What makes this “time well spent?”A biz lesson from Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
In early 2025, I read a book called "Maybe You Should Talk to Someone" by Lori Gottlieb.
I am reading it because it's been sitting on my shelf and I needed something drastically different from another book I just finished by Colleen Hoover called "Too Late" (I do not recommend this one). It was a book club book and meh. Not my jam.
I bought Lori's book (the one I am reading now and like, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone) after following her on Instagram for a bit. She's a therapist and, honestly, I just enjoyed the content she had been putting out. The book originally stuck me as what I assumed would be a typical “self helpy” book but it has been very different from any expectation I had (in the BEST way).
It's really good and very easy to read. It's much less "self helpy" than you would assume. The cover makes total sense after reading the book, but I do think the title paired with the cover art may be a little misleading.
All of that to say if you're looking for a book, it's great.
When I sat down to write this post, I was going to write it about one of the 6 million tech, website, seo, etc. quick tips I have floating around in my brain, but I just kept coming back to wanting to share something I read inside this book this morning:
"'Modern man thinks he loses something—time—when he does not do things quickly; yet he does not know what to do with the time he gains except kill it.'... People didn’t use extra time earned to relax or connect with friends or family. Instead, they tried to cram more in."
The beginning quote was from Erich Fromm, a psychologist. The whole excerpt is directly from Lori's book.
So, why did I want to share this with you? I don't have a specific reason other than to share something that made me pause for a moment and maybe it will do the same for you.
I suppose I could relate it to using "systems" and "automations" and having everything in place to free up some of your time or speak to the value of my retainer service, where my clients are able to outsource the things they don't like to me so that they can do things they actually enjoy/things that aren't a time suck for them.
But the big picture here was what I wanted to focus on: the need to shift our focus from simply maximizing available time to thinking more carefully about how we want to spend our moments.
Perhaps instead of asking "How can I do this faster?" we should more often ask "What makes this time well spent?"
Because at the end of the day, the goal isn't just to free up more hours in your business or in your life, it's to fill those hours with what truly matters to you, which will be different for everyone, and is based on your values and knowing what your "enough" is. If you don't know what those are, then go check out Laura Jean, @dietitianvalues, on Instagram (h/t Shanté for introducing me to Laura Jean and her magic inside the Maestro Mafia).
Okay, that’s all I’ve got for you… but hopefully this was time well spent😉.
