Value Your Time
In this modern age, we are all busy people. We run around at a hectic pace and few people find spare time. Computers and the internet are making it possible for all of us to accomplish more, but at the same time, we have to take on more work to keep up with everyone else.
This makes is all the more important for each of us to value our time and make wise decisions about our time allocation.
In business we look at decisions from the perspective of will it make a profit or not first. Then we evaluate whether or not a chosen action will cost us the opportunity of pursuing a different action that may be more lucrative or worthwhile. We also look at marginal opportunities. Maybe we can create 50 widgets in an 8 hour day, but how many widgets can we make if we put in an extra 30 minutes? an hour? or 5 hours? This would be considered the marginal cost of doing more.
In our personal lives we can apply the same principles. We should evaluate whether something is profitable or not for us to proceed. We should insure that we are doing the most financially profitable opportunity over less profitable ones, and we can always look at the benefit of doing a little extra work.
Now, I’m not saying that we should give up the non-monetary things in life or that everyone should work 40, 50, or 80 hour weeks. However, we should have a good understanding of what our time is worth from each of these perspectives as we attempt to make the optimal decision about what we are going to do next.
Too often, especially at work we get caught up in business and getting the job done for our employer. We need to take a step back and make sure that we are getting the job done for ourselves as well. So as we head into the weekend, when hopefully your job and career are less amplified, take some stock of your self and your situation and consider what opportunities are presenting themselves to you and which ones will reward you the most effectively. Also, do not neglect to look for those marginal opportunities. Sometimes these opportunities can turn into new jobs, promotions, a new business and more. If we keep tunnel vision working that prevents us from seeing the world around us, we may miss something that could make all the difference in the world!
