How much is our time worth?

I just arrived at Munich airport, not on time. The plane was 20 min late because of construction in Heathrow. 20 min… That is nothing. I can give my favorite airport in the world 20 min. After all I am just coming back from a conference with the nice name “I can do it!” where I was asking myself what the IT in I can do it was for me.
One lady had a really good explanation. She saw lots of boxes flying towards her with many ITs depending on where she was and what she was doing.
So I guess my IT for tonight was to give Lufthansa 20min of my time, or to be correct, the airport in London.
So after having landed I was perfectly set to taking the train home since it is about 1/5 of the price of a cab ride to my place. Arriving that late at night though, I am often tempted to just take the more expensive option and enjoy the fast way home.
Parking at the gate, everything got dark inside the plane. “Dear Ladies and Gents, the power unit that is supporting us with energy broke down and so we have to wait until it is being replaced. Please remain calm and stay in your seats. In 10min tops, we will have it fixed and you can leave the aircraft. We apologize for that.”
So another 10 min… Who cares? In my mind it brings up the train vs. cab discussion again and I am now seriously considering spending the 50€ to have a nice conversation about where I was this weekend in the cab as opposed to listening to snoring people on the train. Another 20 min later, my mind has made itself up. We are taking a cab. We just need to get money from the ATM first because the last Euros went to my colleague in London in exchange for some pounds. – Why are the Brits part of the European Union and still keep their Queen money anyway? That is pretty inconvenient for a common European nowadays. – Anyway, there is an ATM right on the way to the taxistand. But when I get out of the security area, I remember I have to buy myself a subway ticket for the next day and so I end up in front of the ticket machine anyway. And guess how much my time is worth now? 40€ less than my mind suggested only a few minutes ago.
Here I am sitting on the train writing this blog entry. I guess my mind knew that I wouldn’t have saved the time by taking a taxi for some more valuable stuff, but I would have spent the gained time in front of the PC anyway, not on the train but sitting upright in bed.
And therefore I have to say, the unconscious mind who tricked me into buying the train ticket although I only wanted the one for tomorrow morning is not that dumb. It knows more than we do.

The train is more interesting for sure. In the few minutes I sat here, I saw a sleeping man fall off his seat and the guy next to me gave himself his insuline shot.
The guy with the furry pearl bookmark isn’t even worth mentioning with all the other excitement in here. Riding the train is becoming my new favorite activity!