There are countless currencies in this world—money of course, but also time and attention. Whenever people spend either one of these on you, you can bet that they are (at least subconsciously) measuring the returns of their investment. You surely know this too: when you like to spend time with someone, or time and attention listening to something, it’s because you’ve decided that what you get out of it makes this worth your while.

Every time you open your mouth,  you’re asking people to spend both their time and their attention listening to what you’re saying.  A high ROI would mean delivering high value (information, entertainment, etc) in return for a small investment (a short amount of time.) A low ROI would naturally mean the reverse; such as making long-winded, repetitive sentences costing your listeners much in time and attention; yet delivering little in terms of value or entertainment. The longer you speak, the higher the price you’re making them pay, so the higher the value ought to be.

Low ROI has always been frowned upon in certain environments, be it geography (New York) or industry (finance.) But it’s even worse today; when both time and attention are at the highest premium. So—what’s your ROI?