The Business Journal of Phoenix - August 19, 2005 by Don Henninger, Editor

Did you ever stop to think about how much work you could get done if you only had 15 minutes alone to do it?

I don't know about you, but 15-minute chunks of free time are few and far between, unless you are in the habit of turning the office lights on in the morning and off in the evening, and that wears a little thin after a while.

An executive recently told me she would give an arm and a leg for an extra 15 minutes to herself each day. I think she meant it, too, though it might be a lot less painful if she were to go ahead and keep her arm and leg and just write a check for $4,688.

According to a report from A to Z Organizing Pros®, that's the annual value of 15 minutes of wasted time per day, if you earn $150,000. As these time gurus point out, the cost of 15 minutes of wasted time is excessive no matter how much you get paid, ranging from $1,563 for someone earning $50,000 to $7,815 for a person hauling in $250,000.

So exactly what is a person to do, armed with such an accounting of one's time and value? Having been keenly trained to search and destroy excessive spending, there must be a way to shave some time off the expense side and give your personal margins a little more breathing room.

Assuming you make $150,000 in salary a year:

You could cut out Starbucks! Getting there and waiting in line for service is an easy quarter-hour per day, and you already know that's worth $4,688. Throw in the daily drink, and your Starbucks experience probably is closer to $5,624 in value.
On the other hand, that would be tough. The stroll to the store and the stand in line is probably the only time I'm alone all day, and I do some of my best thinking there.

You could sharpen your listening skills! I know I spend more than 15 minutes a day repeating something I just said to someone who was too busy preparing what he was going to say next to stop and listen to what I said first. Warning: do not re-read this. At $1.20 per minute, it would not be a good use of your resources.
Think of the time you spend cleaning out spam, or the many minutes you piddle around looking for a parking spot, or the dead space you spend on hold or listening to a rambling phone message...

Actually, I'd like to share a few more cost-saving ideas and while I do have the time, it appears I don't have the space. I haven't seen a report yet that tells me what this space is worth. And I'll ask that you kindly refrain from sharing with me what you think that number might be.