How Do You *Really* Spend Your Time? Only one way to find out

I spend a hell of a lot of time on things I consider Maintenance. Maintaining my body, my home, my car, my business, my family's well-being and my personal and professional relationships takes a huge percentage of my waking hours. 

It was quite eye-opening to discover this. And I found it out the only way you really can: by keeping a time log. Luckily I'm a little anal-retentive, so I actually enjoy this kind of thing. 

It started when I attended a talk on Organizing Your Time by my Professional Organizer friend and networking parter-in-crime Denise Levine earlier this month. Denise stressed the value of doing a Time Audit for a week, marking down everything you do during a day, broken down into 30-minute increments. 

I'd done this once or twice before and found it useful, but the last time was three years ago, when I was spending a lot more time volunteering at Daughter's school, had just barely started blogging, my professional writing gigs were sporadic, and I'd never heard of Social Networking. Things have changed a lot since then.

Though mostly they're changes I've wanted, I feel more and more squeezed. I'm often stressed and rushed, and I don't like it. Even though I'm adopting David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology, which I'm completely sold on, I still have the sneaky feeling that I've made too many promises to myself that I can't keep.

Enter the time log (this one courtesy of the University of Minnesota), and the answer to the question, "So what am I really spending all my time on, anyway?" 

Next to sleep, the largest category by far is what I lumped together as Personal Maintenance, consisting of:

• Preparing and cleaning up from meals, and eating breakfast and lunch (dinner counts as Family time)
• Driving Daughter to and from school, appointments and activities
• Errands, including grocery shopping and farmer's market
• Cleaning and laundry (not a large percentage of the Maintenance category I assure you)
• Personal grooming routines
• Medical and other routine appointments (but not haircuts, personal training, exercise or meditation, which I count as Personal time)
• Tending to pets
• Processing mail, routine emails and random stuff that comes into the house

Turns out I spend over one-third of my day doing this stuff. That's enough for a full-time job! No wonder I have a hard time fitting in everything else, including Personal time, Family time, reading for enjoyment, professional networking, business development and oh yeah, actually writing. Especially when Twitter and LinkedIn are always right there to entice me away.

I was actually astonished at how little Family time happens during the week, and for the first time started to think that maybe I have added myself to one too many networking rosters and mailing lists, said "yes" to too many committments that I feel obligated to keep. What would it look like if I dropped some of them? Would the world get along without me? 

I think I'm about to find out.

Photo of watch face courtesy Pikaluk via Flickr. Some rights reserved 

Comments

[Chris]

Great post. I have been tempted to try this on numerous occasions, specifically after those days when I can not define exactly what I accomplished on a given day. I have toyed with looking for an app to help me do this...searching for apps and tools is often a source of lost productivity for me. The thought of using a simple spreadsheet is kind of akin to the pomodoro technique; just basic, hard-core productivity at its most basic level, you, a piece of paper and a clock.

Maybe I will motivate myself to try this next week!

thanks,

-chris

[Louise]

Thanks for the comment, Chris! And yes, I know exactly what you mean about searching for the perfect app. Finding a way to do something an easier way can be an incredible time waster! At some point there is a point of diminishing returns and the low-tech, old school way is your best bet. Good luck with the project, and post again when you finish.

[Louise]

Thanks for the comment, Chris. And I know exactly what you mean about searching for the perfect app. Often looking for a way to do something easier can be an incredible time waster! There is a point of diminishing returns at some point and you just have to cut your losses and go with the low-tech, old school solution. Let me know if you do it - I'd love to know how it goes.

[Shirley]

Incredible, isn't it, to see exactly how one spends one's days. I guess the conclusion is that humans are high-maintenance creatures.

[Louise]

I think you hit the nail on the head, Shirley. Thanks for commenting!

[Elizabeth Sheppard]

I started writing down what I was actually getting done in each day... along with a new to-do list (which was way too long).

Keeping track of things has helped me realize that it's very easy to get sidetracked and not do what I think is most important, like work projects and other important things.

I knew it before, but putting it on paper really helped me visualize what my day looked like, and what I was doing. I like your article, and agree that just adding "stuff" to my schedule really doesn't help!

[Louise]

Thanks for the comment Elizabeth! I'm glad you've found writing down what you do to be a helpful tool. It takes some discipline, but I think it's more than worth it.