I Have Hair

I have hair. However, I choose not to wear it. It’s a matter of managing my priorities. So just to make a point and to be as mathematically correct as I could be, I consulted one of my best buddies. My pal Bryce is a real, honest to Pete rocket scientist. So who best to consult with to answer my incredibly profound question but my resident expert, rocket scientist buddy.

I was convinced that the solution to my question would require all kinds of algorithms, calculations, and intense consideration. And, I’m sure it did.

This was serious stuff.

I went to rocket man with a question. About 20 years ago, I got tired of messing with my hair. I got tired of the ritual of combing, brushing, blow-drying, gelling, and spraying multiple times a day. On the days I went to the gym, I might go through this process three or four times. And, then there were also trips to the barber.

Finally, one day, I just became fed up with the entire process. I walked into a barber salon and told the lady to cut it all off. She did, and I never wore hair again. Free at last.

So I went to Rocketman (Bryce) and asked him to help me understand how much time I have saved by eliminating this task from my life that cost me time every day. His answer confirmed my suspicions and validated my actions so long ago.

Simply by shaving my head, never to wear hair again, over 20 years I have saved:

• 219,000 minutes, or
• 3,650 hours, or
• 152 days, or
• 22 full weeks, and
• If I got my hair cut every two weeks, I would have spent conservatively nearly $9,000.

By evaluating my priorities, I reallocated twenty-two weeks of my life to (hopefully) more critical, higher consequence tasks and saved a bunch of money to boot.

Now, I’m not advocating that everyone reading this goes out and shaves their heads. I know that some of you have an impressive head of hair. But for me, it was just one thing that wasn’t a priority, and I could eliminate it from my daily time management.

I am asking you to take some time to honestly evaluate what you do every day and if everything that takes up your time is worth it. For example, are you busy, or just busy being busy? Then, make a list every night of what you plan to do tomorrow. Once you have that list, go down the list and evaluate the consequences if you don’t do each item. Is the consequence low if you don’t do it? In turn, is there a powerful consequence attached to completing the task by doing the thing? It is the difference between doing something you’d just like to do or doing something that you absolutely must do. For example, cleaning the garage is not something that you must do. But, paying your mortgage or rent is. So, both personally and professionally, it’s worth it to think about what your time is worth and then manage it to your advantage. All in all, life is short, so spend your time wisely.