*Almost didn't have time to get this one up. Poor time management on my part. Anyways, here's the post.
Earlier this week I read an article over at OnePageOnly's bog titled Fighting distractions the unconventional way. I was really taken away by one of the ideas:
1) Bill yourself
You might know a nasty little thing called an opportunity cost. The idea is simple: by choosing to invest your time in something, you lose whatever you could earn by using your time on productive work. Now, I want you to go ahead and count how much money you lose from all your little distractions.
From now on, whenever you start to browse the web or check your Facebook, track the time you’ve used. At the end of the day, multiply it by the amount you’re getting per hour. And here you go. If you’re anything like me, the sites with technology news, Facebook and forums take up a big chunk of your billable hours. Now think about it – would you really pay $20-$30 to see a photo of someone’s dog in a funny hat, and to read about your friend’s hangover? Of course not. Was this forum quarrel really worth the total of $40 you invested over the course of several days? Didn’t think so.
From now on, always keep in the back of your mind that time is money. Every Facebook joyride and each Reddit binge session come with a bill attached.
I might have to try this idea for myself. Like I said yesterday, I'm going to try to limit my time social networking to only an hour a day. So any extra time spent on those sites, I'm going to have to write down and I'll tally up my opportunity costs. Right now it isn't looking like it's going to be too pretty as I've been spending a lot of time on those sites lately. The amount of money that pops up might surprise me.
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