How to know the value of your time?

The things or the activities you do every day in your life determine the quality and the worth of your time. The value of time is nothing but an integer value of the quality of work you do in a whole day. 

This metrics is important because it serves as the measure of your growth, enabling you to know the present worth. The value of your time is done by calculating the value of the repeated activity that you do continuously for a period of time. These activities could be as follows:

• Going for work daily and get compensated accordingly
• Spending time with your family & kids
• Your ability of making good friends
• Your regular efforts to invest the money
• The habit of reading good books
• Your nature of travelling to different places
• Helping people
• Your consciousness towards maintaining the good health
• Schedule for educating your children
• Caring your parents
• Making efforts towards preserving the environment through renewable energy

The value of your time is the weighted average of the above mentioned activities or the actions which you do regularly over the period of time.

Why is quantification important

It is important because it helps you in determining the direction and the amount of efforts needed to reach the desired goal. For example consider the following two cases:

Case:I
Mr. A is overweight and he needs to reduce his weight over a period of time

Case: II
Mr. A is 80 Kg and he needs to reduce it by 20 Kgs in 12 months time

Both the cases tell the same thing that Mr. A is overweight and he needs to reduce it but case:II gives the precise direction and amount of efforts needed by quantifying the things.

The quantification helps in aligning your efforts with the goals.

How to quantify your daily activities?

The quality of work you do in the office is compensated in the form of salary (quantification) by your employer or in the form of net profit when you are an employer or an entrepreneur while the other qualitative activities which you do regularly are not quantified.
In order to know the complete worth of your time, you need to quantify all your routine quality activities and sum up.

• I will take the salary or the net profit as the base in determining the total value of your time.
• The total working hours in a day is 16 hours and 8 hours of sleep

Example:
Mr. A works in a multinational company and is compensated Rs. 7,20,000 annually for working 8 hours a day. Calculate the average rate of Mr. A
The average working rate is as follows:
= Rs. 7,20,000/ no of hours worked in a year
= Rs. 7,20,000/ 365 days x 8 hours
= Rs. 7,20,000/ 2920 hours
= Rs. 247/ hour
The average value of his office time is Rs. 247/ hour when he is working for 8 hours in a day
Now, he has left with 16 – 8 = 8 hours to accomplish other qualitative activities mentioned above in the article.
Before quantifying the other activities, let us first prioritize & weightage them and this can be done as follows:

Mr. A devotes and spends his time as follows:
Maintaining Health and relationships (Time devoted: 3 hours)

• Eating healthy & exercise: 1 hour daily  
• Relationship building like spending time with family & caring: 2 hours daily

Investing time in the growth activities (Time devoted: 1.5 hours)

• Reading Books: 12 in a year or 0.5 hours daily
• Educating your children: 1 hours daily

Charity & preserving the environment (Time devoted: 0 hours)

• NIL

Leisure activities (Time devoted: 2 hours)

• Travelling & sporting: 1 month in a year or 2 hours daily

Useless activities (Time devoted: 1.5 hours)

•  Talking about people, unnecessary surfing of the internet, over thinking, involved in backbiting, participate in rumours etc: 1.5 hour daily

Sleep (Time devoted: 8 hours)
The average and the total value of Mr. A is calculated as follows:

The value of his time per hour is Rs. 5483/ 24 hours = Rs. 228/ hour. You will notice that he spent 1.5 hours in the useless activities and the time value in the "charity & preserving the environment" section is zero. If he chooses to invest his time in the preserving the environment instead of the useless activities, his average value increases from 228 to 261 per hour.

What if when you are not earning?

You started as an entrepreneur and first initial years are spend building your enterprise and you worked with no income, then how to know the worth of your time on the per hour basis?
The best way is to take the average of the incomes of the entrepreneurs in your sector or the industry having almost the same experience and capital investment. 

How to select the right activity?

The quantification of your day helps you in selecting the right activities and avoiding un necessary activities. For example:

• The value of your day is Rs. 100/hr and you are standing in a queue for 1 hour to deposit the electricity bill which otherwise could be paid online within minutes by paying an extra 40 rupees. Is it worth standing in queue and saving Rs. 40 when the average per hour value of your time is Rs. 100/hr?

No, it is not worth standing in a queue, you incur a loss of Rs. 100 - Rs. 40 = Rs. 60

• Spending 1 hour time in mall and taking Rs. 500 discount on the shopping is beneficial when your average per hour rate is less than Rs. 500 otherwise you will be in the loss.

Conclusion

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​The right time allocation for the good activities will increase your time value while a bad selection can lower your average. It is true that the average value of your acts as metrics for selecting the other activities. Search & select those activities which help in increasing the average value of your time.