I may be doing the opposite . . . I take too much time out for reading, studying whatever interests me, etc, etc. (Far too much like the narrator of this story..)
This, too, can backfire, and not for the reason you might think.
I tried to teach LaTeX and TikZ to graduate students. And it turns out that what I consider easy is only easy because I had learned it myself (a) for fun without any pressure, (b) with plenty of time for practice. It's not very great fun, and not easy, if you don't have much free time. (Donald Broadbent, 1971, Decision and stress, investigated this quite nicely. Pretty much anything and productivity falls off rapidly.)
Then again, I believe money per se doesn't buy happiness. It's time which is what it sometimes purchases. Time offers you the possibility of you focusing on the things you value, in order to become excellent at each of those different things. Excellence at those things you value gives you happiness.
Agreed.