| Life is filled with chores we despise. We spend hours every month begrudgingly dusting, folding clothes, cleaning floors, making beds — time we'll never get back. But what if we bought ourselves a few more hours every week? Welcome to Day 3 of A Better Week. I wanted to explore the benefit of outsourcing tasks I don't enjoy — think laundry or doing the dishes. So, I spoke with Ashley Whillan, an expert on how time and money impact well-being, in the hopes of getting permission to finally cancel my least-favorite chores. At first glance, it may seem like a simple calculation: The more money you can spend to create more free time, the happier you will be. Whillans's research found that people who buy time by paying someone else to complete household tasks are generally happier, but there are limits. "It's not a linear effect," said Whillan, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School. "It's not like you spend more money on time saving, you get happier."  (Jennifer Tapias Derch for The Post) | Whillan found that there are diminishing returns with outsourcing. Having to coordinate outsourcing tasks can become its own source of stress. For most people, freeing up too much time is probably not the main concern. Considering roughly half of the country works in low-wage jobs, the idea of regularly outsourcing expensive chores is unrealistic for many Americans. But everyone values their time, and there are smaller timesaving purchases that can fit a variety of budgets. Here are a few examples: - No additional expense: Find a vaccinated friend and do a lunch swap twice a week: On Monday, I make us both lunch; on Friday, you make us both lunch. This is a great way to make a chore (meal prep) feel social.
- If you can budget $5 to $10 a week: Pay for a grocery delivery service. Item markups can get expensive, but some companies offer lower rates where they'll do the shopping for you if you pick it up curbside. Try to use the saved time to do some meal planning and cooking once the groceries arrive.
- If you can budget $20 a week: Try a laundry delivery service. Many companies charge by weight and will pick up and deliver your freshly washed and folded clothes. Use the free time to catch up with a friend.
- If you can budget $50 a week: You could try a monthly home cleaning service and outsource the deeper cleaning. You could plan to have a few friends over that night, while your place is looking spiffy. If you're a parent, you could pay for a babysitter and have a few hours to yourself or with your partner.
I decided to try it out for myself and saved three weekend hours My girlfriend and I love trying out new recipes, but because we live in a busy city without a car, getting to a grocery store can be a huge source of stress. So, we tried a grocery delivery service. We were skeptical and felt overindulgent, but it saved us three hours on a recent Saturday. I tried to incorporate Whillan's other advice: What you do with the newly acquired free time is as important as adding time, which she refers to as "reframing" time. "If we're going to outsource and buy ourselves more time, you also have to kind of work to enjoy it," Whillans said. Your turn: Buy yourself an hour this week — you can do it without spending any money — and be mindful of what you do with the time. Rather than just binge-watching the entire final season of "BoJack Horseman," I tried to reframe the freshly purchased time by looking at it as an opportunity to attempt a couple of ambitious new recipes, which would double as meal prep for work lunches. There was something of a domino effect, since the meal prep created an extra few minutes (hello more free time!) later in the week, which I used to get to work a bit earlier and get a better handle on my work day. Well, at least that's what I did on Monday. The next two days I slept 10 minutes longer. Hey, it's my free time, don't judge what I do with it. While buying more time fit every budget, the idea of reframing the time you may be already buying, such as the time you create when you order take out, can be a productive thought exercise. Coming tomorrow: How to stop endlessly scrolling through Netflix and navigate the golden age of television | 
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