Words By Ian Child, author of Your Own Personal Time Machine

How much are you worth? Not what is the total value of your assets – what is your hourly rate? Before you answer, let me tell you about a seminar I attended where the host asked us all to write down our hourly rate. Apart from the lawyer sitting opposite me—he had written down his answer in about two nanoseconds—the question flummoxed the rest of us, and there was much scratching of heads. Should we take our annual income and divide it by the number of working hours in a year? Or would that sell us short – after all, if we’re only being hired for one hour, then we could probably charge a premium.

But on the other hand, wouldn’t it depend on what we were doing with that hour? If he wanted us to help him with his tax return, then that might command a premium that clearing out his garage or digging up some potatoes would not. It was all rather tricky, yet somehow, we each managed to arrive at our own number, which we duly wrote down.

I’m not a fan of being picked out of an audience, so, of course, our host decided that I should be the guinea pig for his little ‘hourly rate’ shenanigans. Happy days. He picked up the piece of paper on which I’d written my hourly value and gave me a look of mild surprise. I immediately assumed my number must be way too high. But soon I was wondering if I had gone too low.

Our host handed me a separate piece of paper on which he told me he’d written down the exact amount that I valued one hour of my time at. I unfolded the paper: You value your time at £2.50 per hour. He asked me to read this out to the rest of the audience, all of whom soon looked as perplexed as I felt.

And then, in an entirely left-field turn of events, he asked me where I did my weekly grocery shopping (Waitrose) and on which day of the week did I do this shopping (Saturday) and how long did it take me (two and a half hours, give or take).

Our host returned to his lectern and pulled up the home shopping page of my supermarket of choice on the big screen so that everybody could see it. He then asked a lady called Susan, who was sitting at the front, to read out how much it would cost for the supermarket to deliver their groceries directly to my front door. The answer, it turned out, was a fiver.

Striding purposefully back to me, our host detailed my shopping options: spend half an hour doing an online grocery shop in my pyjamas and pay five pounds for someone to deliver it; or save £5 and spend two and a half hours doing the shopping myself, in person. My choice had valued my time at £2.50 per hour.

This certainly wasn’t the way I’d been looking at things, but I had to say it suddenly made a lot of sense. We assume that it’s only the time we allocate to work tasks that has any financial value, yet the reality is it doesn’t matter which hour is involved. The question is simply what value we put on them. And, of course, what we do with them.

But this outsourcing of our home tasks doesn’t stop at supermarket shopping. How much time do you spend mowing your lawn? Well, there are gardeners that can take care of that for you. What about cleaning the house? Yup, you’ve guessed it, there are cleaners too. There are also people who can launder your clothes for you and do your ironing. You could even hire a personal chef.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’ve caught my drift, but surely all this outsourcing malarkey is going to cost you a small fortune? I mean, gardeners and personal chefs – it’s all a bit Downton Abbey and frankly not exactly a priority for you at the moment. Perhaps you’ll wait until you’ve got a few million in the bank before you think about splashing out on the home help.

But that’s rather missing the point. Henry Ford famously said, ‘Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.’ In other words, your fate is determined not by what you do, but by what you believe. If you believe that doing all the shopping, gardening, and cleaning tasks yourself is good because it saves you money, then that’s your view of the world and good luck to you. On the other hand, if you think doing all these chores yourself costs you time that you could otherwise spend doing something better, then that’s an altogether different view.

So, I would urge you to imagine all the rather wonderful things you could be doing if only you had the time and then weigh up the benefits of a little outsourcing so you can start to fit them all in. After all, your clock is ticking, and none of us know how many hours we may have left.

With the last season of Peaky Blinders came with more fighting, flat caps and fiercely sharp tailoring. Just in time for the summer months, Tommy Shelby has us mourning the lockdown beard and it’s all about that fresh, clean shaven look.

Men’s care brand Harry’s has got you covered from start-to-finish with simple, high-quality products at a non extortion price point:

• Prep: For the perfect pre-shave prep Harry’s Exfoliating Face Wash not only removes dirt and scrubs away dead skin cells, it also softens your beard preparing your face for an even more comfortable, clean shave.

• Shave: Take the first step towards a close shave with Harry’s aloe-rich Shave Gel . Next, Harry’s Truman  has everything you need for a comfortable shave: sharp, durable blades, a flex hinge, a lubricating strip, and a precision trimmer for your sideburns and hard-to-reach places like under your nose.

• Protect: For post shave hydration, happy skin uses Harry’s Face Lotion with sun protection to keep you protected. As a final step, Harry’s Post Shave Mist will calm, balance and soothe skin after you shave, an added bonus to cool you down on a hot summer’s day.

Did you know ? Harry’s believe in better access to mental health care, that’s why they donate 1% of their sales to non profits, helping men access therapy and other life-changing mental health resources – see more here.

