What is your time worth?

Kids are good at demonstrating the speed of time, as they are constantly growing and moving through different stages of life.

Last year, my oldest, Jack, finished primary school. I dropped him off and cried, as it signified the end of an era. Never again would we share the morning laughs, tears and tantrums of a primary school kid (Jack, not me!).

On the train afterwards, I felt good about investing my mornings to complete school drop off for both Jack and my daughter Chloe. It wasn’t without hurdles, but I proudly accepted the brand ‘half-time-Hendo’ as I waltzed into the office near to 10am. It was worth every second.

Time is an asset, so why do we give it away without good reason?

In the early part of my career, before marriage and kids, time seemed endless. I gave it away without much thought; never refusing meetings or catch-ups and eagerly investing in everything and everyone.

But time has become increasingly precious over the years, and I found that I needed a system to understand the return on my investment. Initially, it was hard to spend my mornings with Jack, as selfish as that sounds.

I wanted to be a good leader at work, support the team and individuals, demonstrate that I was putting in the hours. It’s what I was taught, hours on the ‘floor’ correlated to hard work and success – so I thought.

The hardest part was blocking my diary every morning and knowing I would miss conversations. But I’d made the decision that my time was an asset, and watching my kids grow so rapidly opened my eyes to where I wanted to allocate it.

Why do we wear busyness as a badge of honour?

Being busy is not the same as being productive. We have systems and processes to consume our time, e.g. the daily stand-ups, weekly operations call, the list of meetings go on. Chances are your diary is blocked out with similar cadences, but is every meeting worth it? Are they productive or is it comforting being ‘busy’?

Having made the decision to invest my time differently, I shifted my approach to the working week from being busy to being productive. Measuring personal productivity is difficult and something I’m still learning to do, but a method that helped me was to assess my time against why, who, what, when, where and how.

The ‘why’ is especially important as by linking tasks with value, it becomes easier to say no to meetings and prioritise successfully. When I considered my ‘why’ it becomes incredibly easy to spend my mornings with Jack.

We should focus on change, not bureaucracy.

Process provides familiarity, which is no doubt comforting, however it often means we gravitate to what I call the “bureaucracy of life”. The challenge with my simple productivity system, and the “bureaucracy of life”, is that it’s too easy to get caught in task lists and miss the bigger picture.

Paul Keating once said when referring to politics, “The game is about change. It has to be about change. If you are not changing things you are of no value”. There is wisdom in his words, which apply to work just as easily as politics.

I needed to change my mindset and demonstrate to Jack, Chloe and my colleagues that we can change the way we work and live. Further, it’s easy to get caught up in the bureaucracy and overestimate your importance.

The wheels of work turned regardless of my attendance to morning stand ups. I could make just as big as impact by being targeted with my time, focusing on my why. We must champion change!  

Jack Lang, the NSW premier in the 1920’s and 30’s, said “They say when you are a young man you have plenty of time, but the truth is, you don't have a second to lose”. There is some irony in his statement because Jack lived to 98, not bad for someone born in 1876!

I agree with Jack’s sentiment, it is easy to fall into the trap of assuming you have time and consequently waste it. Do not. It doesn’t matter what system or method you use to allocate your time, the key is that it’s YOUR time, your asset.

Make sure you chose the why, who, what, when, where and how and don’t have it chosen for you. Guard it and invest wisely, in whatever way is meaningful for you.