1 00:00:03,480 --> 00:00:09,400 Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning. 2 00:00:10,960 --> 00:00:17,000 Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's 3 00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:21,160 Speaker 1: tip is to try acting like a lawyer or an 4 00:00:21,160 --> 00:00:27,240 Speaker 1: accountant for one work week. Track your time and think 5 00:00:27,240 --> 00:00:32,560 Speaker 1: of yourself as billing it to different projects. The experience 6 00:00:32,560 --> 00:00:37,519 Speaker 1: will likely be enlightening and give you some ideas of 7 00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:43,960 Speaker 1: how to best spend your working hours. So I have 8 00:00:44,080 --> 00:00:47,519 Speaker 1: spoken with lots of lawyers and accountants over the years. 9 00:00:48,720 --> 00:00:51,479 Speaker 1: Many have told me about having to bill their working 10 00:00:51,560 --> 00:00:57,920 Speaker 1: hours to different clients. That means tracking their time, often 11 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:03,960 Speaker 1: in small increments like six minutes that is one tenth 12 00:01:04,560 --> 00:01:08,920 Speaker 1: of an hour. These tend to be highly paid folks, 13 00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:12,440 Speaker 1: and six minutes for a five hundred dollars an hour 14 00:01:12,520 --> 00:01:18,480 Speaker 1: lawyer is fifty dollars still worth noting. I can tell 15 00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:23,040 Speaker 1: you from these conversations that basically no one likes tracking 16 00:01:23,080 --> 00:01:27,360 Speaker 1: their time in six minute increments. Now, I know that 17 00:01:27,440 --> 00:01:33,760 Speaker 1: often this distaste stems from billable hour requirements. Knowing that 18 00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:36,280 Speaker 1: you have to clock a certain number of hours can 19 00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:41,000 Speaker 1: lead to a loud ticking sound in your mind, especially 20 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:44,280 Speaker 1: when you know that any time off is just borrowing 21 00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:49,280 Speaker 1: time from the future. But even in the absence of that, 22 00:01:49,520 --> 00:01:53,680 Speaker 1: or even if the billable hour target is quite reasonable, 23 00:01:54,640 --> 00:01:59,240 Speaker 1: it can feel like a pain. And yet I am 24 00:01:59,440 --> 00:02:05,120 Speaker 1: always telling people to try tracking their time for a week. Indeed, 25 00:02:05,200 --> 00:02:08,440 Speaker 1: every year I lead a time tracking challenge around this 26 00:02:08,560 --> 00:02:13,840 Speaker 1: time with thousands of folks tracking their time together. You 27 00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:17,080 Speaker 1: can learn more about that over at my website Laura 28 00:02:17,200 --> 00:02:22,960 Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. For a week, people act like lawyers 29 00:02:23,040 --> 00:02:28,800 Speaker 1: or accountants keeping track of their time. So this raises 30 00:02:28,800 --> 00:02:31,919 Speaker 1: the question, if no one who has to do it 31 00:02:32,520 --> 00:02:37,000 Speaker 1: likes doing it, why on earth are thousands of us 32 00:02:37,760 --> 00:02:42,240 Speaker 1: doing this to ourselves. The reason is that it is 33 00:02:42,560 --> 00:02:48,400 Speaker 1: incredibly useful. I suggest people try tracking all their time 34 00:02:48,440 --> 00:02:50,720 Speaker 1: for a week. That is all one hundred and sixty 35 00:02:50,760 --> 00:02:53,919 Speaker 1: eight hours of a week. But even if you only 36 00:02:53,960 --> 00:02:58,160 Speaker 1: track your working hours as lawyers or accountants do, you 37 00:02:58,200 --> 00:03:02,919 Speaker 1: will find some interesting thing. One thing, you will see 38 00:03:03,840 --> 00:03:08,480 Speaker 1: how many hours you actually work. Now, if you get 39 00:03:08,480 --> 00:03:13,079 Speaker 1: paid by the hour, you know this number. If you don't, 40 00:03:14,120 --> 00:03:19,440 Speaker 1: you may just go by an impression. We think forty 41 00:03:19,480 --> 00:03:23,760 Speaker 1: hours means normal nine to five in the office, but 42 00:03:24,680 --> 00:03:30,119 Speaker 1: it's only sort of true. Most people take breaks, Sometimes 43 00:03:30,160 --> 00:03:34,519 Speaker 1: people come late or leave early. Sometimes people have half days, 44 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:39,119 Speaker 1: or holidays or sick days, it might actually be less 45 00:03:39,160 --> 00:03:43,480 Speaker 1: than forty when you average it out. This nebulousness happens 46 00:03:43,480 --> 00:03:48,320 Speaker 1: with higher numbers too. If you ever work late, or 47 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:52,880 Speaker 1: check email on the weekends, or travel for work, you 48 00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:57,480 Speaker 1: might just assign some other number to this question. I 49 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:03,840 Speaker 1: work fifty hours a week sixty eighty. We live in 50 00:04:03,880 --> 00:04:09,400 Speaker 1: a competitive world, and this number can quickly get inflated. 