In the beginning there were commodities as the basis of the agrarian economy, the industrial revolution changed this as commodities became a raw material to manufacture goods. Goods have now become commoditised, with no care of who the goods were manufactured by. This has been reflected to the service sector with the sole care being price.

The shift that is now occurring away from this is towards an ‘Experience Economy’. The buying criteria for consumers are now being rendered by ‘Authenticity’.

As we begin to work smarter to create free time for ourselves to fill with experiences, the cost of this ‘free’ time will thus grow in value as we are driven to work longer and harder.

In 1972 Geoffrey Hoyle's book predicted what life would be like in 2010, it has now been reprinted with the title amended to 2011.

Among predictions of “vision phones” and “doing grocery shopping online”, one of the drastic wrong predictions in the 19^th century from the industrial revolution was that as we became more mechanised it would go a bit further to earning us a life of leisure.

Hoyle's three day week for 2010 has failed to materialise. "People are going to have to work very hard. It's gone the other way. People are working seven days a week. I'm very pessimistic now," he says.

We have been unable to use mechanisation and technology to truly make our lives easier. If anything they have made our lives more complex creating more demands upon ourselves acting as the catalyst to escape this and create authentic life experiences.

When attempting to create more free time in this experience economy remember the value of free and how you can best appreciate it.