I'm Paul Muldoon, a poet who over the past several years has had the good fortune to record hours of conversations with one of the world's greatest songwriters, Sir Paul McCartney. The result is our new

podcast McCartney A Life in Lyrics. Listen to McCartney A Life in L lyrics on the I-Heart Radio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

Good morning.

This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast Podcast.

Today's tip is to add up the full time cost.

We can forget all the small bits of time attached to any project or activity,

but seeing the true cost can help us make better choices.

Today's tip, like yesterday's, comes from Ashley Willen's new book, Time Smart.

In this book, she argues that people tend to undervalue their time, compared with money, but that we're often happier,

making time-centric decisions.

One way that people undervalue their time

is by not considering all the time

associated with any project or decision.

When people first look into speaking professionally, for instance, many get quite excited

by the pay rates associated with the job. But of course

earning thousands of dollars for a one-hour speech doesn't actually

translate into a rate of earning thousands of dollars per hour. You often have

to travel to the speech. There's time

getting to the airport and time spent on the plane. Sometimes you have to stay

overnight. There's time spent packing and unpacking afterwards. There's the fact that traveling takes a lot of energy.

...