Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that as you are starting to track your time,
Speaker 1: figure out what you want to learn from your time tracking.
Speaker 1: If you identify a few numbers that you particularly want
Speaker 1: to see, you can track in a way that makes
Speaker 1: sure you get them. So lots of folks are tracking
Speaker 1: their time with me here in January as part of
Speaker 1: my annual time tracking challenge. I think it can be
Speaker 1: helpful in general to see where the one hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty eight hours of the week go. When we know
Speaker 1: where the time goes, we can make choices about what
Speaker 1: we would like to change or celebrate. But it is
Speaker 1: even more useful to track time if you have particular
Speaker 1: questions you want answered. People track in more or less
Speaker 1: detail in different categories, and so knowing what you want
Speaker 1: to know will allow you to focus more on these aspects.
Speaker 1: For instance, many people want the answers to big picture
Speaker 1: questions how many hours per week do you spend working?
Speaker 1: How much time do you spend with your kids? But
Speaker 1: within these categories, you might also want to get more granular.
Speaker 1: For instance, within the category of work. You might want
Speaker 1: to know how much time you spend on email or
Speaker 1: in meetings versus other things. Perhaps at home, you want
Speaker 1: to know how much one on one time you have
Speaker 1: with each kid, or how much time you spend on
Speaker 1: caregiving tasks like helping with homework, or how much time
Speaker 1: you spend driving people around. You might want to see
Speaker 1: how much sleep you get each night, and also whether
Speaker 1: your bedtimes and waking times are consistent. You might see
Speaker 1: how many times you get up in the night and when.
Speaker 1: Some people don't remember to track this, but if you
Speaker 1: want to know, then you need to remind yourself for
Speaker 1: make a note or aim to remember in the morning.
Speaker 1: Sometimes people just note categories like leisure or personal time.
Speaker 1: That is totally fine, But if you want to know
Speaker 1: how much of this you spend on hobbies versus random puttering,
Speaker 1: you'll want to go into these blocks of time in
Speaker 1: more detail. Maybe you want to look for patterns you
Speaker 1: are suspecting, like that you indulge in more low quality
Speaker 1: leisure time toward the end of the week when you
Speaker 1: are tired. When you know what data you want to
Speaker 1: see going into your week of time tracking, that will
Speaker 1: guide you in deciding what details you do and don't
Speaker 1: need on your time log. For instance, if you are
Speaker 1: primarily interested in how much time you spend with your kids,
Speaker 1: you can probably log all your work hours as simply work.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, if you want to know how
Speaker 1: much time you spend in meetings or on an email,
Speaker 1: you will need to log the specific activity you are
Speaker 1: doing for work. At the end of a week of tracking,
Speaker 1: review your log with these questions in mind. Tally the
Speaker 1: categories you are interested in and see what you learn.
Speaker 1: You might be surprised, or you might not be. We
Speaker 1: don't know until we see the results. You can track
Speaker 1: all your time in close detail, but trying to capture
Speaker 1: too much detail often means people stop tracking. So if
Speaker 1: you want to finish the log and get a holistic
Speaker 1: picture of your week, it helps to decide what you
Speaker 1: care about most and what you care about least. I
Speaker 1: know this week, I am tracking my work hours slightly
Speaker 1: more closely since I think I need a tune up here,
Speaker 1: But my sleep is mostly fine, so that can stay broad.
Speaker 1: If you identify specific data that you want from your
Speaker 1: time tracking, I would love to hear what you focus
Speaker 1: on and what you learn. You can reach me at
Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. In the meantime, this
Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
Speaker 1: most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.