51 00:04:10,960 --> 00:04:12,920 Speaker 1: I once met a young man at a party who 52 00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:15,800 Speaker 1: told me he was working one hundred eighty hours a 53 00:04:15,800 --> 00:04:19,680 Speaker 1: week at his start up. That is a very impressive 54 00:04:19,760 --> 00:04:25,400 Speaker 1: number if you actually multiply twenty four times seven. I 55 00:04:25,520 --> 00:04:27,560 Speaker 1: used to think I worked fifty hours a week, and 56 00:04:27,600 --> 00:04:32,320 Speaker 1: then I started tracking my time regularly. I realized that 57 00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:37,080 Speaker 1: the average was a lot lower than that. These days, 58 00:04:37,120 --> 00:04:40,320 Speaker 1: I know it is usually around thirty five hours a week. 59 00:04:41,520 --> 00:04:44,840 Speaker 1: I work in the evenings, I work in the early mornings, 60 00:04:45,680 --> 00:04:49,160 Speaker 1: I work on weekends. But my work days are often 61 00:04:49,160 --> 00:04:54,279 Speaker 1: interrupted and end early due to kid stuff, So the 62 00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:57,680 Speaker 1: time does an add up nearly as fast as I 63 00:04:57,720 --> 00:05:02,040 Speaker 1: feel it does. If you track what you are doing 64 00:05:02,160 --> 00:05:05,440 Speaker 1: or working on during your working hours, you will also 65 00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:10,000 Speaker 1: find some interesting things. Many people try desperately to do 66 00:05:10,080 --> 00:05:14,440 Speaker 1: multiple things at once and wind up getting very little done, 67 00:05:15,839 --> 00:05:18,240 Speaker 1: or they keep getting distracted and find that a ten 68 00:05:18,279 --> 00:05:23,039 Speaker 1: hour work day contains less than seven hours of real work. 69 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:27,520 Speaker 1: Sometimes people see that they spend the majority of their 70 00:05:27,560 --> 00:05:32,680 Speaker 1: time in meetings and not all of those meetings actually 71 00:05:32,680 --> 00:05:36,640 Speaker 1: needed to happen. I have certainly seen folks get a 72 00:05:36,800 --> 00:05:41,279 Speaker 1: fire lit under them to minimize meetings after realizing that 73 00:05:41,360 --> 00:05:44,560 Speaker 1: if they want to work forty hours a week and 74 00:05:44,600 --> 00:05:48,279 Speaker 1: they spend twenty five hours in meetings, then they have 75 00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:51,679 Speaker 1: a mere fifteen hours to do the rest of their jobs. 76 00:05:53,440 --> 00:05:56,080 Speaker 1: But in any case, when you know what your work 77 00:05:56,080 --> 00:06:00,719 Speaker 1: week looks like, you can make more rational choices about 78 00:06:00,720 --> 00:06:04,280 Speaker 1: what proportion of time you should spend on different things. 79 00:06:05,760 --> 00:06:08,800 Speaker 1: You can decide to spend a certain proportion on planning, 80 00:06:09,560 --> 00:06:12,800 Speaker 1: or on drumming up new business, or on meeting one 81 00:06:12,839 --> 00:06:16,680 Speaker 1: on one with direct reports. You may generally think you 82 00:06:16,720 --> 00:06:20,080 Speaker 1: should be spending more time on these things. But unless 83 00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:23,440 Speaker 1: you know exactly how you spend your working hours now, 84 00:06:24,240 --> 00:06:27,200 Speaker 1: you don't know if you are spending too much, too 85 00:06:27,279 --> 00:06:33,000 Speaker 1: little the right amount. Who knows, time tracking is just 86 00:06:33,520 --> 00:06:40,000 Speaker 1: data data. It's really another way of saying reality or 87 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:44,039 Speaker 1: if we want to get all lofty the truth. I 88 00:06:44,120 --> 00:06:49,640 Speaker 1: believe that the truth sets us free. When we know 89 00:06:49,680 --> 00:06:52,720 Speaker 1: where the time is going. Now we can make more 90 00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:57,159 Speaker 1: rational choices about how we want to spend our time. 91 00:06:58,720 --> 00:07:01,400 Speaker 1: So yes, perhaps time I'm tracking is not a ton 92 00:07:01,520 --> 00:07:04,760 Speaker 1: of fun, though. I have been tracking my time for 93 00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:08,040 Speaker 1: almost nine years now, and that's all one hundred and 94 00:07:08,080 --> 00:07:11,320 Speaker 1: sixty eight hours of the week. It's enough time to 95 00:07:11,440 --> 00:07:16,960 Speaker 1: rival many lawyers or accountants. I find it absolutely fine. 96 00:07:18,240 --> 00:07:22,680 Speaker 1: I keep doing it because time is valuable. I want 97 00:07:22,720 --> 00:07:28,000 Speaker 1: to spend this valuable resource. Well, I am guessing you 98 00:07:28,080 --> 00:07:32,040 Speaker 1: want to do that too, So why not try acting 99 00:07:32,120 --> 00:07:36,440 Speaker 1: like a lawyer or an accountant for a week keep 100 00:07:36,480 --> 00:07:39,040 Speaker 1: track of your working hours and what you are doing. 101 00:07:40,080 --> 00:07:42,560 Speaker 1: If you are inspired, you can track all your time 102 00:07:43,200 --> 00:07:47,120 Speaker 1: working and non working time. It really won't take that 103 00:07:47,280 --> 00:07:51,720 Speaker 1: much time or effort, and you'll have data that can 104 00:07:51,760 --> 00:07:55,640 Speaker 1: help you spend more time on when matters and less 105 00:07:56,600 --> 00:08:03,240 Speaker 1: on what doesn't. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks 106 00:08:03,320 --> 00:08:08,360 Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. 107 00:08:14,880 --> 00:08:19,360 Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to before breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, 108 00:08:19,480 --> 00:08:22,880 Speaker 1: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura 109 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:32,280 Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. 110 00:08:32,920 --> 00:08:36,920 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, 111 00:08:37,200 --> 00:08:40,440 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.