Time is a constant and you cannot change that, but you can change the way you use time.

Time is a constant and you cannot change that, but you can change the way you use time.

The best way to appreciate the value of time is to calculate the financial worth of each hour. If for example an executive-planning session brought in a revenue target of R200000 a year, it translates to R100 an hour for a 40-hour work week for 50 weeks a year.

Now think about a normal workday. You probably took a couple of coffee or tea breaks, made a few extended "how was your weekend"s, phone calls, were left on hold with a technical support call or reservation call centre, ran around for misplaced papers, were interrupted with telemarketing calls, got caught up in distracting activities.

All these non-productive minutes could easily add up to two hours or more a day.

Using our example, the lost hours would add up to about R200 a day, R1000 a week or R50000 a year. This adds up to more than a day a week or quarter of your entire work time.

Doing these calculations emphasises the importance of time management. To do this for a week, draw on a chart how you spend your time in 15-minute blocks. Do it for five days and at the end of the week you'll have taken a very revealing snapshot of how well or poorly you invest this resource.

Whenever your business goes off track, pull out the chart and check where the time is being spent. The results will help to strategically assess where you're getting the best return on your most valuable asset.

These exercises should provide you with compelling motivation to take command of your time.