How To Value Your Time And Make Better Choices

Last week I talked about the real value of your time based on your Hourly Rate.

Today it’s about where you spend time and whether you spend more of it on high-value tasks and less on wasted time.

Complete a?Time Log?exercise, if you don't already track your time. Make a note of where you spend time on different tasks and activities.

How much time do you spend across the week for the tasks you do in an average day?

• Project work
• Client work
• Admin
• Email
• Customer support
• IT related
• Repetitive tasks ...

Multiple the time for each different task or category by your hourly rate and put a 'value' against each one.

High value tasks?- add to what you do and support you in achieving your goals. They get you results, give you a sense of achievement and keep you motivated and moving forward.

Low value tasks?- use up your time for fewer results and often waste more time than they're worth or need to ...

• Checking email first thing in the morning ... before you know it an hour or more has gone by.
• Scrolling through social media, getting distracted by an interesting post or article, then following links to another post ... another hour gone.
• Responding to an email notification as soon as it pops up ... clicking through to your Inbox to deal with it.
• Interruptions from a phone call or a colleague -?“Have you got a minute?”?Half an hour later ... you have more to add to your list.

How much of your day is spent on 'high' vs 'low' value tasks??

Knowing where your time goes and putting a value on it enables you to make better choices so you're able to use your time in a more productive and effective way.

Develop a better understanding of what’s a valuable use of your time and what’s not.

• Choosing what to say ‘yes’ to.
• Deciding what tasks to do and in what order.
• Looking at how productively you spend your time.
• Are they part of your core role and responsibility or not?

If they’re important to your business or your life but not essential for you to do, how can you make better use of your time?

Save time and make better choices

At what point is it better to pay someone else to do the task for you instead of spending time, energy and resources doing it yourself?

Outsource, delegating or paying someone else to do tasks adds value, as well as giving you time back.

You effectively double the hours available to the business if you pay someone to do a task so you can use that time to do another task.

Particularly if it’s something you don’t like doing.

At work:

For instance:

You spend 3 hours a week updating your?accounts?and finances or doing?admin.

If your billable rate is ￡100ph = ￡300 per week.

A book-keeper charges ￡20-￡25ph = ￡75 per week.?(Rates vary depending on the type of business and the complexity of your accounts/admin).

However, they may complete the same work that takes you 3 hours in 2-3 hours a month.

Net gain ￡225 per week.?Especially if you’re able to use those hours for more billable work.

Or it may be worth it so you don't have to give up your evening and weekends.

Simplify your processes and use technology and automation to make life easier and complete tasks quicker.

• Link your email to your CRM, Invoicing or Task Management System
• Automate your email and marketing
• Automate email, calendar scheduling and invoicing
• Centralise file sharing and storage (and backup) ...

Save time and you'll be able to spend time on the important tasks only?you?can do.

At home:

Free up your evening and weekends to spend more quality time with your partner, friends and family without having to worry about work.

• Gardening - get someone to mow the lawn, trim the trees and hedges, unless this is your way to relax and you have time for it.
• Cleaning and housework - a couple of hours a week or a month can make a difference. It's easier to keep on top of it with a regular cleaning routine.
• DIY tasks - take twice, three times as long when you try and do them yourself. Great if you have the time, tools and it’s something you’re good at but not so great if it’s not.

I’ve known plenty of people have a number of unfinished DIY projects around the house because they just don’t have the time.

If you don’t have a team or anyone to delegate to, there are resources available that can help:

• Fiverr
• UpWork
• PeoplePerHour

They may not be able to pop round to do the gardening or DIY but they can help with plenty of other tasks from admin to marketing to website design.

You can get quotes for a regular task, like admin or for a one-off project such as market research or creating an ebook.

Focus on one thing at a time

Often we have too many irons in the fire, too many plates spinning and struggle to spend time on all the different priorities.

If I find myself plate-spinning or getting too distracted,?I’ll ask ...

“is this the best use of my time?”

?It’s a good prompt to keep you focused on higher value and relevant tasks. Stick it on a Post-It or as a screensaver to remind you.

What’s the best use of your time and where is it best spent?

Once you know where you spend time you can start to see where to make better choices with your time and free up more of your time.

If you’d like the?Simple Hourly Rate Calculator, just message?me and I’ll send you a copy.

Find Out More:

Join the?Better Time Habits?group and build?good time habits?so you can free up more of your time and make better choices.

Read previous related blog posts on time management and productivity.

Under-estimating how long a task will take

Value Your Time And Charge What You're Worth

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