The 5 Types of Wealth: A Transformative Guide to Design Your Dream Life

Stoic philosophy reminds people that everyone must die. One of its classic phrases is “memento mori,” which is best translated as: “Remember that you must die.” To remind themselves of this fact, some people keep “memento mori” calendars to mark how many weeks they have lived and how many they approximately have left to live. Every culture has its own concept of time and its own way of interpreting the journey from birth to death. This includes different ways to measure time, from sundials to clocks. The more that people have sought to understand and measure time, the more they have wanted to control it, as well as their own lifespans. Bloom argues that people’s desire to gain greater control over time and extend their lifespans is a constant struggle.

Bloom laments that many people feel constantly rushed and working, but to little point or purpose. The sensation of always feeling “behind” in tasks and in life is fairly ubiquitous across different ages and life paths. Bloom observes the irony that modern people have more time than their ancestors due to their longer lifespans, but they still struggle to use their time productively. The competitive nature of modern life makes it easy for everyone, even children, to feel rushed and busy—even though they also feel as though they never accomplish enough. Bloom argues that people must stop running “harder” and start running “smarter” in order to regain control over time and feel as though they are getting ahead rather than being left behind.

Bloom explains the three pillars of “time wealth”: awareness, attention, and control. By being more aware of how much time they have left in their lives, people can make more conscious and meaningful choices about how to spend it. If one interprets time as the greatest luxury, youths are the wealthiest and older people are the most impoverished. Seeing life this way takes people’s focus off of money and reminds people that everyone, even the most wealthy and powerful people, has only a finite amount of time left.

Bloom argues that by being constantly busy, people scatter their energy and attention, making their actions less impactful. By reducing the time and energy spent on work, they can make greater progress more quickly. He points to Isaac Newton as an example. At school, Newton was a regular student, but when he was confined to his home during a plague year, he was able to concentrate his energies on his experiments and soon developed the theory of gravity. Bloom argues that this approach frees up time for people to pursue other things in life, giving them more control over their time.

The author describes the process of ranking different statements in order to measure one’s time wealth. He then introduces his “Time Wealth Guide.” The first part of the guide, “The Time Wealth Hard Reset,” supports the awareness pillar by asking people to calculate how many more times they will see a family member or friend before the age of 80. The next step is to create an “energy calendar” and list time spent, color-coding this list with green, yellow and red to mark which activities are fulfilling or draining. After these points are developed, he advocates working toward eliminating red activities and prioritizing green activities.

The next step in the process is to create a list of 25 top goals, then whittle this list down to five and focus solely upon these priorities, ignoring the rest. Bloom argues that this tactic is effective because it creates the conditions for success by eliminating distractions. The next step in the guide explains the “Eisenhower Matrix,” a tool for prioritizing one’s to-do list. This two-by-two matrix has four points: important, urgent, unimportant, and not urgent. By prioritizing important tasks, followed by urgent tasks, and finally unimportant or not urgent tasks, people can use their time more effectively. Bloom also recommends simplifying daily to-do lists by using small index cards and limiting to-dos to five tasks.

The author suggests that people eliminate wasted time by creating “artificial pressure” in the form of self-imposed deadlines. According to “Parkinson’s Law,” working within constraints makes people feel more motivated, and they work faster than they would in larger windows of time. To eliminate procrastination, Bloom recommends deconstructing big tasks into smaller, more manageable pieces that must be completed within specific windows of time. 

To achieve strong focus, he advises working in short, intentional bursts and using repeatable sensory cues to trigger focus sessions. Other tactics involve delegating tasks to others, overseeing higher risk tasks, and only minimally overseeing lower risk ones. Bloom also strongly recommends “the art of saying no,” reasoning that by being realistic about their commitments, people will make the best use of their free time rather than feeling overwhelmed. Finally, Bloom recommends that people follow Benjamin Franklin’s practice of organizing their days into defined time windows, such as time to manage, consume, create, and ideate. Once people have allowed for more creativity or ideating time in their lives, they can create with energy-giving rituals and activities to get the most out of their time.

Bloom reiterates the three pillars of time wealth: awareness, attention, and control, then explains five statements that can be ranked from 1-5 in order to measure a person’s individual time wealth.

He also encourages reflection and recommends writing down clear goals, anti-goals, and systems to motivate personal progress.