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 by tracking time, you can make time.
Speaker 1: Mindlessness is the biggest time waster of all, and when
Speaker 1: you know where the time goes, you can make wise
Speaker 1: choices that help you feel like time is far more expansive.
Speaker 1: Long time Before Breakfast listeners know that I have been
Speaker 1: tracking my time in half hour increments since now. I
Speaker 1: don't look at my time log every half hour to
Speaker 1: write things down, but I do check in on my
Speaker 1: time sheets three times a day or so and write
Speaker 1: down what I've done since the last check in, so
Speaker 1: I have a pretty comprehensive record of the last six years.
Speaker 1: For the first year or two, I made detailed studies
Speaker 1: of my tallies. How many hours did I work, how
Speaker 1: many hours did I sleep. I do less of that
Speaker 1: now because the biggest long term gain from time tracking
Speaker 1: is not knowing that I sleep seven point four hours
Speaker 1: per day on average, though I do. It's in changing
Speaker 1: how I spend time. When I know I will be
Speaker 1: accountable for my time. That accountability forces me to think
Speaker 1: about the landscape of my time. I know from years
Speaker 1: of recording all one sixty eight hours of a week
Speaker 1: that a weekend is a huge chunk of time. I
Speaker 1: know that there is time every evening after my youngest
Speaker 1: kids go to bed. I know that work days can
Speaker 1: fit a lot if I try. Knowing what the time
Speaker 1: landscape looks like keeps me from spending time mindlessly. I
Speaker 1: don't begin to weekend or evening with no idea of
Speaker 1: what I want to do at that time, well, at
Speaker 1: least not usually. I will freely admit that I waste time.
Speaker 1: But when I waste time, as I do, since pretty
Speaker 1: much everybody wastes time, I can acknowledge that and not
Speaker 1: try to tell myself a story that I am just
Speaker 1: doing so much for everyone that I don't have a
Speaker 1: minute to spare. I do have time, and sometimes I
Speaker 1: choose to spend it in unproductive ways. I can also
Speaker 1: choose to spend time differently if I want. I know
Speaker 1: that few people are going to track their time for
Speaker 1: six years or seven years or more, but it is
Speaker 1: definitely worth trying for a week seven days. Here's a
Speaker 1: way to get started. Think back over the previous twenty
Speaker 1: four hours. Most people are able to reconstruct the previous
Speaker 1: twenty four hours in pretty good detail. Start at five
Speaker 1: am yesterday morning? What did you do first? What did
Speaker 1: you do next? Keep going to the present, Then check
Speaker 1: back in five to six hours from now and write
Speaker 1: down what you've done since the last check in. Pretty
Speaker 1: soon you've got two to three days recorded, and from
Speaker 1: there it's not so hard to get all the way
Speaker 1: to a week. We all experience time, and yet it's
Speaker 1: amazing to me how few people have looked at where
Speaker 1: their time really goes. This is all the more amazing
Speaker 1: because people think they know where their time goes. You'll
Speaker 1: hear all sorts of stories I work around the clock.
Speaker 1: Is it true? Well, let's track time and find out
Speaker 1: maybe it is. And then when you track time, you
Speaker 1: will have solid evidence to show to the people in
Speaker 1: your life to get them to help you out. Or
Speaker 1: maybe you'll do to cover something different, and then you
Speaker 1: can work with that in mind. I know from tracking
Speaker 1: my time that I can fit a lot in if
Speaker 1: I try. However, there is still space. I can look
Speaker 1: at my weeks and see that if I wish to
Speaker 1: add something, something that takes a few hours or so,
Speaker 1: I almost always can. Tracking time helps make time. Maybe
Speaker 1: you will find the same thing. So if you haven't
Speaker 1: tried tracking your time before, why not try it now?
Speaker 1: Starting today this week, you can get a time tracking
Speaker 1: spreadsheet from my website It's just my name, Laura Vanderkam
Speaker 1: dot com. But you can also make your own spreadsheet
Speaker 1: if you'd like, or use an app like toggle, or
Speaker 1: just write it down in a notebook. The tool itself
Speaker 1: doesn't matter. What matters is that you do it and
Speaker 1: stick with it for at least a few days. Make
Speaker 1: sure you include some weekend days on your time log too,
Speaker 1: because weekends are real time and they really count when
Speaker 1: you track time. You make time because you see where
Speaker 1: the time is and that can nudge you to make
Speaker 1: better use of it. All time passes, but when we
Speaker 1: are aware of it, we can make better choices, and
Speaker 1: that leads to feeling like we have all the time
Speaker 1: in the world. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. 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: I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.