Thanks to everyone who signed up for the 2025 Time Tracking Challenge! I didn’t see final numbers but I know it is over 1000, so that is exciting. I hope you were able to make a few notes on your time log on how the hours since 5 a.m. went. If you haven’t checked in yet, and you’re reading this, now is a good time to do so. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Just approximate!
How have I been spending my time? I was proud of myself for getting into bed on time last night. I went to the Eagles game (go birds!) with my husband and 15-year-old. It ended around 7:45 p.m., but when thousands of people exit anything at once, nothing moves fast. The good news is that where we parked (FDR park) the exiting traffic wasn’t quite as terrible as it has been from some other places. We made it home by 9:15 p.m., which meant that everyone got into bed at more or less the normal Sunday night time.
This morning my husband and I were both up bright and early to be on the road for work. I heard him at 5:40 a.m., and my alarm went off at 5:45 a.m. I showered, dressed, got my coffee and breakfast, then fixed my hair (by doing this after breakfast, it doesn’t take that long to dry since it’s mostly dry already…). I know my husband was out the door by 6 a.m. for his trip. I woke my daughter up at 6:40 a.m., and our nanny showed up right around then. She’d normally start at 7:30, but given today’s travels, she came early and managed the morning. I was on the road around 7 a.m. I stopped briefly at a rest stop mid-trip, and arrived at my destination’s parking garage around 9:30. This was a little bit before I was scheduled to meet my hosts (I built in a buffer for traffic), so I grabbed a drink in a cafe and checked my email until I went to meet them at 10. They were mid event, so I listened to the previous part, and went on stage at 10:30.
I did my workshop from 10:30-noon. I think it went well! Then I stayed in the event until the next part ended around 12:20. I said goodbye, went to my car, and was back on the road around 12:40 p.m. I spent the next 2 hours and 20 minutes driving (with a brief stop at the same rest stop, this time grabbing an Auntie Anne’s pretzel…) and made it home right at 3 p.m.
I spent about 15 minutes transitioning — putting on my “after school clothes” as it were, saying hello to my daughter who walked in the door, and to the 17-year-old who was home sick (he has had a rough patch lately with a respiratory virus that won’t quit). Then it was back to work from 3:15-4:00 answering emails.
At 4:00 p.m. I took a break to go walk around outside, as I hadn’t really gotten any exercise during the day with all the driving. I stomped around the yard and the adjacent woods, enjoyed the sinking sun over the wintry landscape, got the mail, and got back to work at 4:30. I’m posting this and will work on a few more things before I make the big kids dinner. The little boys have back-to-back ninja warrior classes on Mondays so they won’t be home until later, making Monday my longer work day (except for Oct/Nov/Dec when I was singing with a choir that met Monday nights…).
I’ll check in mid-day tomorrow to post how the rest of today went. I hope time tracking has gone well for everyone! Feel free to let me know any of your observations on how Day 1 has gone.
Photo: OK, this is from Sunday, not today, but I loved this glimpse of the Philly skyline through the gap between sides of the stadium.
Loved this so much ! I noticed today my self care routine is so long and get uo so early but want to also start my priority projects before kids get up so will shorten my journaling and excercise routine and use a timer to force myself to switch tasks
Also notice since I work from home I spend a lot of
Time tidying and could benefit from working in admin from the library so I don’t get distracted
@Amanda- great observations. And yes, working from home does allow for a lot of tidying distractions! I try to stay in my office except when I’m taking a real break.
Thank you for sharing! I spent more time on chore today because I’m training a new house hold helper. Hopefully it will pay off soon.
A question on classifying time: how would you categorize these things? This afternoon, I drove kids to an activity. Would you categorize differently if you’re driving with them chatting vs. coming back alone after drop off? Also, I spent some time prepping for volunteer work at school (material to teach some emotions). Would you categorize this as something for family or chore? How about actually teaching this at kids’ class?
Thanks!
@Lee- categorizing can be tricky. That’s one reason I only tend to tally up more obvious categories these days (work and sleep). If you’re driving kids somewhere, that could be its own category. I know I spend a lot of time on that and I am guessing you do too! The American Time Use Survey distinguishes between primary childcare (feeding, diapering, bathing, playing, etc.) vs. secondary childcare — when you are doing something else and you have your kids with you. I would probably categorize the volunteer work as just that – volunteer work. But if you were totaling up all time spent with your kids you might include that in that tally if they were with you. All of this is just a judgement call!