Evaluating the Value of Your Time

by Kori Rodley Irons | More from this Blogger

03 May 2007 02:06 PM

It is up to us to figure out how best to utilize and distribute our work time and efforts in our home businesses-we have to decide which tasks are worth our while to focus on, and which ones are not. For many of us, this doesn't necessarily come as second nature. Still, it can be important to evaluate our tasks and our time and determine if the results are worth the effort.

You might consider keeping a log or a spreadsheet of your time broken out by category or task. For example, a freelance writer might have a column for queries, one for invoicing and client contacts, one for different types of writing work, etc. This way you can track how much time you actually spend working on each task. Compare this to the revenue generated by that work and you'll see if you are getting the best value for how you are organizing your work and home business time.

Of course, a direct comparison of revenue to time spent may not always be the best way to evaluate the worthwhile-ness of the work. Some projects may take a lot more time, but the payoff may be worth it in terms of contacts, future work, reputation, etc. These sorts of things can be tougher to measure. The idea is to get a good grasp on whether or not you are organizing your time efficiently and to help you achieve some balance in terms of time spent and money earned.

To really make your tracking of time and value useful, it helps to do it over several months, even an entire year. This way you can have an accurate picture of how you are spending your business time and see the overall results in terms of income, productivity and success.

See Also: Trying to Track Cause and Effect and Analysis Vs. Action

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