Time is worth more
Time is not money. It is worth way more.
We've all heard that time is money. But I think that undersells it.
You can always make more money. But no one gets more than 24 hours in a day. Not the most profitable company in the world. Not the most talented person in your team. Twenty-four hours is the universal constraint, and what you do with it is everything.
So why are most organisations treating it like it's disposable?
The most common thing I hear is: "I don't have time to make time."
I understand it. But it's a short-term mindset with only one destination: longer hours, diminishing returns, and eventually burnout. The irony is that the very thing people say they don't have time for is the thing that would give it back.
So here's the question worth sitting with: when is the right time to make your business better?
What's the ROI of time, actually?
When I talk about creating 5-8 hours per person per week, people ask what that's really worth. Five answers
Capacity for growth.A director who frees up 5 hours a week redirects 250 hours a year into growth. If just one opportunity converts into a $100k project, it's already paid for itself.
Margin.A team losing just 5% of their time to rework and poor planning can haemorrhage $150,000 a year. When people have time to think before they act, that goes straight back to margin.
Burnout and absenteeism.Replacing one mid-level employee can cost $50,000 or more. Two extra sick days per person across a team of 15 adds another $15,000. These costs don't show up on the P&L, but they're very real.
Psychosocial risk.The average mental health claim in NSW costs $38,000 per year, for up to ten years. Addressing unsustainable ways of working is far cheaper than managing the consequences.
Better thinking.Space to think produces creative breakthroughs, quality work, and the decisions that shape entire quarters. The hardest to quantify but often the most valuable.
These don't sit in isolation. They compound. And when you add it up, the impact is in the tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands, often without hiring a single extra person.
What would you do differently if you stopped thinking of time as a cost, and started thinking of it as a competitive advantage?
Productivity Tip of the Day
Tune in to your energy levels throughout the day
Protect time for your deep thinking work when your energy is highest
Use the Pomodoro Technique to maximise your output during that time.
And always start with the golden question... 'is this the most valuable use of my time right now?'
