If I had to present a simplified breakdown of how we spend our time and energy, it would be a manifestation of the list below
Work, school, university
Time spent with friends
Time spent with family
Hobbies
Leisure, relaxation
Daily life tasks
Sleep
… and so on
Each of these headings has further sublists for them -- you have many friends to spend your time with, many family members, many things to do at work, and a wide array of hobbies and leisure activities to indulge. With a finite amount of time every day, all of these things are in trade-off with one another. Why exactly are these trade-offs? A trade-off is a choice between two things where both sides have their merit. Everything and everyone on this list is an essential element of your life and qualitatively incomparable to anything else on the list. Ideally, we wish to have more time for everyone and everything. And thus, it becomes a huge task to find a balance between all these.
Before I go ahead, I want to state what I don’t consider a trade-off. In my opinion, a trade-off is a bad one (and thus not really a trade-off) if one side is clearly not important enough or even healthy. We have a lot of these in our lives. It could be people who aren’t treating us well or are not good for us. It could be plans that don’t make you feel good, but you are going out of obligation. It could be social media. It could be work or hobbies that no longer gives you joy. It could even be something that is healthy and productive but has become an escape for you (see insidious addictions).
In the process of balancing these things, we often take premature steps. I came up with a three-step checklist that can help make a decision like this (about how we spend our time)
Time
Technique
Trade-off
I’ll explain it through examples. A few months ago, I wanted to start exercising regularly with the aim of improving my fitness significantly. And since I was starting out, I was unsure how to get better at the gym. I would search on the internet for different types of regimes to follow to improve in a structured way. And I would fall short in following that regime every time. For many days I would go, do a few random exercises and leave after 30 mins. And I would go to the gym very infrequently -- going once and then no show for the next two weeks. I wanted to improve, but I was focusing on technique (what exercises to do, what regime to follow) when I didn’t even have a habit of going to the gym regularly. What I should have focused on was time. Find ways to go to the gym more often (and for longer than 30 mins) and make a habit first. I was doing step 2 before step 1.
Another example would be writing. I had wanted to start this blog in January (new year resolution). But for five months, I would write half-heartedly in google docs, unable to finish any post. Frustrated, I would search for how to be a better writer and read advice from great authors. I was trying to focus on technique (step 2), but the problem was the time (step 1) -- I wasn’t even spending an hour a week on writing.
I even considered giving up on reading to make time for writing. Through this decision, I was trading-off reading for writing (step 3). But it was a premature trade-off. Because I was already spending hours every day on social media and watching TV, which was apparent time sinks. I could have created time for writing by reducing the time on social media. This way, I would not have to give up on reading and have time (step 1) for writing. [To make it more clear, in this example, reading vs. writing is a trade-off, but social media vs. writing is not]
There would be many such examples in our lives where we are
Trying to work on technique before improving the time spent on the task. (Step 2 before step 1)
Pre-mature giving up on something important before improving time or technique for the task. (Step 3 before step 1,2)
So what does this method suggests about our fallacy listed above?
Want to get better at a new skill or hobby? First, allocate as much time as possible for that skill by cutting down on unnecessary stuff. (step 1 before step 2)
Do you want to allocate time to a new thing but can’t make time for it? Check if you can do current, everyday things efficiently to create time for it. Do this before you give up on a current thing to accommodate the new one. (step 2 before step 3)
The idea behind this method is to delay the trade-offs until the last. My justification for it is -
Trade-offs are tough. Since the things we are comparing have pros on both sides, we are torn in deciding between them. Thus trade-offs require knowing yourself -- what is that I value, what is that I find more joy and satisfaction in. It’s tough to know whether you really like A or B until you come to the point where you HAVE to choose only one. We can truly see the pros of each side when we are standing at the edge. At that point, we will have a clearer picture of the rewards, i.e., what we will have to give up to gain the other thing.
Do you want to know whether to spend time on A or B? (i) Try spending time on both by cutting down other things. (ii) Try doing both of these efficiently. Once you feel like you can’t push further, then make the trade-off. At this point, you are better equipped to decide the trade-off.
Another instance of where premature trade-offs affect our decision-making is trade-offs of the future. I find myself worrying about trade-offs that I don’t even have in my life at this moment — for example, work-life balance. I have ample time to do hobbies and meet friends after work. I still have a lot of time sink (social media, tv, etc.) every day, which I could reduce if I needed more time. Thinking about work-life balance is not a trade-off for me right now. It is better to leave this trade-off for the future. Ending the post with the idiom
Cross the bridge when you come to it