Your full-time job isn’t a full-time job. At least it doesn’t have to be.

Companies have always outsourced parts of their operation, deciding which things were “core competencies” that they were uniquely capable of. If you’re Peloton, you shouldn’t build your own accounting software. If you’re Intuit, you shouldn’t manage your own custom email server. But what happens when individuals start to recognize the power of outsourcing?

Some wealthy people have always done this. They invest in chefs, gardeners, in-home help, and personal drivers. This may seem to be a necessity of their larger lifestyles, but it’s as much a choice of how they should spend their time. Many people can now hire out these parts of their lives with ride-sharing, home services marketplaces, and food delivery.

It’s not much of a reach to start doing this for your work. Companies I work with offer employees $5,000 budgets for Fiverr or Upwork to outsource tasks they don’t want to do themselves. Many midlevel employees I know have hired personal assistants, usually virtual, to manage a blend of work and personal administrative tasks. Others have taken some task they do every week and hired someone to do it for them, like preparing a report that requires the same flow of data gathering and formatting. Your favorite newsletter almost certain has part-time research assistants. All of these things can help someone get back time.

This idea isn’t new all, just that more people are using it. First, it’s just people recognizing the power of specialization in basic economics. But the pandemic was the first time that many knowledge workers could execute on this, without anyone noticing their attendance or activity in the office. What happened? People working multiple full time jobs. Seemingly endless side hustles on social media, or in financial markets. A boom in interest for investing, NFTs, and a variety of other speculative activity.

While people wonder why we’ve never gotten away from the 40 hour work week, perhaps for a large section of the economy we’re finally there. With that recaptured time and a wave of creativity, I can’t wait to see what else people dream up.

Note: I understand that I’m talking about a small part of the population and job opportunities, today. But making more people aware of it could help them discover how to take advantage, and improve their lives.