What I learned from The Richest Man in Babylon?

What can a mainstream book on personal finance teach you about time and goals?

"The Richest Man in Babylon" by George Clason is a widely known read, it offers common-sense advice on personal finance, nothing groundbreaking or of great depth.

However, after reading it, something made me shift my perspective.

One of the ideas in the book is to "pay yourself first" - save 10% of your income for yourself, then pay everyone else.

Money is an important asset, but you know what's of greater importance? Time.

What if you apply that rule in the way you use your time? If you have 10% of your awake time to yourself - that's about 1 hour and 40 minutes.

That's the amount of time you need for doing highly effective, meaningful work before your productivity drops significantly. In other words - that amount of time will give you the most ROI for your effort. Spending more time after this won't give you more results.

This isn't about going to the gym or other maintenance activities. It's about catching up on accumulated "dream" debt and chipping away from what's required to achieve your dream.