Successful people have known that solid scheduling is a big key to performing well in business for years.  They utilize elaborate scheduling devices like PDAs and secretaries (they are elaborate… trust me) to keep themselves on-track throughout the day, cramming as much work as possible into their time at the office.  Why do they do this?

Everyone’s Time is Valuable

Think about this for a minute, if you were to put a price on an hour of your time, what would it be?  How valuable is your day to you?  Whatever that price is, multiply it by 16 (16 waking hours w/8 hours sleep a night).  I valued an hour of my time at $50 per hour, which is somewhere between what I make at work, and what I think different experiences in my life are worth.  I have a day worth $800.

How do you spend your time?

We’ll look at yesterday for me:

• $150 spent on Work
• $150 spent on Blogging and surfing the web
• $200 spent on my wife (we rearranged furniture together last night)
• $100 spent on video games and chores (I play games when I do the laundry)
• $100 spent on other miscellaneous things
• $100 spent on eating

So what?

By placing a value on my time, I can ask myself the question, “is this really worth doing?”  That’s why there is very little time spent on watching T.V.  I get all my news through the Internet, and there are fewer commercials online so it isn’t as big a waste of time.  If there is something I really want to see, then I will watch just that show and turn the T.V. off.

Another way to look at it.

Some things in life are priceless, time spent with family, The Mona Lisa, telling someone that they can’t bite their elbow, you get the picture.  Would you be willing to part with $50 for The Mona Lisa?  I would, and that’s what I do when I spend time on my family, I’m storing up valuable experiences that are worth more than my time.

How do you budget your time?