WEBVTT - Why I track time

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<v Speaker 1>Good morning. This is Laura. Every day on this before

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<v Speaker 1>Breakfast podcast, I share a practical tip that will help

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<v Speaker 1>you take your day from great to awesome. Today's tip

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<v Speaker 1>is to track your time. You can start with twenty

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<v Speaker 1>four hours, but I hope you'll do more. In this episode,

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<v Speaker 1>I'll be explaining why I write and speak about time

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<v Speaker 1>management and so. People sometimes tell me that they want

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<v Speaker 1>to spend their time better. They asked me what's the

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<v Speaker 1>first thing they should do. My answer is always the same.

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<v Speaker 1>If you want to spend your time better, you need

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<v Speaker 1>to figure out where it's going now. Because if you

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<v Speaker 1>don't know where the time is going now, how do

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<v Speaker 1>you know if you're changing the right thing. Maybe something

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<v Speaker 1>you thought was a problem really isn't. Maybe something you've

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<v Speaker 1>never even considered is taking a lot more time than

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<v Speaker 1>you thought. Just like when you're making a business decision,

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<v Speaker 1>you want to be sure you're working from good data.

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<v Speaker 1>The best way to get that data try tracking your time.

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<v Speaker 1>Ideally for a week, but even a few days or

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<v Speaker 1>just one day can be helpful. I guarantee it will

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<v Speaker 1>be enlightening. How do I know that, Well, it's definitely

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<v Speaker 1>been enlightening for me. I've had thousands of people track

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<v Speaker 1>their time over the years. Generally people use a spreadsheet

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<v Speaker 1>I've designed, which you can get from my website or

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<v Speaker 1>you can build one yourself. It's got the days of

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<v Speaker 1>the week along the top from Monday to Sunday, and

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<v Speaker 1>half hour blocks running down the left hand side from

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<v Speaker 1>five am to four thirty am, So if you're counting,

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<v Speaker 1>that's three thirty six half hour cells representing the hundred

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<v Speaker 1>sixty eight hour week. Other people use apps. I mean,

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<v Speaker 1>there's dozens of commercial time tracking apps on the market,

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<v Speaker 1>or some arts A types like to walk around with

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<v Speaker 1>a little notebook and keep notes, writing everything down in

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<v Speaker 1>narrative style. So since fair is fair, I've tracked my

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<v Speaker 1>time too. I actually began tracking my time continuously in

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<v Speaker 1>half hour blocks in April. No crisis or dark moment

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<v Speaker 1>prompted this tracking, but I had recently had my fourth child,

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<v Speaker 1>and I suspected that this might introduce some new challenges

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<v Speaker 1>into my family's already busy life. So I started tracking

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<v Speaker 1>in mid April and figured i'd go for a month

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<v Speaker 1>or so. Then after a month, I decided it was

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<v Speaker 1>easy enough and interesting enough that I would just keep going,

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<v Speaker 1>at least for a year. Sure enough, one year in

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<v Speaker 1>I found out all sorts of interesting things. Even as

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<v Speaker 1>someone who thought she knew everything there was to know

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<v Speaker 1>about time. First discovery, I worked less than I thought

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<v Speaker 1>I did. In my mind, I was working fifty hours

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<v Speaker 1>a week or maybe more. After all, I worked all

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<v Speaker 1>day during the work day, I worked at night after

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<v Speaker 1>my kids went to bed. I often did work on

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<v Speaker 1>the weekends. I traveled for speeches, so that's easily fifty

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<v Speaker 1>fifty five maybe sixty hours, right ump. I rarely did

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<v Speaker 1>all those things in the same week. In my mind,

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<v Speaker 1>I was remembering my most work heavy weeks as typical

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<v Speaker 1>because I wanted to see myself as the kind of

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<v Speaker 1>serious professional who was working long hours. When I tracked

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<v Speaker 1>all my time, I saw that the long term average

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<v Speaker 1>was closer to forty hours. Forty is a different number

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<v Speaker 1>than fifty. It's not that I never worked fifty hours

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<v Speaker 1>a week, because sometimes I did. Sometimes I worked sixty

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<v Speaker 1>hours a week, but those weeks were no more typical

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<v Speaker 1>than the weeks I worked thirty hours. I have since

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<v Speaker 1>learned that this is a common blind spot. There was

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<v Speaker 1>once a study comparing people's estimated work weeks with time diaries.

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<v Speaker 1>They found that people claiming seventy five plus hour work

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<v Speaker 1>weeks were off by about twenty five hours. You can

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<v Speaker 1>guess in which direction right. It's funny, but it's important

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<v Speaker 1>to understand what's going on. We live in a world

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<v Speaker 1>where being busy is seen as a badge of honor.

