Business owners spend hours every week on things that don’t need them. Driving across town for a meeting that could have been a call. Spending an afternoon fixing a website problem a freelancer could solve in twenty minutes. Saying yes to a “quick favor” that turns into half a day.

Part of the reason is that time doesn’t come with a price tag. Money spent is visible. Time spent isn’t, so it gets given away much more easily.

Why it works

A number turns a vague feeling into a clear choice. If your hour is worth $75, a two-hour round trip for a thirty-minute coffee costs about $190 of your time before you’ve ordered anything. Spending four hours on a task you could pay someone $100 to do costs you $300. Seen that way, many decisions become obvious.

It also protects your focus. Every hour spent on low-value work is an hour taken from the work that actually grows the business. Knowing the price makes it easier to say no, delegate or find a faster way.

How to run it

1. Add up what the business earned last year, or what you want it to earn next year.
2. Divide by the number of hours you actually work on paid or business-building work. For many owners, that’s somewhere around 1,000 to 1,500 hours a year, far less than total hours at the desk.
3. Round the result to a simple number and write it down where you’ll see it.
4. Before accepting a meeting, a favor or a time-consuming task, multiply the hours it will take by your number. Ask whether it’s worth that much.
5. If the answer is no, decline, shorten it, move it to a call, or pay someone else to do it.

The mistake most people make

Using the number to justify never doing anything for free. Some of the most valuable things in business, like helping a peer or meeting a promising contact, don’t pay off right away. The number is a tool for noticing where your time goes, not a rule against generosity.

The other mistake is setting the number too low. Many owners divide by every hour they’re at the desk, including the hours spent on email and admin. Use the hours that actually produce value, and the number will be closer to the truth.