Learn where the time really goes

Track your time to use it better

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the New Corner Office,
the podcast with strategies for succeeding in the new world
of work where location and hours are more flexible than
in the past. Today's episode is about how and why
you should learn where the time really goes. So confession,

(00:26):
I have been tracking my time since April of I
use weekly spreadsheets where I keep a rough record of
what I've been doing in half hour blocks. I check
in three to four times a day, writing down what
I've done since the last check in. Now, don't worry,
this podcast is way too short for me to bore
you with a recitation of how I have spent every

(00:48):
half hour for the past five years. But whether you
use a spreadsheet, a time tracking app, or just keep notes,
I recommend you try tracking your time for at least
a week. This is especially helpful for people inflexible jobs.
I also think that tracking time now in this era
of the COVID nineteen epidemic, will provide a helpful future

(01:11):
reminder of this time as we all look back and
process what happened. There are lots of reasons to track
time if you're new to working remotely. One reason is
to assure the people you're working with that you are
using your time well. I don't know why many people
continue to assume that working from home means watching movies

(01:32):
all days. I think that's changing as lots of people
experience remote work for the first time. But it's good
to have a record in any case. It's also good
to gauge if a client is taking way more time
than he's worth, or if a project has continued past
the point of diminishing returns. Of course, i'd be remiss
if I didn't point out something that a lot of

(01:52):
time trackers discover. Many of us aren't working nearly as
many hours as we thought. People who clock gin and
clock out and get paid by the hour no exactly
how many hours they work. Those of us who don't
do this may sometimes do strange mental gymnastics, like remembering
our worst weeks as typical, or feeling like we worked

(02:14):
for ten hours over the weekend because we checked email
a few times. We use estimated work hours as a
proxy for how stressed we feel or how hard we
feel like we're working, rather than as a factual statement.
I know what I'm talking about here. For years i'd
tell people I was working fifty hours a week. Then
I started tracking my time and I realized I was

(02:36):
working a lot closer to forty hours a week. Forty
is a different number than fifty. I write and speak
about this topic, and here I had ten hours going
somewhere completely different than I thought. But this is not
about playing gotcha. If you know you're working forty hours,
you'll make different and more sensible choices about work. Then

(02:57):
if you assume you have fifty hours to play with,
and hey, the truth sets us free if you see
that you do have some leisure time, if not as
much as you want. This can give you permission to
have fun with it. When you track your time, you
can plan your days knowing exactly what is reasonable to accomplish.
And yes, I know that for many people these days

(03:20):
right now aren't exactly typical. But here's a reason to
try tracking time now, Even as your entire company has
gone virtual, and your kids are home and you haven't
left the house in two weeks. Someday, hopefully soon, but
probably before too long, we will all be looking back
on this time. We will be processing what happened. We'll

(03:42):
be talking about our memories. Sadly, the human memory is fallible.
When your grown kids ask about life during the COVID
nineteen pandemic, the odds are you'll recount a few stock
stories and struggle to articulate exactly what was going on.
But if you track your time, you'll have a half
hour by half hour log of exactly what life looked like.

(04:05):
You'll be able to look at it and recount going
to the grocery store at seven am once a week
on Tuesdays, or how your kids took virtual karate classes.
You'll remember how you tried baking bread because it will
be there on the time log. All this will conjure
up your memories and you'll be able to describe the
time in much richer detail. To me, that's been a

(04:28):
major upside of time tracking. I no longer add up
how many hours I'm reading or spending in the car.
But I love that I can pull up any random
week since two thousand fifteen and see exactly what I
did with my time. The memories are still there, and
so they don't wash ceaselessly into the past. If you

(04:50):
track your time, I'd love to hear what you learn.
You can email me at Laura at Laura vanderkam dot com.
In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for list and
here's to succeeding in the New Corner Office. The New
Corner Office is a production of I Heart Radio. For

(05:10):
more podcasts, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your favorite shows. M