To believe that time is the most valuable thing we have?

[ByLoyalGreenWriter]

People often talk about money, success, or relationships being the most important, but isn’t time really the one thing we can never get back? AIBU to think that how we spend our time matters more than anything else in life?

I absolutely totally agree.
We live in a death denying culture.

I agree time is extremely important but I believe it’s health. Or a level of health that gives freedom to live life and use the time we have.

Yes, I regularly tell this to anyone who will listen.

At the same time if someone wants to spend their time on mumsnet or having a nap that's up to them. Not everyone has to cram their lives full of activity. Some people are happy just being

Time and health. If you don't have those the rest is irrelevant.

Of course it is, but you don't really understand this properly until it's limited

But money can determine how you are able to use your time, relationships are a way of occupying time, and success is often as a result of how time is spent…so I’m not sure that ‘time’ as an abstract concept really means much….

I think it's good health. You will struggle with everything else if your health is poor.

Or...

I kind of agree but to play Devil’s Advocate there are plenty of people living utterly miserable lives and who have plenty of time. Prisoners, seriously disabled, dementia, people who live in poverty in war- torn countries or live under regimes like the Taliban.

Quality can be worth more than quantity. A balanced of health , security and yes, time are all ideals.

Yes. .I completely agree. When my mum asked me what I wanted for Christmas, my answer was "time "

This is deep. I'm thinking about this a lot since having a baby. I'm seriously thinking about really cutting time at work to spend more with her, which I never saw myself doing. But we also need to earn a living so it's so tough to decide.
Lately I spend a lot of my time ruminating and worrying. I wish I could be more present and thankful

Time is fascinating. So beautiful and so cruel.

Up to a point time is the most valuable, but only if you have the good health and money and happiness to enjoy it. If you are poor and sick or in prison, you may have too much time. If you are happy, healthy and productive with a busy job and family, you probably have too little time, but you are still better off.

Nah.
Your health is your wealth.

Good health is the most important thing, closely followed by time.

I think time as a concept is actually harmful it stops people living in the now. They are looking at the past and future but not the present.

Yes, all these people earning £650k, and working 16 hours a day and literally seeing their kids for 30 minutes a day instead of hours and hours ...won't be able to buy that time back with all that money they earned...

Money helps you enjoy time rather than having to waste time worrying about how to pay the next bill.
A partner can fill your time with happiness rather than spend that time being lonely.
If you have your health it is easier to spend time on activities you like instead of spending all day sat at home wishing time away because you are in pain.
There isn't just one 'most important' thing in life, its lots of little things that can make or break you.

Money + Time are almost completely equal. Having no money edges it. Life is dreadful with no money or no time

Health is very much a close second

I've had times in my life where I've had each in deficit (not at the same time) and having NO money is horrific. Literally starved. Had plenty of time to sit in a cold house being hungry with rat piss everywhere with no way out.

Having no time was a more recent thing and it made me have no sleep, anxiety, burn out. I felt on edge all the time.

Having poor health for a few years where I hurt all over and was really unwell was bad but thankfully I recovered.

I suspect though that people on this thread don't mean NO money. They still mean alleviated hunger and secure housing. So what they mean is sitting around their warm house with a nice home made soup reading books they got from the library

The privileged persons version of no money

I've been both cash rich/time poor and time rich/cash poor and tbh, there's pros and cons to both. You can have all the time in the world but if you can't afford to do anything with it it's hardly living your best life. Time is important, but so is enough money to enjoy it, and of course, good health.

I think it's fairly privileged to say that time is the most valuable thing ~ it's assuming people already have a basic standard of living. People need to trade their time for money - often for minimum wage at £11 an hour - just to meet minimum needs of food and shelter.

I also don't see how they're comparable - what should we be doing with our time if not building success/relationships? I don't want to waste time doing anything else, those things are important to me!

I can’t agree. Of course it’s important, but I think time/money/health are 3 things that go hand in hand with each other. One, without the other, doesn’t give you the benefits of it. For example, you have lots of money and you are retired so have time, but your health is poor so you’re going to die in 8 weeks.
Or you have good health, lots of time as a stay at home parent to adult children but have no money, so you can’t feed yourself and your family efficiently, you can’t heat your home, so it makes life shit and everyone is living in extreme poverty, so time and health are masked by the diabolical situation.

Hopefully people get what I’m trying to put across. All 3 are important in good measure and for you to reap the full benefits of time/money or health, you also need the other two.

My mum died of cancer.
When her cancer was terminal she said a bit of extra time was like winning the lottery.
12 yrs on I can still hear her saying those words.

Yes, I was just about to say exactly that.