Who couldn’t use more hours in the day? I remember an old Cathy cartoon where Cathy refuses to hire someone to handle a major project at her home. After hours of struggling, she screams, “I’ll pay you double!” I know because I’ve been there. Usually it involves planting or painting. I do both equally bad. Before you give away one more minute of your time, consider a few things:

• Have you ever figured out what your time is worth? I mean really worth, not what you wish it was worth or what you tell people it’s worth. Calculate your hourly rate and then decide if you should handle a project or pay someone to do it.

• In business, before you agree to lower your fee for one project, determine if this project will lead to other projects from your client or your clients’ friends at your regular fee. If not, recommend someone else for the assignment. Keep in mind that clients talk and if you give one client a good price and his friend a higher price, your client will be offended and probably will fire you.

• If you drive from place to place looking for what you need (you’ll save time buying online), call ahead and ask for directions, get them on the Internet or get a GPS. My iphone gets me where I need to go but I’ve figured out I can’t talk on the phone AND look at the directions. Design flaw!