How to Spend Your Time
Where does your time go?
It is has been said that you can learn a lot about a person by how they spend their money and by looking at their budget. And I’d say the same is true (and arguably more important) about how a person SPENDS their TIME, by looking at their calendar. It’s easy to say that some thing is important, but if we don’t actually invest money or time in those things, then is it truly important to us?
It is easy to say that we simply don’t have the time or we’re too busy to accomplish big goals. But we all are given 168 hours in a week. Do you know what you did with that time last week? Do you remember how much time you spent with family or friends? How about the amount of time on your phone or working? We might have great goals and plans on our calendar but, at the end of the week, how does that match up with what really happened?
It can be helpful to imagine time similar to the way we think about money. How will you allocate or budget your time this week? You received 168 hours in your bank account and now have to decide how you will spend it. Dave Ramsey likes to say, “Give every dollar a job,” so why not give every hour a job? With this mindset, you can design how you will accomplish your goals and prioritize what is in fact important to you.
So, what is the one thing you need to do to start spending your time right?
TRACK YOUR TIME FOR A WEEK
If you are going to have a vision of where you are going, you need to see where you’ve been. If you need to make changes, you need to know what needs changing. Tracking your time is essential to getting clear on how you are currently spending your time. And here’s how to get started spending your time on the RIGHT things:
- Track It – Take time this week to write down EVERYTHING what you actually do (sleep, eat, check phone, answer emails, talk with a friend…everything). It should all add up to exactly 168 hours by the end of the week. I recommend setting an alarm to go off every 3 hours to remind you to write everything you did over the last 3 hours and list how much time you spend doing it. I used a spreadsheet to help me with tracking. Laura Vanderkam is the queen of time tracking and you can find her free time tracking resources HERE which includes a printable spreadsheet to use throughout the week.
- Analyze It – After you’ve logged your time for an entire week, then you can start to categorize your various actions and activities. Look for patterns. Review total time spent. See where you are spending most of your time and where/when you’re spending it. Are you checking your phone first thing in the morning for 15-30 minutes? That’s 2-4 hours per week that you could be spending making a healthier breakfast or sleeping or not rushing to work last minute!
- Design It – After you’ve had some time to analyze your time, you can now start designing a better way to spend it. Small changes can have great effect. Are you only getting 6 hours of sleep per night but spend 2 hours binging Netflix before bed? Try binging only 1 hour each night and gain back 7 more hours of sleep each week. Are you spending 12 hours per week on social media but only 1-2 hours in fully engaged conversation with your spouse? Time to make some changes.
This process is an incredibly revealing experience. My first week tracking my own time showed me I was spending close to 8-10 hours per week checking Instagram! What a waste! I was always telling people that I didn’t have enough time for [x,y,z] because I truly FELT like I didn’t have time. But when I was faced with the truth of my time tracking, it was obvious I needed to make some big changes.
Remember that no week is exactly the same and there is room for grace. But tracking your time now can give great insight into where your frustrations might be coming from and where to make changes to start focusing daily!
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
If you’re going to have success in your life, you need to find focus in your day.
Focus Daily, my friends!