Money has a returns desk. Time doesn’t. Spend it like there are no refunds, because there aren’t.

Money lost can often be earned again, which makes it feel like the more serious resource even though it is the more recoverable one. Time has no equivalent mechanism; a spent afternoon cannot be re-earned by working harder later. Most people guard the replaceable one closely and give the other away to whoever asks.

Look at what you agreed to this week and ask what you would have paid to get the hour back. Decline one thing on those grounds and treat the refusal as a purchase.