Impact, Value and Time: A Reflection

Time is our ultimate commodity!

Wait a moment... this is not just another trite commentary (at least I hope). I'm not trying to restate what we all know to be true and have heard from dozens (or hundreds) of others.

But... in the context of our life's legacy and purpose, how are you spending your time?

Where are you in term of your goals and aspirations? Are you coming up short? Are you finally ahead?

I was pondering these questions during a moment of personal reflection this week. I realized in that moment that financial wealth, personal health, freedom and impact were all directly tied to the finite amount of time I have left in my life.

We don't live forever.

But my thoughts didn't stop there...

I began to wonder, how could I achieve the impact and leave the legacy that I wanted? What about others? Is there a framework that could shape my decision making that would propel me forward exponentially? How do I best leverage my time?

How do the greatest leaders, entrepreneurs and tycoons think? And how do they manage and prioritize their time?

Instantly, MJ Demarco's wealth creation formula came to mind:

VALUE CREATED = SCALE x MAGNITUDE

This was great! I started to think about my daily life and my work and my calendar in this context. Are the tasks I'm spending time creating exponential impact over and above the time I'm investing?

But I realized soon, this wasn't enough. How do I compare the work that I do within a job and the time spent at home? What was the value creation equation for time spent with my wife and daughter? It certainly had an impact on them and me and one that was invaluable.

Perhaps there was a frame of reference I was missing...

Researching, reading and reflecting led me to this final matrix (excuse the chicken scratch...)

Context was the missing piece!

And let me try to explain how 'context' is defined here.

• Global Context - Does this task impact my life as a whole? What is the time horizon of the desired impact and are their boundaries to the scale dimension?
• Local Context - Does this task impact a bounded aspect of my life? Is there a limited time horizon where the desired impact is confined to?

To make this tool more concrete, here a few examples:

Investing time with my family does not scale, but in the global context of it checks the magnitude box. There's a tremendous return on the time spent with them. I will never regret having more time with my wife and daughter, but could regret not having enough time with them. This becomes a conscientious decision to choose them over other activities.

Writing an article on LinkedIn to share my personal thoughts and reflections. It has the potential to scale (I only have to write once, multiple people can consume) and magnitude of value created for individuals is questionable (mileage may vary). In terms of context, this activity is most likely global as my LinkedIn profile will be around for a while and LinkedIn as well. If folks find my articles valuable, perhaps, they'll believe I'm valuable and that could pay off in the future. Definitely, high leverage use of my time.

Building a SharePoint site for my company to support a particular technology. Checks both the scale and magnitude buckets, but the context is local. It only affects the company I'm working for today. In other words, that exponential value created does not follow me. I don't retain the full benefits of the time and energy invested. So, is the endeavor worth while? And does it affect me in a global context? Absolutely. The experience and reputation aspects of a job well done has a global context within the magnitude category. But recognize it does not scale in the global context.

What about health and nutrition?

These are somethings that definitely don't scale but have tremendous compounding effects over time. Eating right and daily exercise are high magnitude activities in the global context that add to your quality of life and vitality. I would argue that these are the only ways to 'buy' more time.

Finally, there are activities that do not have either scale or magnitude... avoid these at all costs! Some are necessary evils locally (administrative tasks, emails), but globally, you time is better spent else where.

Maybe this will shape your decision making when you think about what projects to work on or how to spend your personal time.

The goal here isn't to make every waking moment about value creation, but rather to shape your mindset and make you more conscientious about how you spend your time. So that when are you 'working' you are working on the right things that can have a lasting impact on your life and others.