Monitor how you spend your time for a week.

Monitor how you spend your time for a full week and you’ll be able to see any areas where you can cut things out, make changes… and save yourself time.

We all have exactly the same 24 hours each day.  How we use that time differs greatly.

Take my 7-day Monitor How You Spend You Time challenge and see exactly where your time is going.

Monitor how you spend your time.

Okay, now I know when I suggest this to clients, most of them reply “I don’t have time for that.” Or “But this is going to take so much time.”

I wanted to get this out of the way straight away.

This exercise will take time.  However, it will ultimately save you a great deal of time too and is, in my opinion the most important time management exercise you can do.

So if you’re in, this is what you’ll need to do.

Commit to a full week of tracking how you spend your time

By committing to a full week of tracking how you spend your time, you will have a clear picture and be able to work much better on creating more time for yourself.

Get your notebook ready

Get yourself a notebook to track your time.  If you move from one place to another a lot during the day then I recommend a small pocket sized book you can easily take anywhere with you.

What to record

Okay, so you don’t need to add every detail, like when you go to the toilet, etc.

Here’s an example of my day.

6.45am Get up, shower, dress fully, breakfast…

7.40am Leave the house, walk Indie for Approximately 30 minutes.

8.10am Tidy Kitchen, make beds, quick tidy in general.

8.30am Social Media time ~ Focusing on business.

9am Check emails ~ Respond only to work related emails. Move straight onto project work/Client work.

10am Get up and move about, do a few minutes exercise/ housework and get a drink.

10.10am Project work/client work

• Fast forward a few hours

4.10pm Walk for 30 minutes

4.40pm Time chatting with my son after school, check social media and emails, then prepare our evening meal.

6pm Evening meal, clear away and then free time to do whatever I want.

Okay, so this gives you an idea.

A few things to look out for

• Your social media time
• Browsing the internet
• Chatting on the phone
• Watching TV
• Checking your phone, emails and social media excessively

Here’s what the people over at Lifehack.org suggest are the top 20 time wasters

Be completely honest

This exercise is only effective for you if you are completely honest.

How to use the information

After you’ve tracked your time for a full week.  Review everything and highlight all of the things that are eating your time with no value.  Becoming aware of how you spend your time is crucial.  Only then can you really start to improve your time-management skills.

Please note that free time has value and in my opinion is important in your day to do whatever you want.

I’d love to hear if your taking this 7-day Monitor how you spend your time challenge.  Leave me a comment below.

Wendy x

For more time management tips see 29 time management tips