Do you ever feel your life is so busy you don’t have enough time to do everything you need to? Or, are there some things you want to spend more time on, such as exercising, being with family, or improving a skill, but you don’t know how to fit it in your schedule? At the end of the day, do you have a nagging feeling, as if you didn’t do enough?
Enter a time audit! What is thaaat? A time audit is a record of your activities for a period of time to see exactly what you are spending your time doing. You record everything so at the end you can analyze what you spent your time on.
There are three compelling reasons why we need one. First, we need data. Hard data. Your personal data. It doesn’t make sense to have someone else tell us where we might be wasting time because we won’t accept it.
Second, we are unreliable estimators of our time. Our narrative or opinion may be off. We may think that we spend 80 hours a week on work, but the reality says we only spend 50. Or we may feel guilty that we didn’t do enough, and beat ourselves up, when in actuality, we accomplished a lot.
Third, as you do the audit, you improve as you go. Remember the saying, “Measurement itself creates improvement.”
Time experts recommend that you keep a time audit for a week or two. There are scads of time audit templates you can download from the Internet. They also recommend that you record activities in 15-, 30- or 60-minute intervals.
Now, raising my hand, I admit I am guilty of wasting time. So, drumroll please, I plan to keep a time audit for two weeks, starting today! I will record my activities in 30-minutes increments. My goal is to spend more time on my blog and less time watching TV.
What do you want more time to do? By doing a time audit, you will be able to prioritize and find more satisfaction and purpose in your life. So how about it? Will you join me in doing a time audit?