Hit+Run, the platform designed to give a voice to passionate creatives and causes, and Revision, the  responsible and progressive online store that enables you to shop archival, new season and made to order designer collections have collaborated for a one-off t-shirt collection in aid of Ukraine. The range includes pieces from 15 of the UK’s most exciting designers and artists, including a host of the Revision brands – but also Know Wave Radio, illustrator Helen Bullock & Ukrainian born Epoch-A (soon to launch on Revision).

The For Ukraine collection consists of 42 designs, with profits going to support the DEC (Disasters Emergency Committee). There are long sleeve and short sleeve options, some feature illustrations, others abstract prints, bold graphics and slogans. Each of them has a powerful impact, and are truly unique.

The campaign was shot in and around West London’s Trellick Tower, as a nod to the brutalist architecture that can be found all over the incredible city of Kyiv.

Everything at Hit+Run is made to order, fair trade, and produced in organic cotton or recycled polyester. All designs are digitally printed using non-toxic ink, nothing is screen printed as the chemicals used are highly toxic and there’s zero plastic packaging. These high standard eco-credentials match those at Revision, which is a circular fashion retailer that enables you to shop past, present and future, directly from luxury designers around the world. It sells archival pieces alongside new season collections, helping independent brands reduce their waste and contribute to the circular economy, keeping products in use for as long as possible and thus extracting their maximum value.

The 15 designers who have created pieces are Andel, Eleanor Butler-Jones, Emily Frances Barrett, Epoch-A, Fiona O’Neill, Johanna Parv, MARIEYAT, Ruth Leslie, Second Best, Sweetlimejuice, The Ouze, Worme, Helen Bullock, Petra Borner and Know Wave.

The full collection will be available to shop viarevision-store.com & hitandrun.ltd prices start at £50 to £60, with all profits going to DEC.

For 70 years, Breitling’s original pilot’s watch has been beloved by aviators and tastemakers in equal measure. Worn by an astronaut in space and the biggest stars on Earth, it is Breitling’s most iconic timepiece. Breitling honors the legend with the introduction of a new Navitimer that captures its most classic features, while enhancing them with modern refinements.

“We don’t throw the term ‘icon’ around lightly,” says Georges Kern, CEO of Breitling. “The Navitimer is one of the most recognizable watches ever made. It’s on collectors’ lists of the greatest watches of all time. What began as a tool for pilots has gone on to mean something profound to every single person who has had this timepiece along on their personal journey.”

The Navitimer’s appeal stretches far beyond being a tool used by pilots to navigate their course, it’s a symbol for those plotting their personal journeys through life.  A new campaign, NAVITIMER—FOR THE JOURNEY, featuring the Navitimer Squad, made up of basketball superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Misty Copeland, and aviation pioneer and explorer Bertrand Piccard embodies this spirit. Each member has been on an incredible journey to land where they are today, each at the top of their particular field. Each one has charted a course and stayed on it through sheer determination. And each one is en route to achieving their next set of ambitions. Using powerful visuals and the Squad Members’ own narration, the campaign aims to get right to the heart of these moving journeys.

Available in 41mm, 43mm and 46mm case sizes, in steel or 18K red gold and in a variety of bold dial colours all equipped with Breitling’s Calibre B01 chronograph, we invite you to discover the collection via the attached press release.  We’ve also attached a small selection of low-res images but please do let us know if you would like to receive high-resolution images, we have lots of lovely images to choose from.

A good nights sleep is worth it’s weight in gold and we only know the true value of it, when we experience a lack of it

Well, Brendan Murdock, founder of anatomē, may well have the answer for you in creating a calming and contemporary brand, which is driven by a simple belief that nutritional and emotional balance is the key to a healthy, fulfilling life and that a healthy, nourished body will support a healthy mind.

Anatomé have exciting new products and have just launched 4 new sleep soundtracks to create a sensory experience with the brand’s 4 sleep oils.  The collaboration is with recording artist, Snoozy, produced and mixed with Grammy award winning producer, Jonathan Quarmby and will be streamed on Apple and Spotify.

Clients are encouraged to listen to the recordings before sleeping,  simultaneously applying the sleep oils or pillow spray for an immersive sensory experience.

The 4 tracks take the listener on a sonic journey through the landscapes linking them to the ingredients of each anatomé sleep oil blend, Cornish Lavender, Somali Frankincense, Blue Chamomile and Japanese Seaweed. Grounded in sleep science, peer reviewed studies have found that listening to natural sound affects the bodily systems that control the ‘flight or fright’ and rest digest but autonomic nervous systems with associated effects in the resting activity of the brain.

The project is a continuation of sleep months these formulations are at the core of everything anatomé do, see the new formulated Recovery + Sleep Pillow spray, Candles and Recovery + Sleep tea leaves…