The Value of Your Time

The latest Housing 2.0 webinar recording is available and is a good use of an hour of your time. Here’s why. 

When I embarked upon my career after college, I was fortunate to start my job around the same time as a more experienced co-worker. The department we worked in had been given a major boost in funding, so we in essence doubled the size of that department. 

Those first few months, we spent a fair amount of time together, navigating the various internal processes, protocols, and expectations. In addition to our work-related discussions, we would converse about larger issues, such as finance, family, hobbies, etc.

Of all those conversations, the one topic that ranks above all others (to me) was learning about valuing your time. My co-worker had operated his own architectural practice, so he was used to billing by the hour. Being a salaried employee, I wasn’t thinking in those terms. 

What he stressed to me was that my employer valued my time at a certain dollar amount per hour. Therefore, why should I not value every hour at that same amount? He encouraged me to apply that perspective to a variety of decisions.

For some of you reading this, you might already use this wisdom in your decision-making processes. If so, that’s great. For others, you might have just learned something new, in which case I’m glad I could pass along his insight. But why am I recanting this 20-year-old personal story now?

I’m going to be honest; the Housing 2.0 workshops are a time commitment. There are six workshops, each of which take two hours (give or take a few minutes either way). That’s 12 hours in total. But you either know or can calculate the value of an hour of your time. You can multiply by 12 to arrive at an overall dollar amount.

Now, I’d like you to compare that amount to 25% of the construction costs of a singular project. Which amount is larger? I’m going to guess the latter, which brings me to my main point:

The investment of your time in the Housing 2.0 workshops will more than offset the savings you experience once you implement some/most/all of the Housing 2.0 principles. I can understand how some of you might be skeptical when you hear savings figures in the tens of thousands thrown around. But these numbers aren’t just hype. They are real, and you can learn more about them on our webinar: Better User X Homes for Lower Cost: Case Studies from 2021 Action Groups. Sam Rashkin will dig into a couple of case studies of past Housing 2.0 workshop attendees. I invite you to see for yourself.

The same financial calculation can be made when contemplating whether to attend the Housing 2.0 Action Groups. Those meet five times, for roughly three hours per session. While that is a slightly bigger time commitment, the difference is that it is a small group setting where we examine one of your projects in detail. Think of it as a customized exercise in optimization.

In my opinion, the Action Groups are incredible. I’m merely an observer, and I get so much out of them. 

To be fair, I imagine it would be difficult to go through the Action Group without having experienced the workshops, which is why I encourage that natural progression of attendance. But again, I’ll ask you to determine what 27 hours of your time is worth versus 25% of your construction costs.

Here’s my final point: 25% is really on the low end of the savings spectrum, so to speak. I’ve spoken with one past participant who has saved 50%. (Yes, you read that right.) I use 25% because I don’t want you to think I’m overselling the program. Just consider this: If the math pencils out for you on 25% savings, then anything and everything above that is a bonus.

Watch the video below and learn more about this transformative program. Perhaps you’ll see what I’m referring to, and make the decision to continue on with us in our Q2 series.

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