Costing Your Time

It is a sobering exercise to calculate exactly how much your time costs and then realize how much of it is not being spent effectively. Use the calculation on the right to work out how much your time at work costs per hour and per minute, and then use these figures to analyze the relative cost of a few activities typical of your day, such as arranging a meeting yourself rather than asking your assistant to undertake that task. Always consider whether you should delegate tasks to others : it is generally more
cost-effective to give routine tasks to more junior staff rather than doing them yourself, since your cost to the company will be higher.

Breaking Down Tasks

Look at the categories into which you have allocated your tasks, and divide them into groups : routine tasks (for example, writing a regular report), ongoing projects (for example, organizing a meeting), and tasks that would further develop your job (for example, making new contacts). Work out the percentage of time spent on each group.

To be most effective in your job, you should spent about 60 percent of your time on Group 3 tasks, 25 percent on Group 2 tasks, and only 15 percent on Group 1 projects. In fact, most people allocate their time in exactly the opposite proportions : 60 percent on Group 1, 25 percent on Group 2, and 15 percent on Group 3.