Pay-time vs. no-pay-time.

What do you do that earns you money? If you’re a salesperson, the answer is probably pretty easy to come up with. But what if you’re not part of the revenue-chain in your position; how do you earn your keep?

Top performing salespeople are mindful of their pay-time and their no-pay-time and they work to keep the balance heavily in favor of pay-time. At my company, our top performing sales people don’t enter their own orders into our ordering system, they don’t send faxes with quotes for prospects, they don’t sit and polish their staplers…they get appointments and they get in front of prospects and customers.

That’s their pay-time. If they’re not booking an appointment or spending time in front of a prospect, they’re not actually providing value to the company.

But what if the value you provide isn’t so clearly defined? How do you know if you’re working in pay-time-mode or no-pay-time-mode, and how can you switch gears and spend more time in pay-time?

When I get to work, the first thing I do is check my email messages. I usually justify this to myself by noting that it’s possible someone will have contacted me with a major problem that needs resolving. In reality if any problem that major came up while I was out of the office my cell phone would be lit up like a Christmas tree.

For me, 90% of the time I spend dealing with my email is no-pay-time. Any sufficiently critical problem that arises that would put me into pay-time (i.e. earning my keep through crisis mitigation) will result in my phone ringing or someone appearing at my office door.

So I try to be mindful of this and limit the time I really spend in email. Sure, I still check it first thing in the morning, right after lunch and then in mid-afternoon (and there are some days with a few more checks thrown in) but I’m aware that the time I spend with my nose in Outlook is most definitely no-pay-time for me!

That’s the first trick; Be mindful of the tasks you’re working on.

When you’re mindful of what you’re working on, you can ask questions like, “Is this the best use of my time right now?” If the answer is “no” then it’s time to work on something else.

In my position - technology director - I don’t contribute directly to the bottom line. Usually information technology budgets are seen only as cost centers in companies; a necessary evil to business in the 21st century. Where my key contributions fall is keeping critical systems on-line and functioning smoothly and actively researching new ways to use technology to improve processes.

When our systems are running smoothly, our sales assistants can more easily enter the orders our sales people are generating, our receivables people can get customer statements easily printed, our accounts payable people can get our vendors and suppliers paid. In general, smooth running technology systems enable everyone else to do their job which does contribute to the bottom line.

Likewise, when I am working on improving business processes (with or without technology) those improvements are to enhance the business and save it money or allow people to get more done in less time. Business process enhancement does - for me - directly contribute to the bottom line.

This is the second trick; Know how you contribute to the bottom line.

When you know how you directly contribute to the bottom line, you’ll know what it is that you do that keeps you employed and brings the value of your paycheck to your company.

Being the technology director of a company means I’m flooded with requests as wide and varied as, “We need a proposal for a wireless warehouse implementation.” to “The printer is jammed and I don’t know how to fix it.” I am fortunate to have a great staff that can deflect a lot of the smaller issues so I can work on proposals for wireless warehouse implementations.

I’ve always been a “if-you-want-it-done-right-do-it-yourself” kind of guy. In this position I quickly found myself buried under a to-do list a mile long. Sure, I might know I’ll do it right, but if I never have time to get it done that’s usually worse! So I lean on my staff…a lot.

All of the small issues that I know are not what I do to bring value to the bottom line I try to delegate down to free me up to work on the projects that keep me in my pay-time.

This is the third trick; Delegate as many no-pay-time tasks as possible.

When you get unnecessary and low-value tasks off your to-do list you’ll feel much better because you won’t be worried about dropping a ball you have in the air by taking on too many tasks yourself.

Since I do have so many people come to me on a daily basis with requests for help, or requests for time on their pet project - whatever it may be - I have to pick and choose what I actually have the time to accomplish and what my staff has the time and resources to accomplish.

This means that some people have to hear the dreaded, “no.”

And this is tough for me - I’m not good at telling people no. It’s one area that I have to constantly remind myself I need to work and improve. I just don’t like to turn people down - maybe it’s a bit of my own “head trash” and inner fear of rejection. Whatever the case, something I have to constantly remind myself is, “It’s okay to say no!”

This is the fourth trick; When asked to take on more tasks that are no-pay-time tasks, just say “no.”

When I keep all four tricks in mind, I find that I spend consistently and considerably more of my time in the pay-time category; and this should be the goal of every high-achieving, goal-setting, self-improving person out there…I mean you!

Plus you can make a competition with yourself by charting your pay-time versus no-pay-time on a day-by-day basis. Your goal should be to improve the ratio a little every day.

In summary, keep these four tricks in mind to improve your pay-time vs. no-pay-time ratio:

1) Be mindful of the tasks you’re working on.
You can’t manage what you don’t measure; so start measuring!

2) Know how you contribute to the bottom line.
Be crystal clear on how your unique talent bring value to the bottom line. Know this whether you are on front-line sales or back-office support.

3) Delegate as many no-pay-time tasks as possible.
Your no-pay-time tasks are very likely someone else’s pay-time tasks.

4) When asked to take on more tasks that are no-pay-time tasks, just say “no.”
No one likes to hear “no”, but taking on too many tasks and getting nothing done is even worse! Plus many of these tasks are no-pay-time tasks.

Finally, keep in mind that if you start to weed out the no-pay-time tasks you’re regularly working on you may feel like you’re weeding out important tasks. Not every no-pay-time task is unimportant and not every pay-time task is important. The trick is knowing which are which, and minimizing your no-pay-time to (ideally) dealing only with the important no-pay-time tasks.

You’ll never get to the point where you spend 100% of your time in pay-time, but the closer you get the more productive and valuable you’ll be!

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February 6th, 2006

Entry Filed under: Time Management, Productivity, Career, Money