You’d never let someone take twenty dollars from your wallet. Watch who’s taking your hours.

Money gets defended and time gets given away, mostly because the loss is harder to see. Nobody would hand cash to an app, or to somebody who burns an entire afternoon with no intention of being useful, and yet hours leave on exactly those terms most weeks. The difference is almost entirely about visibility.

Put a rough number on one of your hours and use it this week when something asks for your time. Notice who takes the most and returns the least. Saying no once to a time waster is practice for the bigger ones later on.