Most professionals don’t realize how much time really costs them.
Time management coach Elizabeth Grace Saunders lays out a clear case for Fast Company for treating your daily calendar like a budget—with every task carrying a dollar value.
First, calculate your hourly rate based on salary, project fees or billable hours. Then, assess how your time is being spent: Are low-value tasks, excessive meetings or endless emails eating into your “daily budget”?
Finally, consider the opportunity cost—what you’re missing out on by spending time on tasks that don’t move the needle. Whether it’s lost sales, delayed promotions or stagnant growth, the real expense of misused time adds up quickly.
This framework can help leaders and professionals make smarter decisions about how—and where—they invest their workday hours.
“There are certain activities that you need to do for your job no matter what,” she says. “But if you evaluate how you’re spending your time with the mindset that every hour has a dollar amount attached to it, then you can make better choices on how much time you spend in different areas of your work as well as whether certain activities are even worth your time at all.”
