What time data would be useful to you?

Figure out what you hope to learn before you start tracking your time

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is that as you are starting to track your time,
figure out what you want to learn from your time tracking.

(00:24):
If you identify a few numbers that you particularly want
to see, you can track in a way that makes
sure you get them. So lots of folks are tracking
their time with me here in January as part of
my annual time tracking challenge. I think it can be
helpful in general to see where the one hundred and
sixty eight hours of the week go. When we know

(00:47):
where the time goes, we can make choices about what
we would like to change or celebrate. But it is
even more useful to track time if you have particular
questions you want answered. People track in more or less
detail in different categories, and so knowing what you want
to know will allow you to focus more on these aspects.

(01:11):
For instance, many people want the answers to big picture
questions how many hours per week do you spend working?
How much time do you spend with your kids? But
within these categories, you might also want to get more granular.
For instance, within the category of work. You might want
to know how much time you spend on email or
in meetings versus other things. Perhaps at home, you want

(01:35):
to know how much one on one time you have
with each kid, or how much time you spend on
caregiving tasks like helping with homework, or how much time
you spend driving people around. You might want to see
how much sleep you get each night, and also whether
your bedtimes and waking times are consistent. You might see
how many times you get up in the night and when.

(01:57):
Some people don't remember to track this, but if you
want to know, then you need to remind yourself for
make a note or aim to remember in the morning.
Sometimes people just note categories like leisure or personal time.
That is totally fine, But if you want to know
how much of this you spend on hobbies versus random puttering,

(02:20):
you'll want to go into these blocks of time in
more detail. Maybe you want to look for patterns you
are suspecting, like that you indulge in more low quality
leisure time toward the end of the week when you
are tired. When you know what data you want to
see going into your week of time tracking, that will

(02:40):
guide you in deciding what details you do and don't
need on your time log. For instance, if you are
primarily interested in how much time you spend with your kids,
you can probably log all your work hours as simply work.
On the other hand, if you want to know how
much time you spend in meetings or on an email,

(03:00):
you will need to log the specific activity you are
doing for work. At the end of a week of tracking,
review your log with these questions in mind. Tally the
categories you are interested in and see what you learn.
You might be surprised, or you might not be. We
don't know until we see the results. You can track

(03:22):
all your time in close detail, but trying to capture
too much detail often means people stop tracking. So if
you want to finish the log and get a holistic
picture of your week, it helps to decide what you
care about most and what you care about least. I
know this week, I am tracking my work hours slightly

(03:45):
more closely since I think I need a tune up here,
But my sleep is mostly fine, so that can stay broad.
If you identify specific data that you want from your
time tracking, I would love to hear what you focus
on and what you learn. You can reach me at
Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. In the meantime, this

(04:08):
is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast

(04:36):
is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
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