Stop Living Day to Day: What In Time Taught Me

If you’ve ever felt like you live with just one day in your pocket, this post is for you. I know what living day to day means, because I did it most of my life. And to explain how I started to stop living day to day, I have to talk about a movie.

In Time: when time is money

In In Time, people don’t pay with bills. They pay with time. Everyone has a green countdown clock on their arm: coffee costs minutes, rent costs days, and when the clock hits zero, it’s over. The main character, Will Salas, wakes up every morning with just enough to survive that day.

When I watched it I thought: this isn’t science fiction. Real life works the same way, we just gave it other names: dollars, euros, pesos, francs. But money is time. It’s hours of your life you traded for goods and services. That’s why in the film everyone guards every second like crazy.

I also lived with one day on my arm

Like Will, I lived day to day. While friends and people around me bought a car or took a trip to Brazil, I was somewhere else: studying, testing, trying, failing, falling, getting back up, learning from my mistakes, iterating and trying again. My whole life, like that.

I’m not telling you this for sympathy. I’m telling you because those years of trial and error were my real school. Since 2019 I’ve worked only for myself, and every failure left me something I use every day.

What did I do to stop living day to day?

The short answer: I put myself in the most uncomfortable situation of my life. Despite my fears, one day I thought: “I can.” I got the visa, bought the ticket and went to Miami to open my company. No contacts, no perfect English, no funds: just 700 dollars and a lot of hunger.

And there I faced my deepest fears. You know them: the maybe… the what if… the what would happen if… the how am I going to… Those questions are the real time thieves. They can keep you stuck in the same place for years.

I ended up sleeping in a hostel (the full story is in from a hostel in Miami to an AI business). And today? Today I have my company in Miami, I live in Downtown, and through King Studio AI I help entrepreneurs win back their time with artificial intelligence. I still work as hard as ever, but I’m no longer running after the clock.

The rich don’t run: they have systems

There’s one scene that stuck with me. When Will arrives in the rich zone, what gives him away is that he’s in a hurry. Nobody runs there. The one who runs comes from the ghetto, because he lives with the clock against him.

The rich in the film didn’t have more hours than you. They had systems working for them. That’s the lesson: running all day isn’t being productive, it’s being time-poor.

Who are today’s timekeepers?

In the film there are timekeepers, the ones who control who has hours and who doesn’t. They exist today too, they just don’t wear uniforms:

• The job that buys your hours cheap and doesn’t let you build anything of your own.
• Your phone, which steals hours while you scroll without noticing.
• The repetitive tasks you do by hand: answering the same messages, copying data, entering orders.
• Your own “what ifs”, which stop you before you start.

5 steps to start winning back your time

1. Measure one week: write down where your hours go. No judging, just looking.
2. Pick one repetitive task and automate it: answers to frequent questions, reminders, data entry. If you don’t know where to start, check this checklist of what to automate first.
3. Charge for what you know: your knowledge is stored time. Don’t give it away.
4. Write down your “what ifs” and answer them: most lose their power once you see them on paper.
5. Do it scared: fear doesn’t leave before you take the step. It leaves by taking it.

The time you win back is for your purpose

Stopping living day to day isn’t only about money. It’s about having time for what matters: your family, your health and your purpose. To go deeper, read the importance of having a purpose in life, and find more stories on the home page.

Next time you say “I don’t have time”, ask yourself who’s stealing it. Your clock is already ticking.

— Patricio “King” Olivera