Pricing YOUR Time

While I was reading this BCG's report, 'Just-in-Time Pricing' (Antorcha and Schürman, May 2010), I thought about how'd you apply the different pricing models to YOUR life (in capitals, since I don't want to talk about your professional services, but your personal/private life).

For starters, you'll need to understand one's life can be commanded as if a stablished regular organisation was, then business administration, strategy, economics and so on apply. Then, you need to be aware of cost-benefit analysis, acknowledging that the basics of decision-making rely on rules taken from it. Of course, thanks to the latest developments in Neuroeconomics and research in Psychology and Economics, we can speak up without you thinking of us as a [cynical; although most would tell you a 'moral idiot'] 'homo economicus': that doesn't exist anymore, rationality has had an upgraded definition thanks to psychology applied to economics. However, even with new definitions and new decision rules, cost-benefit analysis still applies, and whichever the decision is, watching TV or writing a poem, doing the washing-up or taking your kids to the park, behind any there's a subconscious process analysing how much is the price for doing this or that. The only difference is there's no money interexchanged, just self-brownie-points, measured by means of 'opportunity cost' (best alternative price).

So, once we have our methodology, we need to put in place a just-in-time pricing system (could you imagine making decisions about your daily life operations at a strategical pace?: can't!, check Strategical, Tactical, Operational Decision-Making!!!). Even if you have a timetable for your duties, I bet you need to apply some sort of adjustment during the day. Hein!, have I convinced you? (revise your agendas!; this happens at organisations, why not at home?).

Finally, taking into account we're aware of the system, and we have as much information loaded into our computer (aka BRAIN), we can proceed to make good use of any of the 6 pricing strategies that BCG suggests:

Lock in Now, Upsell Later.
Seize the Moment.
Capture a Lifetime Customer.
Give Away Today, not Tomorrow.
Set the Timer.
Price Dynamically in Time.

Have you made up your minds and see any relationship with those strategies and your daily routines and could give examples?.