Improving Time Management ROI

In business, everyone understands profit to be that magical space that exists between the expense of running the business and the actual receipts of the business. For the business to succeed, you obviously want to bring in more than you are paying out. This Holy Grail of business is also known as margin.

There are times when you will choose to strategically invest more than you are receiving in anticipation of something bigger and better. The return on that investment (ROI) should cover the cost of that investment and increase your volume and/or margin. ROI determines whether or not we have invested wisely and well.

Anyone who is serious about growing a business needs to take seriously this issue of margin. I'd like to suggest that anyone who is serious about success in business - or any other area of life - should likewise be mindful about their time margin.

I'm sure you understand profit margin, but let me give you a helpful definition of the time margin. Our margin is the difference between our load and our limit. Are you with me here? Our load is the stuff we do every day: sleep, eat, work, play, volunteer, and relate in the world.

Our limit is - well, our limit. It's that point where we are maxed out. There is not another moment of time or drop of energy left for another task. Have you been there? Yeah, I thought so. Me too.

There are times when you will live on the edge of your limit. This may be a time when you have to suck it up and work harder, longer, smarter - because you are making an investment in your future. Maybe you're working and raising children, taking a class or starting business. These are the days there will not be any margin - you may even go into the red for a while - but the expectation is that you will come out on the other side with a strong family, a more secure future, a life of joy and meaning.

But listen up: Living at your limit and beyond is not sustainable anymore than running a business perpetually in the red is sustainable. At some point, you need to start enjoying some fruit from your time investments just like the business needs to start making money.

I mentioned here last week that you need to be a little choosy if you're going to succeed at the time management game. So here's an easy way to make some decisions about how to increase your time margin. Ask yourself: What is the ROI for my time?

If your life is busy and jam-packed with activity and dreams for the future, then you need to see some big "R" for your "I". Time spent nurturing your relationships will always be a blue chip investment. Time spent taking care of your health is also a good long term investment. But the truth is that every day you will have to make choices from an abundance of worthy competitors for your time: hobbies, sports, church activities, school activities. You will also be tempted by much less noble time killers like too much TV or internet surfing. So remember this: you need to protect your margin.

If you can't see an end in sight to your season of busy-ness, and you are becoming increasingly fatigued, cranky, and feeling the heat of the bright flame that precedes burn-out, it's time to make some cuts. Look for some places you can start building some margin back into your day. Schedule less; say "No" more often; trade TV time for story time with your kids; trade 20 minutes of sleep for 20 minutes of quiet time or meditation first thing in the morning; trade lunch at your desk for lunch with some old friends; trade an hour of surfing the internet for an hour meeting new strategic partners for coffee.

So what about you? What are some of the ways you protect your margin?