I’ll be tracking my time next week because I track my time every week. But maybe this time you’d like to join in!
People often tell me (particularly at this time of year) that they’d like to spend their time better. If that’s the case, I always suggest keeping a time log for a week. After all, if you don’t know where the time is going now, how do you know if you’re changing the right thing? Maybe something you thought was a problem really isn’t. Maybe something you haven’t considered is taking more time than you imagined.
You want to be sure you are working from good data. The best way to get that data is to keep track of your time. A few days can work, but a week is better because a week is the cycle of life as we actually live it. Tuesday and Saturday both occur just as often, but if you track your time on one day vs. another you’ll have a very different impression of life. Best to get a holistic picture.
The 2023 Time Tracking Challenge will run from January 9-15. My time logs start on Monday morning at 5 a.m. You can download a log here (in Excel, PDF, or Google sheets, and in 30-minute or 15-minute increments. I use the 30-minute Excel version in case anyone wants to replicate my experience.). If you sign up for the challenge, you’ll get motivational emails each day from me, though obviously you can track without those too! I’ll be posting narrative versions of my time logs here as well.
One interesting aspect of knowing I will be posting my logs is that I’m thinking of more entertaining things I can do next week. If you plan to track time, perhaps that accountability will nudge you to think through the week too. I usually plan my weeks on Fridays (that’s Tranquility by Tuesday Rule #2) and I highly recommend the practice.
Anyway, I hope you’ll consider playing along! I find time tracking incredibly useful, even after 7+ years. I hope you’ll find 7 days transformative as well. Here’s the link to sign up. And here is the link to all my time trackers. Thanks for considering it.
Photo: From the British Museum, quite possibly my favorite clock ever. I think the cannons on this ship actually fired, which would be a really cool dinner party trick.
I am in! It’s a weird week – schools closed for teaching strikes on Tuesday and no work travel, but I guess there are no normal weeks.
@Cb – there are no typical weeks! It’s always going to be something. Might as well see what life looks like in all its messiness…
I am doing this for the 2nd year in a row! Last year was a weird one as our son got tubes that Monday and then got another virus that kept him out of school. But like you’ve said, there is no normal week! I’m excited to compare things year-over-year, though, and plan to do this every January!
@Lisa – let’s hope for no more medical procedures this year! It will be interesting to see what a week looked like in January back to back years. I’m enjoying looking at my time logs from 2016/2017 as I do my current ones…
I’m all in!! This week begins a very busy season for our family. Activities 4 out of 5 weeknights (for the foreseeable future). I’d love to figure out a way to keep my energy, get it all done, but enjoy it at the same time.