Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is the first in a five part series
Speaker 1: on how to take control of your time in the
Speaker 1: new year. This week, I'll be talking about five strategies
Speaker 1: that I know will help you feel less busy and
Speaker 1: get more done because they've definitely helped me. The first
Speaker 1: strategy is to figure out where the time really goes.
Speaker 1: When people tell me they'd like to spend their time better,
Speaker 1: they often ask what's the first thing they should do,
Speaker 1: and I say, it's to figure out where the time
Speaker 1: is going now, Because if you don't know where the
Speaker 1: time is going now, how do you know if you're
Speaker 1: changing the right thing. Maybe something you thought was a
Speaker 1: problem really isn't. Maybe something you've never even considered is
Speaker 1: taking far more time than you imagined. Like any business decision,
Speaker 1: it's wisest to work from good data, and the best
Speaker 1: way to get that data is to track your time.
Speaker 1: Ideally for a week. This first full week after the
Speaker 1: holidays is an excellent time to start. I'm tracking my
Speaker 1: time this week as our many listeners, and I invite
Speaker 1: you to enjoin us. There are lots of tools you
Speaker 1: can use. You can visit my website Laura Vanderkam dot
Speaker 1: com and sign up to be sent a time tracking
Speaker 1: spreadsheet Excel or PDF versions. You can make your own
Speaker 1: spreadsheet too, with the days of the week across the
Speaker 1: top and half hour blocks down the left hand side.
Speaker 1: Mine runs from five a m. To four thirty a m.
Speaker 1: Because I find that's what I think of as a day,
Speaker 1: but if you're an early riser or a late riser,
Speaker 1: feel free to adjust that as you see fit. There
Speaker 1: are dozens of time tracking apps on the market you
Speaker 1: can use, or you can just jot down stuff in
Speaker 1: a notebook. The tool itself doesn't matter. What matters is
Speaker 1: that you do it. And I know time tracking can
Speaker 1: be a pain, but I promise you, as someone who
Speaker 1: has found it worthwhile to track my time for close
Speaker 1: to five years now, it is worth it. Knowing where
Speaker 1: the time goes has helped me spend more time on
Speaker 1: what I care about while ditching things that I don't.
Speaker 1: If you're listening to this on a Monday, awesome, but
Speaker 1: if not, feel free to start on any day as
Speaker 1: long as you keep going for the next sixty eight hours.
Speaker 1: Make sure you include the weekend too. This is real time,
Speaker 1: and knowing where this time goes helps you get a
Speaker 1: holistic picture of your life. Don't just log work hours.
Speaker 1: There's more to you than your job, and accounting for
Speaker 1: your time outside of work can be the difference between
Speaker 1: a life that feels like it's just work and one
Speaker 1: that's more balanced like anything. Time tracking might feel awkward
Speaker 1: at first. You might have trouble remembering what you did.
Speaker 1: I like to check in three to four times a
Speaker 1: day and write down what I've done since the last
Speaker 1: check in. It might help to set an alarm until
Speaker 1: you get into the habit and you don't need to
Speaker 1: write down everything. I have not recorded every bathroom break
Speaker 1: for the last five years. It's better to have a
Speaker 1: general sense than to account for every minute. Also, if
Speaker 1: you forget and loose track of a few hours, it's okay.
Speaker 1: Just put in what you do remember and pick back
Speaker 1: up where you can. Tracking one d sixty one sixty
Speaker 1: eight hours is going to be more helpful than stopping
Speaker 1: one day in, and some people find it helpful to
Speaker 1: track with a friend. Or if you track for a
Speaker 1: week and want to send me your log, I'd love
Speaker 1: to see it. You can reach me at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at i hurt media dot com. But after you've
Speaker 1: done a week, look at the log and see what
Speaker 1: you think. What did you like? Let's celebrate that. What
Speaker 1: didn't you like? Well, don't beat yourself up about it.
Speaker 1: We all waste time, all of us. I know I
Speaker 1: waste tons of time. My time log showed me that.
Speaker 1: But the good news about recognizing this is that I
Speaker 1: no longer tell myself a story that I am so
Speaker 1: busy and have no time for fun. I mean, clearly
Speaker 1: I do. I just need to think about how I
Speaker 1: want to use this time and what kind of leisure
Speaker 1: I would enjoy most. If you like numbers, you might
Speaker 1: try adding up the major categories work, sleep, time in
Speaker 1: the car, housework, Errand's family time, exercise, television, social media, volunteering. Reading.
Speaker 1: What I've heard is you do and you might decide
Speaker 1: that this wasn't a typical week, which is fine. But
Speaker 1: I've learned over the years that there are no typical weeks.
Speaker 1: Are deeming a day or week typical is really a
Speaker 1: value judgment, not necessarily a statement about real life. As
Speaker 1: an example, I used to think I worked about fifty
Speaker 1: hours a week because well, my time log showed that.
Speaker 1: But some of my time log us I only viewed
Speaker 1: my uninterrupted weeks as typical. If I encountered a snow day,
Speaker 1: a sick day, a holiday, a half day because of
Speaker 1: an emergency, dentist visit, a broken furnace, or anything like that,
Speaker 1: well I called those weeks atypical. Except in my life,
Speaker 1: it turns out over the long haul that something will
Speaker 1: happen more often than not. Best to know that so
Speaker 1: we can make plans. Anyway, if you'd like to spend
Speaker 1: your time better in the new year, please do try
Speaker 1: tracking your time for the next seven days and then
Speaker 1: let me know what you find. That email address again
Speaker 1: is Before Breakfast Podcast at iHeart media dot com. And
Speaker 1: in the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod
Speaker 1: that's b E the number four then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: Podcast at I heeart media dot com that Before breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.