Saturday, August 9, 2008

The most realistic way to calculate the value of your time comes from Dan Kennedy's book, No BS Guide to Time Management, because it factors in productivity. Let's face it-no one is truly productive for eight hours a day. In fact, he cites a study of Fortune 500 executives who said they averaged only about 28 minutes of productivity a day. (Of course, they have someone paying them whether they're productive or not!). But for the purposes of this exercise, he suggests estimating that one-third of your time will be productive.
Calculate this number and start evaluating everything you do against it. Does it make sense to keep doing those website yourself, when you could hire someone for $50 and use the newly freed-up hour to focus on making that $175? Or, is it that important to meet in-person, since the 20 minutes to and from the meeting is costing you $113 of time? The answer may be yes if it's an important prospect or a friend you really want to see. But you'll quickly realize which trips aren't worth the time.