Happy Bit: Time Tracking 101

How many waking hours do you really have in one week?

Have you done your most important tasks for the week? Or are your hours wasted on nonimportant things for the week? Keep track of your time. Sometimes, we overestimate ourselves on things that we could do and end up doing really nothing important when the weekends.

You will realize the little things that suck up your time. You will never really know how limited your time is if you do not keep track of your time. Categorize your time. Take this time-tracking exercise and make it a great week!

Some Inspirational Thoughts:

• “I have a little exercise for you that you can try sometime. Write down on a piece of paper, the numbers 1 through 20 or 1 through 30. Each number represents an hour of time you have available for something. So, if you have the goal to work only 20 hours a week for your part-time job, write 1,2,3,4,5, and so on all the way to 20. One line per number. You're going to figure out how you use your time for these things.”
• “So first, you write in the things you want to do. The things that are meaningful to you. Each number represents 1 hour of time. Okay next, write in the things you really must do to thrive. So, laundry, cleaning up the dishes, and so on. The must-do list. Then on a separate piece of paper kind of jot down some of the things that you would like to do but are not a top priority. And you can also write on that list some of the things you end up spending your time on.”
• “Fill in the blanks, and on this list, you should have the top 20 or 30 or 40 depending on how long your list is. The top 20 or 30 or 40 things that you want to use your time for. Take that list and make a few copies perhaps or put it in a spreadsheet and start tracking. When you complete one hour of working on your book, mark an X next to that. If you complete one hour of spending time with your kids, mark an X next to it. One hour of laundry and so on. And then when you find yourself doing a task or spending time with something, not in the list, just write a note about that on the side. Then at the end of the week, analyze.”
• “You will be surprised at the little things that suck up your time and you had no idea. And you will also be surprised how many of those important things you do not end up X-ing off. his exercise is not meant to make you feel guilty but it is a great way to analyze your time and to see clearly what is important. And to see clearly how limited your time really is, you really only do have does 20 or 30 or 40 hours or however many for that specific area of life, and only so many things can fit.”

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