Life Skills: Time Management for a Part Time Entrepreneur (Concept of ROT)

step 1: write down everything that you believe you want to get done
step 2: put a star beside any task that will result in income generation if you get it done right away/within the next 3 days. these are the thing that should be your highest priority. everything else is important but not as decisive as the “starred” tasks.
step 3: start completing those starred activities immediately. NOW. till you complete them.

as you get used to doing this, you’ll start to program your brain to “see” what are operational tasks and what are income generational tasks. for me, as a PTE, spending too much time on operational tasks means my return on time (ROT) is very low.

ROT is a measure of the amount of returns you derive from the time you put in. ROT is particularly important for PTEs as this helps you to track if all those sacrifices are worth it. The key is to calculate if you are being rewarded well for the time you are putting in. Doubters will say it takes years to develop a sustainable business and this ROT might demotivate entrepreneurs into giving up prematurely. My take is that you need to measure your progress and determine if your hours are being spent wisely. Remember, we all have finite hours and the mantra should be to maximize every minute (that’s why TV is a complete waste of time).

At the start, you should measure your ROT over a 6 month period but as you get along, you have to measure it monthly, eventually coming down to a daily measurement. By continually focusing on ROT, you will ultimately get to a stage where you delegate things to others, maybe hire employee(s) or outsource to freelancers. This way, your energy, time and focus is always kept on starting, running, managing and growing businesses.

To get to where I want, my ROT has to be very high. I typically have 6hours of business time a day. In those 6 hours, I demand to generate at least $100. How do you calculate your ROT? At the end of a month, take the net business income you have generated INTO your pocket and divide it by the total business hours you put in for that month.