What kind of value do you put on your time? Everyone has the same number of hours in the day, but why do some people seem to get so much more from their time? It’s because they recognize the value of their time and invest it in high pay-off activities, as opposed to minimum wage activities. Learn the value of your time and make your actions worth the investment. Read more on how Dan Kennedy approaches the question of how much your time is worth. Part 3 of this article will be featured in the next blog, so stay tuned. Now read on to see what Dan Kennedy has to say on time usage and accountability:

By Dan S. Kennedy

The big questions are these – do you actually know what your hour must be worth, in order to reach your desired income goal for the year? Do you accept and prioritize responsibilities, projects, opportunities, reject, delegate away, based on that number? Do you have good ‘future banking’ statistics so you can judge the value of what you just did with the last hour? In short, are you doing your best to consciously, deliberate, mathematically, financially hold yourself accountable for the ways you invest your time?

I hate the near extinction of full serve gas stations. In the ten minutes required to pump gas and wipe windshield and windows myself, I could have sat comfortably in the car and listened to an informative tape, jotted an answer to a memo, read an item from a newsletter or magazine or just thought about a business matter – any one of which infinitely more valuable than the minimum wage job of pumping gas. It is example of the fact that we let ourselves do low wage work much too frequently. You wouldn’t take it as a part-time job and go pump gas or clean your house or mow your grass for $8.00 an hour, would you?

If you mow your lawn as recreation, as exercise, as a hobby that you genuinely enjoy, that’s one thing. But if you do it because you’re too cheap to find and pay a kid to do it, that’s another.

Add to this the “more problem”, the piling on of “more” that produces on more low wage work and low value consumption of time for you. This you must be very, very careful of. The more successful you become, the more your entire approach to opportunity and to time must evolve.

Consider something as simple as the client who requires an excessive amount of time, access, coddling. As your time and your staff’s time grows more valuable, he becomes less valuable. If, to reach your goals, your hour must be worth $1,000.00 and your staff’s $100.00, and he consumes 10 hours a year of each more than the next client, he costs you an extra $11,000.00. But if your time has to be worth $2,000.00, your staff’s $200.00, the same 10 hours of your time plus 10 hours of staff time leaps to $22,000.00. If his contribution to income stays the same, he’s instantly worth $11,000.00 less. At what point does he cost more than he’s worth? At what point are you better off without his revenue altogether? Your gross might dip, but your net might improve. And/or that vacuum fill with a more profitable account.

About The Author: Dan Kennedy is the author of nine business books, including his newest, NO B.S. TIME MANAGEMENT FOR ENTREPRENEURS, available in bookstores or from online booksellers. Additional information and free chapter previews at www.nobsbooks.com. Included with the book, a coupon for a free kit of peak personal productivity tools. Kennedy is also a busy entrepreneur, consultant, speaker and direct-response advertising copywriter. Info at www.dankennedy.com.