Over the past year or so, I started hearing the term “value added” used in conversations around strategy, time management, and training. To be honest, for a long time I wasn’t a fan of the phrase, and I’m still not a 100% sold on it, primarily because I just don’t like the way it’s typically used in a sentence (“is that value added?”)…but I digress. Once I picked up on the fact that “value added” really has to do with choosing to spend your time in the most productive and efficient way to accomplish your goals – be they personal, professional, or organizational, I began to start asking myself if I was engaging in value added activities.

Don't answer too quickly

What I’ve found is that answering the value added question is not always easy. Yes, for some activities it’s clear, and it just takes a quick analysis to realize that you could be spending you time on much more important things (e.g. sifting through countless emails when you can use various tools to automatically sort your emails for you). However, I’ve also come to realize that sometimes it takes time to realize the value in certain tasks, meetings, or projects.

From a business perspective, it’s easy to quantify “value added” activities as strictly those that directly lead to a sale. Professionally, it can be easy to say only those activities that allow you to add a new line on your resume or help you climb one step higher on the corporate ladder are worth your energy. If you’re an independent consultant – similarly – the tendency is to focus energy on acquiring and completing those projects for which you’re paid.  I admit I’ve succumbed to this line of thinking, especially when I felt like we weren’t making enough progress toward our goals. Don’t get me wrong. It is important to make sure you’re focused on the important tasks, and there’s a lot of research out there on how best to spend and manage time, including Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”  However, I urge you to consider that sometimes the true “value added” activities may appear in disguise or may just take a little longer to come to fruition.

A case in point

Last fall, I had a series of meetings (unpaid) with a professional colleague, including some individual brainstorming about implementing Google Apps for a statewide initiative. Google Apps is not our primary product (we are partnered with a  reseller - Bottech), but it’s not our primary service offering, and after the meetings, which by now were several months ago, I began to wonder if it was really worth my time to meet. Had I engaged in valued added meetings? If I had answered back then, I would have said “No.” However, in answering the question today, I would absolutely say, “YES” but for a slightly different reason. The colleague I met with in the fall works for a nonprofit, so they were eligible for the free nonprofit Google edition and they already had an IT support team to help with the technical pieces. However, she still needed help with designing how  to best utilize Google Apps for their new initiative including some project management support….enter our consulting services (stage right).  If I had made the determination early on, and declined to have those additional meetings or spend some of my time brainstorming a plan, I very well could have missed the opportunity to consult on a 6 month project that brings additional revenue, valuable experience, and a deeper relationship with a client.

Diversify

My colleagues and I agree that our most precious resource (and greatest cost) is our time. Time spent doing one activity inevitably means time lost somewhere else.  Yet, time is also an investment. Perhaps the best route is to ensure your calendar is full of diverse activities (much like a stock portfolio), with some activities guaranteed to bring a good return, some that are riskier but could bring a higher return, and even some that you’re not so sure about. As you monitor the outcomes of those uncertain activities, you can drop them as you see fit or continue “investing.” Just be sure to regularly assess if and how much your choices are leading to the accomplishment of your overall goals.

A need for balance

There’s a fine line between allowing time for certain activities to reap their full benefits and giving away or wasting more than you should. I’ve also been on the latter side, in which I’ve spent too much energy and time on activities that brought little or even zero payoff.  You will have to determine the right balance for you. I’ve found it actually helps me to pull from my nonprofit days of using logic models. If I can’t at least draw a somewhat definitive line between what I’m doing right now (the inputs) and what I’m hoping those actions will accomplish (outcomes) in the future, then I probably don’t want to engage in those activities. Or I may decide to set up time limits and check points - if after a month or after 3 meetings, I haven’t moved closer to my goal, then I need to move on.

However you determine what’s value added for your personal, professional, or business goals, just remember it’s okay to take some risks by saying “yes” to that brainstorming meeting, lunch with a colleague, or some other activity in which the expected benefit is unclear. To the same extent, be ready to say “no” when results aren’t panning out and routinely examine your calendar or “To Do” list to ensure you’re moving steadily forward.