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 that remembering where the time goes becomes
Speaker 1: easier over time, while trying to get a grip on
Speaker 1: time is challenging at first, Over time, you will become
Speaker 1: more mindful, which makes it easier to figure out where
Speaker 1: the time really goes. When this episode is first airing
Speaker 1: in January, I am leading a time tracking challenge where
Speaker 1: hundreds of people are logging their time for a week.
Speaker 1: We are all trying to figure out where the time
Speaker 1: really goes so we can make wise decisions. If that
Speaker 1: sounds good to you, then feel free to join in.
Speaker 1: You just write down what you're doing as often as
Speaker 1: you remember, and keep going for a week. Then you
Speaker 1: can celebrate, reflect or change. If you have never tracked
Speaker 1: time before, you might find that it's a little tough
Speaker 1: at first. It's tough to remember to check in with
Speaker 1: your log. It's tough to describe what you were doing
Speaker 1: in short phrases. It might be hard to remember what
Speaker 1: you were doing a few hours ago if you weren't
Speaker 1: really paying attention. Sometimes these challenges make people stop tracking
Speaker 1: their time. But I really hope they won't stop you.
Speaker 1: Because here's the thing. Remembering where the time went becomes
Speaker 1: much easier the more you do it. I have been
Speaker 1: tracking my time for almost seven years now, yep, every
Speaker 1: half hour for seven years. I have a busy life,
Speaker 1: so there is no way I would have stuck with
Speaker 1: this habit if it were difficult. At this point, I
Speaker 1: usually check in three times a day and write down
Speaker 1: what I've done since the last check in. Over the
Speaker 1: past few months, there have been a few weekend days
Speaker 1: in particular, that have just been so full I've been
Speaker 1: nowhere near my computer. But I have found that after
Speaker 1: almost seven years, I can in fact reconstruct a full
Speaker 1: twenty four hours with what feels like reasonable accuracy. The
Speaker 1: reason is that I now think about where my time
Speaker 1: is going. I remember that, oh, yes, we did that
Speaker 1: thing at two pm, so we were in the car
Speaker 1: at one thirty, and I put the baby to bed
Speaker 1: at eight pm, or that the pizza came out of
Speaker 1: the oven at six thirty pm, and so forth. As
Speaker 1: I think about my time and think about how I'd
Speaker 1: like to spend my time, there are more conscious decisions.
Speaker 1: I look at the clock and see at two PM
Speaker 1: that I don't have anything I have to do until
Speaker 1: and so I go read a book on the back porch,
Speaker 1: because that is a conscious decision. It is in my
Speaker 1: brain and I can remember it for at least a
Speaker 1: day or so. I have found this to be the
Speaker 1: case with other folks as well. For my next book,
Speaker 1: Tranquility by Tuesday, I had a hundred fifty people learned
Speaker 1: nine time management rules over the course of nine weeks.
Speaker 1: I had people track their time before the study and
Speaker 1: after the study. It turned out that people had an
Speaker 1: easier time recollecting where their time went in the post
Speaker 1: study survey than the pre study survey. Once they were
Speaker 1: primed to start thinking about their time and to think
Speaker 1: about how they would like to spend their time, time
Speaker 1: was less likely to be spent mindlessly. They were making
Speaker 1: active choices about where it should go, so they remembered
Speaker 1: their choices. In general, I think this mindfulness is a
Speaker 1: good thing. Perhaps there are some times we don't really
Speaker 1: want to think about this too much. I mean, I
Speaker 1: have definitely put something like beach for five hours when
Speaker 1: I'm at the beach, rather than recount every single time
Speaker 1: I went into the waves or built a sandcastle. But
Speaker 1: since we only get so much time, knowing where it
Speaker 1: goes allows us to be better stewards of it. Days
Speaker 1: and weeks and years don't disappear into the abyss. A
Speaker 1: life is lived in hours. We can use those hours
Speaker 1: to create the lives we want. Being mindful of where
Speaker 1: those hours go is the first step to doing just that.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our times. M 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 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: my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.