Classic Economics can be described as:

The (1) Allocation of

(2) Scarce Resources

(3) That have alternative uses

This simple sentence describes how the anthills of our society communicate prices, supply and demand and decide how to use resources.

What about applying this framework to ourselves as economic systems?

As transitory beings, we ourselves are scarce. Our primary resources can be distilled to (1) time and (2) attention.

[Aside: if you look closely, time and attention are one of the same. If we fully engage with our attention, time becomes irrelevant; and when we closely follow the passage of time, we are examining where our attention has been.]

Time and attention have a myriad of alternative uses. This is what makes anything costly. Economising our lives becomes a matter of allocating our time and attention to that which we find most valuable.

There is no way to hoard our time and attention. The beauty is that what we may value (1) need not be scarce and (2) is entirely subjective.

If we allocate our time and attention to things that are abundant in our experience and give us joy, we are effectively economising our scarcity. What one person values may be entirely different to another, and so we do not need to look to others to define what we economise.

Can we find joy in wherever our attention is, and however our time is spent?

Time and attention are resources like sand seeping through a cupped palm. The harder we clasp, the quicker the grains trickle through. Our agency is in the posture of our hands, ushering where these grains may flow. Perhaps they will return to the rocks they once were or atomise further into drops of glass. Whatever the case, the ordinary joy of the trickle of time and the flow of attention is a limitless abode.