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<v Speaker 1>We feel like we're working hard, heard, and we feel

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<v Speaker 1>like we're working long, so we put a high number

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<v Speaker 1>on it. You know how these conversations go. I worked

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<v Speaker 1>sixty hours last week. Sixty. I wish I worked sixty.

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<v Speaker 1>I worked seventy. Seventy, Oh, seventy is my light season,

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<v Speaker 1>so on it goes. I once met a young man

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<v Speaker 1>at a party who told me he was working a

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<v Speaker 1>hundred eighty hours a week at his startup, which is

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<v Speaker 1>very impressive if you multiply by seven. Keeping track of

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<v Speaker 1>time gives us a more accurate picture of our life.

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<v Speaker 1>When we know where the time really goes, we can

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<v Speaker 1>make better choices. I could make sure that I spent

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<v Speaker 1>the forty hours I was working wisely, and that I

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<v Speaker 1>made good choices with those ten other hours that I

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<v Speaker 1>didn't know. We're there. I also learned that I spent

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of time in the car since I run

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<v Speaker 1>my business out of a home office. I don't have

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<v Speaker 1>a daily commute, so in my mind, time in the

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<v Speaker 1>car was this negligible number. Except it wasn't. I soon

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<v Speaker 1>learned that I spent more than an hour a day

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<v Speaker 1>in the car, mostly on short trips. This is actually

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<v Speaker 1>one of the reasons I got into podcasts. I realized

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<v Speaker 1>I needed something constructive to do at this time, and

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<v Speaker 1>maybe other people did too. Just to give you a

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<v Speaker 1>sense of how far off my estimation was, I was

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<v Speaker 1>spending way more time in the car than I was exercising.

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<v Speaker 1>But in my mind I was exercising a lot and

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<v Speaker 1>I was rarely in the car. But what was most

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<v Speaker 1>interesting to me is that I still had space in

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<v Speaker 1>my life. My husband and I both work, we have

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<v Speaker 1>four active children. Yet I could see on my time

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<v Speaker 1>log that there was space I could redeploy to new

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<v Speaker 1>activities if I chose so. For instance, I joined a

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<v Speaker 1>choir that rehearsed on Thursday nights during the school year.

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<v Speaker 1>I had been saying how much I missed singing. It

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<v Speaker 1>turned out I did have time to sing. Time tracking

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<v Speaker 1>showed me that I promised that time tracking is easy.

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<v Speaker 1>I just go in three to four times per day,

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<v Speaker 1>writing down what I've done since the last check in.

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<v Speaker 1>Broad categories are okay, we're sleep, drive, run, cooked, dinner,

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<v Speaker 1>play with kids. Consistency is more important than getting bogged

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<v Speaker 1>down in the details. Each check in takes me less

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<v Speaker 1>than a minute, so time tracking takes me about three

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<v Speaker 1>minutes a day. That's the same amount of time I

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<v Speaker 1>spend brushing my teeth, and that's an activity I've yet

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<v Speaker 1>to declare myself too busy to do. I hope you'll

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<v Speaker 1>give it a try. You can start now. In fact,

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<v Speaker 1>here's a way to feel like you've got a head.

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<v Speaker 1>Start starting now, write down how you've spent the past

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<v Speaker 1>twenty four hours. It turns out most of us can

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<v Speaker 1>remember the past twenty four hours with reasonable accuracy. Now

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<v Speaker 1>just keep going for the next twenty four hours, and wow,

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<v Speaker 1>you've got two days of data to work with. That's great.

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<v Speaker 1>You may already be seeing patterns. Make sure you track

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<v Speaker 1>at least one weekend day, because weekends are real days too,

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<v Speaker 1>and this time really counts. After a week. Add up

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<v Speaker 1>the major categories. Ask yourself what you like, ask yourself

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<v Speaker 1>what you want to change, No judgment. This is just

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<v Speaker 1>about data and learning. More about yourself. But I can

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<v Speaker 1>tell you this, Knowing where the time goes has been

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<v Speaker 1>life changing for me, and I promise it will be

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<v Speaker 1>for you too. If you track your time, I'd love

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<v Speaker 1>to know what you find out. You can email me

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<v Speaker 1>at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com.

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<v Speaker 1>This is Laura. Thanks for listening and here's to making

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<v Speaker 1>the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to

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<v Speaker 1>hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,

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<v Speaker 1>or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook

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<v Speaker 1>and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod that's b E the

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<v Speaker 1>number four, then Breakfast p o D. You can also

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<v Speaker 1>shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i

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<v Speaker 1>heeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled out

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<v Speaker 1>with all the letters. Thanks so much. I look forward

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<v Speaker 1>to staying in touch.