Are you discounting your time?  You may not have heard of time discounting.  It’s a psychological phenomenon where a future desired result is perceived as less valuable than one in the present.  This phenomenon effects the way we perceive our efforts in the area of time management.

Let me give you an example: You’re working in an office space that’s totally disorganized and as a result  spending time looking for things instead of getting things done.  Although getting organized will have you stop wasting time,  time discounting will have you underestimate the amount of benefit getting organized will give you in the future.  Doing something else that’s less important or of less benefit, but with immediate results will likely appear to be more attractive.

Time discounting is a productivity killer and can be the reason that some people procrastinate. The rationalization is usually that since something isn’t due right away, the benefit of working on it now is perceived as lower.

Look to see where you’re discounting time.  Start to see the true benefit in getting things done, especially on the things that aren’t due right now and appear to not have value in completing them now.  You should be focused on things that have value, so only add things that have value.  Assign each task a priority and stick to the priority.  Just because something’s not due right now, doesn’t mean that there’s not tremendous value in completing it now.

Just being aware of time discounting can be a big benefit. If you realize that you are likely to underestimate the value of completion of a task and what it affords you in the future, focus on planning and prioritizing and knowing the value of a task before you place it on your to-do list or into your calendar.  One other thing…if you’ve been working in a disorganized environment, spending time looking for things instead of working, stop and take the time to get organized so that you can reap the future value that it will afford you.