Remember that saying that money can’t buy you happiness? Well, research is challenging that perhaps it actually can. As time becomes more valuable, many professionals are buying their time back from outsourcing services.
The University of British Columbia and Harvard business school recently led a study that suggests that by using money to buy time, for example, paying a domestic worker to do chores around the house, has linked to better life satisfaction.
Study lead author Ashley Whillans, assistant professor at Harvard Business School said, “Our results suggest that buying time has similar benefits for happiness as having more money.”
In the survey, 98 working adults were asked how they would spend $40, where only two percent would use it in a way that saved them time.
“Although buying time can serve as a buffer against the time pressures of daily life, few people are doing it even when they can afford it. Lots of research has shown that people benefit from buying their way into pleasant experiences, but our research suggests people should also consider buying their way out of unpleasant experiences, said Ashley.”
In the research, they also found that women would most benefit from buying back time as they are the ones who have “two” jobs. While women have gained better access to educational opportunities in recent decades, their life satisfaction has steadily declined. With all the stresses that women face in the workforce, coming home to a family may prove to be just as stressful, as they have to face the daily chores of motherhood – not setting aside the social chores that women face.
The feeling of being pressed for time is typically linked to lower life satisfaction. Time stresses, unfortunately, has a detrimental effect on many people, however, by buying back time, the survey showed that the stresses of time disappeared among people who used money to buy time.
Buying time boosts happiness by reducing the effects of time stress, so, how can you buy back time as a working professional?
Buyback your time by hiring a Virtual Assistant
This is one of the many options that you have as a working professional to buy back the time that you value. A virtual assistant can tackle all the tasks at hand, even book the appointments that you have been putting off because of the lack of time.
Virtual assistants serve as a cheap option to do the things that you dread doing in order for you to do the things you love.
Not only will you be saving time when hiring a virtual assistant, but you will be saving money too!
Delegating tasks, whether that is business oriented, personal, or family orientated will help you stress less.
Social chores have become a very common assignment and can become time-consuming for business owners, however, a good virtual assistant can take care of it all.
Virtual Assistants are here to give you your freedom back by taking care of:
- Email Management
- Business process driven tasks.
- PowerPoint presentations for meetings and conferences.
- E-filing
- Document formatting
- Transcriptions and minutes of meetings.
- Customer Interaction Management
- Calendar Management
- Proper online research through multiple sources, compiled in an easy to read format.
- Travel Management
- Finding and booking personal trainer
- Handling Credit card and bank statements.
- Managing Loyalty cards.
- Researching and planning family vacations
- Making family videos and albums
- Restaurant bookings
- Finding a babysitter
- Buying gifts for your loved ones
There is no reason for you to feel the anxiety pressures of the modern life. By buying your time back you will be able to do all the things you enjoy with little if any stress. Whether it’s hiring people to do your household chores, or better yet, hiring a virtual assistant to hire all these time-savers for you, you will find yourself becoming a happier, healthier you!
You should never think about time-saving services as an idle option. Think of buying time as an escape hatch from the excessive time pressure of modern life.
