WEBVTT - Bill your time for a week

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.

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<v Speaker 1>This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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<v Speaker 2>Today's tip is to try acting like a lawyer or

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<v Speaker 2>an accountant for one work week. Track your time and

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<v Speaker 2>think of yourself as billing it to different projects.

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<v Speaker 1>The experience will likely be enlightening and give you some

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<v Speaker 1>ideas of how to best spend your working hours. So

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<v Speaker 1>I have spoken with lots of lawyers and accountants over

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<v Speaker 1>the years. Many have told me about having to bill

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<v Speaker 1>their working hours to different clients. That means tracking their time,

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<v Speaker 1>often in small increments like six minutes that is one

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<v Speaker 1>tenth of an hour. These tend to be highly paid folks,

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<v Speaker 1>and six minutes for a five hundred dollars an hour

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<v Speaker 1>lawyer is fifty dollars still worth noting. I can tell

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<v Speaker 1>you from these conversations that basically no one likes tracking

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<v Speaker 1>their time in six minute increments. Now, I know that

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<v Speaker 1>often this distaste stems from billable hour requirements. Knowing that

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<v Speaker 1>you have to clock a certain number of hours can

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<v Speaker 1>lead to a loud ticking sound in your mind, especially

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<v Speaker 1>when you know that any time off is just borrowing

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<v Speaker 1>time from the future. But even in the absence of that,

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<v Speaker 1>or even if the billable hour target is quite reasonable,

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<v Speaker 1>it can feel like a pain. And yet I am

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<v Speaker 1>always telling people to try tracking their time for a week. Indeed,

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<v Speaker 1>every year I lead a time tracking challenge around this

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<v Speaker 1>time with thousands of folks tracking their time together. You

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<v Speaker 1>can learn more about that over at my website Laura

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<v Speaker 1>vandercam dot com. For a week, people act like lawyers

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<v Speaker 1>or accountants keeping track of their time. So this raises

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<v Speaker 1>the question, if no one who has to do it

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<v Speaker 1>likes doing it, why on earth are thousands of us

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<v Speaker 1>doing this to ourselves. The reason is that it is

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<v Speaker 1>incredibly useful. I suggest people try tracking all their time

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<v Speaker 1>for a week. That is all one hundred and sixty

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<v Speaker 1>eight hours of a week. But even if you only

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<v Speaker 1>track your working hours as lawyers or accountants do, you

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<v Speaker 1>will find some interesting thing. One thing, you will see

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<v Speaker 1>how many hours you actually work. Now, if you get

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<v Speaker 1>paid by the hour, you know this number. If you don't,

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<v Speaker 1>you may just go by an impression. We think forty

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<v Speaker 1>hours means normal nine to five in the office, but

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<v Speaker 1>it's only sort of true. Most people take breaks, Sometimes

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<v Speaker 1>people come late or leave early. Sometimes people have half days,

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<v Speaker 1>or holidays or sick days, it might actually be less

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<v Speaker 1>than forty when you average it out. This nebulousness happens

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<v Speaker 1>with higher numbers too. If you ever work late, or

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<v Speaker 1>check email on the weekends, or travel for work, you

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<v Speaker 1>might just assign some other number to this question. I

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<v Speaker 1>work fifty hours a week sixty eighty. We live in

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<v Speaker 1>a competitive world, and this number can quickly get inflated.

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<v Speaker 1>I once met a young man at a party who

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<v Speaker 1>told me he was working one hundred eighty hours a

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<v Speaker 1>week at his start up. That is a very impressive

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<v Speaker 1>number if you actually multiply twenty four times seven. I

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<v Speaker 1>used to think I worked fifty hours a week, and

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<v Speaker 1>then I started tracking my time regularly. I realized that

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<v Speaker 1>the average was a lot lower than that. These days,

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<v Speaker 1>I know it is usually around thirty five hours a week.

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<v Speaker 1>I work in the evenings, I work in the early mornings,

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<v Speaker 1>I work on weekends. But my work days are often

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<v Speaker 1>interrupted and end early due to kid stuff, so the

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<v Speaker 1>time doesn't add up nearly as fast as I feel

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<v Speaker 1>it does. If you track what you are doing or

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<v Speaker 1>working on during your working hours, you will also find

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<v Speaker 1>some interesting things. Many people try desperately to do multiple

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<v Speaker 1>things at once and wind up getting very little done,

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<v Speaker 1>or they keep getting distracted and find that a ten

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<v Speaker 1>hour work day contains less than seven hours of real work.

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<v Speaker 1>Sometimes people see that they spend the majority of their

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<v Speaker 1>time in meetings and not all of those meetings actually

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<v Speaker 1>needed to happen. I have certainly seen folks get a

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<v Speaker 1>fire lit under them to minimize meetings after realizing that

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<v Speaker 1>if they want to work forty hours a week and

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<v Speaker 1>they spend twenty five hours in meetings, then they have

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<v Speaker 1>a mere fifteen hours to do the rest of their jobs.

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<v Speaker 1>But in any case, when you know what your work

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<v Speaker 1>week looks like, you can make more rational choices about

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<v Speaker 1>what proportion of time you should spend on different things.

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<v Speaker 1>You can decide to spend a certain proportion on planning,

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<v Speaker 1>or on drumming up new business, or on meeting one

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<v Speaker 1>on one with direct reports. You may generally think you

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<v Speaker 1>should be spending more time on these things. But unless

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<v Speaker 1>you know exactly how you spend your working hours now,

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<v Speaker 1>you don't know if you are spending too much, too

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<v Speaker 1>little the right amount. Who knows, time tracking is just

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<v Speaker 1>data data. It's really another way of saying reality or

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<v Speaker 1>if we want to get all lofty the truth. I

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<v Speaker 1>believe that the truth sets us free. When we know

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<v Speaker 1>where the time is going. Now we can make more

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<v Speaker 1>rational choices about how we want to spend our time.

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<v Speaker 1>So yes, perhaps time I'm tracking is not a ton

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<v Speaker 1>of fun, though. I have been tracking my time for

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<v Speaker 1>almost nine years now, and that's all one hundred and

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<v Speaker 1>sixty eight hours of the week. It's enough time to

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<v Speaker 1>rival many lawyers or accountants. I find it absolutely fine.

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<v Speaker 1>I keep doing it because time is valuable. I want

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<v Speaker 1>to spend this valuable resource. Well, I am guessing you

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<v Speaker 1>want to do that too, So why not try acting

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<v Speaker 1>like a lawyer or an accountant for a week keep

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<v Speaker 1>track of your working hours and what you are doing.

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<v Speaker 1>If you are inspired, you can track all your time

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<v Speaker 1>working and non working time. It really won't take that

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<v Speaker 1>much time or effort, and you'll have data that can

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<v Speaker 1>help you spend more time on when matters and less

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<v Speaker 1>on what doesn't. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks

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<v Speaker 1>for listening, and here's to making the most of our time.

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<v Speaker 1>Thanks for listening to before breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,

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<v Speaker 1>or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura

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<v Speaker 1>vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.

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<v Speaker 1>For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,

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