I would like to cover two great quotes or clichés concerning time that we are all familiar with; “Time is your most valuable asset” and “Time is Money.”
With this in mind, how many of us actually honor these two sayings? It is estimated that distraction and/or unengaged employees in the workplace cost the US economy about $650 billion in lost productivity annually.
Speaking with as many business owners and teams as I have, I quite often hear someone telling me, “I just don’t have enough time.” Why is there such a large majority of business owners and employees in this state of lost time or distraction? In my opinion, I believe it’s simply the fact that most of us are just not intentional with our time.
Successful people put a high value on their time. They don’t waste it. They realize that time is the most valuable asset they have, so they do everything they can to leverage their time to maximize their results.
Now, let’s analyze this phrase “Time is money.” What does this really mean? It means that we all possess certain skills, talents, knowledge, and experience that someone is willing to pay us for. However, if we’re not fully utilizing these talents and skills we are indeed wasting money.
Let’s say you’re an attorney and your hourly rate is $600 per hour. Multiply this number by eight hours a day and you’ll have $4800. Multiplying this by five days a week will equal $24,000. And at 50 weeks a year (two weeks for vacation), you’ll have $1,200,000.
At $600 an hour, this number conveniently works out to $10 a minute. Now take a crisp $10 bill, tack it to your bulletin board, and just stare at it for a minute. At $10 a minute, you can begin to actually experience time. You will realize how must time and money that you may have left on the table in the past. At $10 a minute, you will now become more intentional with your time. At $10 a minute, you simply will be more conscious and intentional on the R.O.I. of your time. At $10 a minute, moving forward you just simply won’t waste time.
Now that you’re clear on how much your time is worth, you’ll start spending it differently. You’ll be much more intentional as you now truly understand that “Time is your most valuable asset.”