I was at a meeting of the mastermind group I belong to today (yes, even coaches have coaches. Or should that be "Above all, coaches have coaches") and one of the topics that came up was procrastination.
We were talking about ways of prioritising tasks, and how to spot the things that take us away from what we should be doing.
As I was driving home I was struck by a simple way of putting "busy work" into a new light. Want to know what I came up with?
First, write down how much money you've promised yourself you'll make this year: how much do you aim to sell/earn in the next twelve months?
Next, write down the number of hours you want to work each week multiplied by the number of weeks you will work over the year. So if you want to work 20 hours a week, and only intend to work 30 weeks you would write down "600"
Finally, divide your income by the number of hours. This represents how much closer to your income target each hour of productive work takes you.
It's also, more importantly, the cost of each unproductive hour. So if your promise is £120,000 and you aim to work 600 hours this year, then each hour either makes or loses you £200 (and therefore each quarter hour is worth £50).
So now, let's say you decide to watch the winter olympics for an hour, instead of making sales calls. That time will cost you £600. It's your choice whether you take that hit, decide to make it up another time, or just keep working.
Similarly, all the stuff you do around the office that doesn't REALLY lead to income has a cost. Decided to spend 30 minutes sharpening eveyr pencil you can find instead of making a prospecting call? £150 - kaching!
It puts a VERY different perspective on how you "spend" your time!
So, how much is your time REALLY worth?
