are our greatest asset. When thoughtfully applied, money spent to buy time and peace of mind is an investment in our most valuable capital—our creativity.
So in certain cases, convenience is not a splurge but a strategic spend. The time and energy gained allow us to channel more of our best work out into the world. In this post, we’ll explore examples of smart convenience investments along with tips for calculating the ROI to make good decisions for your needs.
Think carefully about when convenience has value beyond just saving time by fuelling productivity and creativity.
Time Fuels Creativity
As creatives, time is the soil where our best work grows. Open schedules allow concepts to incubate and inspiration to bloom.
Ideas don’t always arrive on demand. Often, they percolate in our subconscious and crystallise when given room to breathe. Trying to force creativity leads to frustration, while patience and spaciousness cultivate original thinking.
Time also enables iteration and refinement that elevates work from good to phenomenal. Rushed timelines inevitably lead to cutting corners, errors, and “good enough” output.
Quality over quantity should be the mantra. Building in flexibility empowers our best creations, not churning out deliverables in a frenzy.
Value unrushed time as the luxury that it is. When you can, decline projects with impossibly quick turnarounds, however lucrative. Use time wisely when you have it, then replenish your wells with rest.
While we can’t always control hectic seasons, remember that genius cannot be rushed. Manage your time and resources to allow your ideas the space to blossom into beautiful creations.
Outsourcing Can Optimise Strengths
It’s tempting to try handling everything ourselves to avoid costs. However, outsourcing certain tasks allows us to focus energy where we add the most value.
Each of us has a "genius" zone"—activities we excel at and that energise us. Time spent here yields disproportionate rewards. But no one can be a genius at every task, all the time.
Outsourcing administrative, technical, or support tasks preserves your genius time for higher-level work. Let assistants handle scheduling, social media managers grow your audience, and bookkeepers reconcile payments.
Rather than spreading yourself thin, outsource lower-impact items. Save your precious time and mental bandwidth for the work only you can do best.
Finding trusted partners for non-core activities provides a force multiplier. You get support while also working in your sweet spot when your creativity and productivity thrive.
Focus on the goals only you are uniquely positioned to accomplish. Outsource the rest.
Aligning efforts with passions and strengths benefits your business and sanity.
Convenience Fuels Productivity
Our ability to produce great work depends on smooth workflows and the space to create without friction. Convenience spending removes distractions, so we can maximise output.
Imagine how your productivity would multiply if you never had to run errands, clean, go to the supermarket, or do laundry again. Streamlining life’s logistics has a tangible impact.
Convenient services like grocery and meal delivery, cleaning services, and virtual assistants to run errands—these preserve mental focus for high-level work.
It’s easy to discount how much random logistics like bill paying or appointment scheduling sap our time and mental energy. Removing these frictions greases the wheels of productivity.
Look for areas where spending modestly on convenience could unlock more of your genius time. The output gains reaped often outweigh the costs.
Treating yourself to convenience removes obstacles to your best work. With smooth operations supporting you behind the scenes, your creative juices can really flow.
Health Impacts Innovation
Creative work demands substantial mental and physical energy. Maintaining health enables us to sustain crisp thinking and keen intuition.
It’s obvious how fatigue, sickness, and burnout stifle creativity. But prioritising self-care has subtler benefits too—increased inspiration, deeper insight, and greater resilience.
Good health practices like nutrition, exercise, sleep, and rest renew us. When functioning optimally, we access flow states and breakthrough ideas more readily.
Depletion accumulates over time, gradually limiting mental expansion. Nourishing yourself keeps your well full. Don’t wait until it’s dry to take a drink.
Make time for rejuvenation, not just work. Take regular breaks. Invest in your well-being through healthy food, movement, social connection, and downtime.
Treat yourself as well as you treat top clients. When creativity is your business, self-care is an investment that guarantees returns.
Calculate the ROI
When considering any convenience spending, do a quick ROI analysis. Factor in the value of time and energy saved or gained.
Quantify how much output, earnings, and progress the convenience will likely enable. For example, a virtual assistant at £300 a month who saves you 10 hours weekly quickly pays for themselves.
Also weigh indirect benefits—reduced stress, higher quality work, expanded capacity. While less tangible, these impact your creative potential and income over time.
Of course, not all conveniences make fiscal sense. Discernment is key. But a reflexive, uncalculated rejection of services can be counterproductive.
Crunch the numbers, but also listen to your intuition. Will this expenditure free you up to spend time in your zone of genius and joy? That’s priceless.
With strategic convenience purchases, you often get back far more than you put in. Invest wisely in yourself and your services to work smarter, not harder.
Conclusion: When Convenience Pays Off
At first glance, convenience spending may seem frivolous. But carefully chosen services can end up paying for themselves in terms of creativity unlocked and efficiency gained. The key is discernment.
Not all conveniences make good financial sense. But reflexively rejecting any expenditure that eases your workload can be counterproductive too. Weigh each decision individually.
If a spend saves you time for high-impact tasks, provides health benefits that boost innovation, or removes distractions that hinder your genius, the price may be 100% worth it.
Look at convenience as an investment in your capabilities, not an indulgence. Spending smartly to work smarter multiplies what you can achieve.
Don't fear outsourcing tasks or streamlining logistics. When executed discerningly, convenience fuels productivity, preserves creativity, and nurtures overall success.
The bottom line? Convenience-costing is not inherently wasteful. When strategically chosen, services that simplify life can simplify your path to greatness.
