How to Use Tool:

The first part of your focus on results should be to work out how much your time costs. This helps you to see if you are spending your time profitably.

If you work for an organization, calculate how much you cost it each year. Include your salary, payroll taxes, the cost of office space you occupy, equipment and facilities you use, expenses, administrative support, etc. If you are self-employed, work the annual running costs of your business.

To this figure add a 'guesstimate' of the amount of profit you should generate by your activity.

If you work normal hours, you will have approximately 200 productive days each year. If you work 7½ hours each day, this equates to 1,500 hours in a year.

From these figures, calculate an hourly rate. This should give a reasonable estimate of how much your time is worth - this may be a surprisingly large amount!

When you are deciding whether or not to take a task on, think about this value - are you wasting your or your organization's resources on a low yield task?

Key points:

Calculating how much your time is worth helps you to work out how whether it is worth doing particular jobs. If you have to spend much of your time doing low-yield jobs, then you can make a good case for employing an assistant.

The books on the right-hand sidebar are Amazon.com's best sellers in the Time Management area - if you found this article useful, these books will take your knowledge even further, ensuring that you are up-to-date with the latest thinking in the field. Why not have a look at them?

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