Know The Value of Your Time

This goes deeper than just calculating your effective hourly rate, although that's always a worthwhile exercise in perspective as well.

This image above is part of an email that hit my inbox on a glorious Saturday morning leading into a long weekend.

I should already be out in the mountains, or on the water, moving through the outdoors.

But first, I'll invest some time sharing a lesson that took me a while to learn.

The realization:

My time is worth more than $25.00 per hour.

No kidding eh?!?
As is yours.

Looking at the image above, essentially a $25.00 fee for short-paying by 75 cents, you might want to say to me:

“But Dustan, it’s the principle. You gotta call them.”

You’re not entirely wrong in your thinking, if that's what you're thinking.
But, the math doesn't math.

A $25.00 hit for accidentally short-paying by 75 cents is not awesome.

And if I called, held, got to the right person, complained, maybe held some more, maybe they would show me some mercy.

Maybe.

But how long would I be on hold?

Also, there's nobody to call until Tuesday.

And what's Tuesday for you and I?

It’s a Double-Monday.
Two Mondays packed into one.
A short workweek, long on to-do's.

It’s the start of the 'back-to-school' week, the 'back-to-work' week, and the 'back-to-crazy' week.

I don't know about you, but I have some big fish to fry this Tuesday morning.

I can't afford to invest a prime business hour, or even 15 minutes, chasing $25.00
I'm chasing $25,000, you should be too!

I also cannot afford to let this occupy real-estate in my brain all weekend, not for a $25.00 return.

And really, if we were short-paid $25.00 on a commission or a dividend, would we even notice?

Many of us would not.
I would, because I have a killer spreadsheet that catches all.

Besides, this $25.00 wasn't taken in error, the error was mine.
It was my mistake.

Four months ago, I prepaid for four months of parking.

Nearly... I thought I did.

Somehow, I got the math wrong by 75 cents and boom, a $25.00 late payment fee.

I’m pretty sure I did the math in my head and paid through the browser on my phone.

Not ideal.

It would have been better to use a calculator and also to stick to doing “work” things from my desk.
Or at least my Macbook.

For me, focus kicks in differently when I'm sitting at a desk with a full keyboard.

Know thyself.

So the real question is this:

Can I let this go?

Could you?

Yes, I can.

My principles are saved for much bigger things.

I’m also saving my karma points for much bigger things.

I’m not putting this into my calendar as a task for Tuesday.

I’m not letting it take up space in my mind for one more minute after I hit “post” on this piece.

I've already paid the fee, along with the next six months in advance.

The math done correctly this time.

The space this would have taken up in my brain, popping up a few times for sure between now and Tuesday is worth WAY more than $25.00

The time I'd have spent chasing this down on Tuesday is worth way more than $25.00.

I’m going to think about things that move the needle by $2,500, $25,000, $250,000, and beyond.

I stopped worrying about quarters as a teenager.

And yes, there's been times in my adult life when $25.00 was meaningful.

This is not one of them, I think I'm past that zone.

And technically speaking, it was my mistake anyway.

All this said, did I invest two hours a few weeks ago going through every credit card statement and my Apple account?

Did I cancel several recurring annual memberships?

Yes, I did.

The total savings were well over $2,500.

Time better invested.

What will you invest your time in this Tuesday?

Trying to claw back twenty-five bucks?

Or making outbound calls and locking in $25,000?

I know what I’m going to focus on.

Go forth and do likewise!

DW