Three minutes to a better schedule

Tracking time doesn't take much time

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is that by taking three minutes a day
to think about how you are spending your time, you
can spend your time and far more productive ways. This

(00:28):
episode is first airing in early January. Starting next week,
I will be leading a large time tracking challenge. If
this year is anything like years past, over a thousand
people will commit to tracking their time for eight hours
with me. They will use a spreadsheet or an app

(00:48):
or a notebook from Monday at five am to Sunday night,
well Monday morning at four thirty am. They will note
what they have been doing. They will make a fairly
complete record of an ordinary week of life. There are
lots of upsides to tracking time. When you see where
the time goes, you can make wise choices about your time.

(01:13):
You can diagnose any problems. You can make sure your
impression of your life is accurate. If you want to
spend more or less time on something, you know what
you are working with. The truth sets us free. But
even if you're not convinced by that, this might help.
Time tracking really only takes three minutes a day. You

(01:38):
set up a spreadsheet with the days of the week
across the top and half hour blocks from five am
to four thirty am down the left hand side. Then
you check in three times each day and write down
what you've done since the last check in. Some good
times to check would be mid morning, when you write
down what you've done since you woke up. Late afternoon,

(01:59):
either when you leave work or before dinner on a
day off, and then before bed. Each check in will
only take a minute or so. It is not that
hard to remember what we have done over the last
five to six hours. What's more complicated is remembering what
we have done over the past three days, or three
weeks or three years. That is hard. But when only

(02:24):
a few hours have passed, our memories are pretty clear,
and if we're still be fuddled, we can simply look
at our calendars for the day or ask the other
people around us who might remember what did we do
at noon what happened after that. Even if there is
a missing hour or two, it is only an hour

(02:46):
or two out of the eight hours in a week.
You can catch back up at the next check in.
If you do this for a week, three minutes a
day for seven days. The whole tracking process will take
about twenty one minutes. That is it. In twenty one

(03:07):
minutes you can figure out where your time is going
with reasonable accuracy. You never have to do it again
if you don't want to. But in twenty one minutes
you will have learned the answer to the question of
how you spend your time, not how you think you
spend your time, how you actually do spend it. We

(03:29):
spend all kinds of time on things that don't improve
our lives, but time tracking will help us spend time better,
and doing it takes less time than listening to this
pretty short podcast, So why not give it a try
over the next week. You can see my time logs

(03:50):
over at Laura Vanderkam dot com next week. If you're
curious and I'd love to see what you discover in
three minutes a day to feel free to send me
your observations or even a completed time log at Laura
at Laura Vanderkamp dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura.

(04:11):
Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at

(04:32):
Before Breakfast pod. That's B the number four, then Breakfast
p o D. You can also shoot me an email
at Before Breakfast podcast. At i heeart media dot com
that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.

(04:56):
Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For
more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. H