* If you were paying you to prioritise emails over coaching your team, would you feel you were getting a good return on your investment?

* If you were paying you to waste time on trivia rather than planning your next quarters sales plan would you think you were getting good value for money?

* If you were paying you to sit in numerous unproductive meetings would you feel that was a worthwhile contribution?

I suspect that the answer to those questions is no and yet, in effect, thats exactly what you are doing. By choosing to adopt poor time management habits and poorly prioritise whats important you are in effect creating a poor return on investment for your self your organisation or you own business.

No go One Step Further and ask your self If I was paying me by the hour, day or on specific results what would I pay myself?

It might be $30/hour, $800/week or $150000/year depending on your skill, knowledge and experience and in what role or business you are in. Lets say for example you are a manager earning $80000/year. Lets assume you work 250 x 8 hour days a year, which means you are earning the equivalent of $40/hour

* For every hour you spend trawling through your emails the cost is $40

* For every day you spend catching up on your personal administration because you are poorly organised the cost is $160

* For every day you sit in unproductive meetings the cost is $320

Now imagine that came out of YOUR paycheck. Would that refocus your priorities? Probably.

You can see now how your poor time management could be costing you dearly and thats only in financial terms. You are probably paying the price physically and emotionally for your lack of prioritisation of whats important versus whats urgent and unimportant. But look how easily you can make impactful changes

Using the same average work pattern look how much extra time you could have if

* You save 5 minutes a day; you will increase your productivity by 2.6 full days.

* You save 30 minutes a day; you will increase your productivity by 15.63 full days.

* You save one hour a day; you will increase your productivity by 31.25 full days.

Suddenly you have created more time with the opportunity to achieve more results. You can see that even small changes can make a huge difference.

Take Control of Your Time an by saving that time or by choosing to reallocate that time to higher priority work you will achieve better results, reach the targets you have been set and help others to do the same. By changing your costly habits you might also help others change theirs.

2005 Beverley Hamilton

Beverley Hamilton

Beverley Hamilton, business coach and MD of One Step Further, works with escapees from the corporate world who have or want to establish their own consultancy in their specialist field of marketing, sales, HR or IT. Her focus is on helping consultants gain more control, more clarity and more ideal clients so that their business achieves the goals that they dreamt of on breaking out of the corporate environment.

As an executive coach and facilitator, Beverley also works with newly appointed senior executives to accelerate their transition into a new role so that they achieve their objectives and their company?s expectations more quickly and more effectively.

Beverley is the author of Take Control of Your Time: 7 Straight Shooter Strategies for Success and has been published in a number of professional and business publications. She also writes a free, weekly newsletter called Quickstart, which provides, tips, tools techniques and insights into how to lead a successful consultancy and improve your personal effectiveness.

With experience as a teacher, RAF Air Traffic Control Officer and Learning and Development specialist combined with her passion for helping people excel, Beverley has enabled individuals and teams, in the public and private sectors both in the UK and overseas, to achieve improvements in personal and team effectiveness.