Lately I've been thinking a lot about time, for a bunch of reasons. I live closer to my son now, and there's no better reminder of aging than hanging with a 9-year-old in this current world. I'm visibly aging too — the greys are getting more obvious, the wrinkles deeper. And my parents are now retired, so my sister and I are in the reverse position of taking care of them.

Anyway, all I'm saying is that I tend to see time very differently now. Time is a real compounder. I don't know why it took me so long to get it. I think it's because we don't pay for it beforehand. You kind of just get in on credit, and then it can take a while for your statement to come through. What's even more ridiculous is that we undervalue it and overvalue what it buys us. Time buys us what we need to buy everything else: money.

Let's put scammers and grifters aside: everyone you know who's rich paid for it with time. No matter how lucky you think they are, they put time into something, and it paid off.

Money aside, I've really been thinking about it in terms of skills. It's crazy how much better you get at stuff when you put time into it. I've seen lots of people go from terrible to amazing at something just because they put time into it. We tend to ascribe luck and natural aptitude to people who just spent time grinding when we weren't looking.

But time has a preference for how it's spent, and that's with consistency. I took a course a few years back on learning how to learn, and it's mind-blowing how much consistency compounds over time. I see this a lot with cooking. People think cooking is hard and you have to have "the hand." That's probably true for Michelin-starred chefs, but definitely not for you. Consistently practise cooking, and over time you start to understand flavours and timing. Then one day your friends can't believe you made such a great plate. But you had to endure a lot of bad stuff to get there, and even just toss some out.

Okay, let me get to my point. Don't underestimate how much time matters. Spend a little consistently on something and you'll be surprised at how much progress you've made. I know it's a struggle because we've been conditioned to focus on short-term results and quick gain — and for many of us, long-term thinking is really a luxury. But if you keep looking too close, you'll never see far enough to plan for the obstacles ahead.


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Tip of the day: Close all those tabs — in your mind and on your browser. They're slowing you down. You don't need all of them. 😌😌😌