2026 Time Tracking Challenge, wrap-up thread

Congratulations to everyone who finished the Time Tracking Challenge! Even if you didn’t record all 168 hours, if you recorded a lot of them (or even one particular category, like your work time, or your home time) you probably have some information to work with.

You may be wondering…now what? If I’m analyzing my logs, one of the first things I do is look back over the week and see what I liked. What stood out as good or memorable? What were the week’s highlights? I like to see at least one little adventure and one big adventure. I like to see some time with friends. I like to see high quality leisure (puzzles/reading/exercise/etc.) in addition to the random stuff.

I add up the major categories. How much time did I spend working? How much time sleeping? I felt more tired this week and my sleep average was 7.0 hours/day, when it is usually 7.3-7.4. There were reasons for this but it’s good to know that is what was going on. You might add up any particular category you are curious about.

I sometimes ask if there are things I’d like to spend more time doing or less time doing. Despite the popular perception that no one would ever want to work more…I do in fact want to work more. I worked 33 hours over the week I just logged. I’m kind of impressed it was as high as it was given the things that were working against that. I’m looking at my schedule to see what changes might be possible.

I would like to spend less time putting my 6-year-old to bed. On some level I know this is just a snapshot in time. We will not be in this situation when he is 16. My guess is that we won’t be in this situation when he is 9. But I would like to not be in this situation when he is 6. So…an area ripe for improvement.

I definitely found this week that when I thought about how to spend my “Golden Hours” (the time after work and before bed) I spend them better. I finished a book and a puzzle this week!

I’d love to hear your insights! In the meantime, here’s how I spent my time after I posted yesterday and up to 5 a.m. this morning.

I worked at Panera until 4:30 roughly, then drove us home in the snow. I spent the next 45 minutes cleaning things up, both the kitchen and the places where the 11-year-old’s friends would be. Yep, I hosted a birthday slumber party last night!

I did my puzzle from 5:30-5:45, then started making dinner. The boys arrived (and my 18-year-old left to go out with friends) between 6-6:30. Everyone was eating various things, and then my husband and I watched the NFL playoff games. This continued with various moments of checking on people through to a little after 9. We got the 6-year-old up, my husband read him Harry Potter while I read on my own, then I went in to enforce bedtime.

Oh my goodness, this was a battle. I thought he would be exhausted with all the outdoor snow play but he was in a mood and arguing with me. I wound up sitting in there for about an hour, unable to concentrate so I just wound up scrolling on X, which didn’t improve my mood at all. Indeed, when I finally left the room at almost 11 p.m. I was upset enough about this bedtime battle that I just went straight to bed. So, great end to the week, huh? I woke up twice overnight and then woke up on my own at 6:15, but that is after the official end of the Time Tracking Challenge 168 hours.

Log:

4 work at Panera
4:30 home, clean up
5 clean/laundry
5:30 puzzle, start dinner
6 cook/wait, A’s friends
6:30 A’s friends here
7 eat/football/TV
7:30 TV/football/etc
8 TV/football/etc
8:30 TV/football/etc
9 TV, H up
9:30 read, sit w/H
10 argue w/H, sit w/H
10:30 scroll/sit w/H, end
11 ready bed, sleep

12 (bathroom)

2:45 up, sleep

through to the AM!