HOW MUCH TIME ARE YOU REALLY WASTING EVERY DAY
Ready to get ORGANIZED in 2021 - and find more time in your days?! Grab my FREE Productivity Planner and start planning like the #MomBoss you know you are!
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing several different ways you can start living a more productive life. I hear from so many of you how you struggle with your time and feel like you just don’t have enough time to get it all done. I totally get it, so I want to share with you some of my top tips for managing your time and getting your time BACK so you have more time for the things that are important to you.
Today, we’re going to figure out exactly how much time you REALLY have in your day - and how much time you’re actually wasting on things that aren’t one of your priorities.
It might shock you to learn that you have the exact same amount of time each + every day as people like Oprah, Elon Musk, and Justin Timberlake…
(I truly hope you sensed my sarcasm there…)
Of course, Oprah, Elon Musk, and Justin Timberlake can all pay people to clean their homes, cook them food, and do their laundry for them - luxuries I’m assuming since I feel like I know my friends like you pretty well that you don’t have.
Or, at least I don’t…
But, just because we can’t afford people to do all those things that we typically leave to the last minute and avoid doing, doesn’t mean we have less hours in our day.
Oprah might have a housekeeper + personal chef, but she also has learned how to manage her time well so that she can spend time on the areas that truly matter in her life (you know, like building a freaking empire) and outsource the things that just don’t matter.
I am 100% all about outsourcing whenever I can. Shoot, I own a business that specializes in outsourcing. But, I get that it might not be in the cards for you.
That’s where Time Auditing comes in and truly figuring out where you are spending your precious time each and every day.
You wanna know the one phrase that I absolutely hate hearing?!
When someone asks you how you’re doing and you respond…
“Good! Busy, but good.”
Why do we wear busy-ness like it’s a badge of honor?! Why do we feel the need to justify not talking to someone for a period of time because we claim that we’re busy?!
The real reason you didn’t call your mom (sorry Mom - I love you!) or the IRS about your tax refund or didn’t go to that event was because it wasn’t a PRIORITY.
*womp womp*
Look, I’m not saying I’m not guilty of the exact phrase that I hate, but we take so much pride on being “busy” when in reality we have PLENTY of time to scroll through our phones and play Animal Crossing on the Nintendo Switch. (True story.)
So, let’s take some time to figure out exactly where all your time is really going… and if you’ve been struggling with creating those priorities we talked about, this is a great chance for you to get a deep dive into where you’re actually spending your time and start living a more priority-based life…
HOW TO CONDUCT A TIME AUDIT
STEP 1. TRACK YOURSELF FOR 3 DAYS.
Grab a notebook, friend, because this is going to be your companion all day long for the next 3 days.
(You can also grab my Productivity Planner that has a Time Audit worksheet for you in it!)
For the next 3 days, I want you to write down what you do every single hour - or with each transition - from the time you wake up in the morning, until the time you lay your head down at night.
This is an exercise in honesty and really digging deep into where you’re actually spending (aka WASTING) your time. Don’t worry - I’m not going to be looking over your shoulder at what you’re spending your time on - and you don’t even have to tell anyone what you’re doing. So, don’t be ashamed if you realize that you spent a good hour scrolling through videos on TikTok one afternoon. (Oh wait… that was me…)
I highly suggest you decide the days in advance with one day being a Saturday or Sunday so you really see how you’re spending your time on the weekend too.
This exercise will give us a better understanding of what your days look like (even if they’re not 100% your typical day) so that we can determine areas of time that we might need improvement.
STEP 2. RATE YOUR ENERGY LEVEL.
Like I said, I’m a BIG believer in priority-based living, whether it’s the big things in life, or the smaller, mundane tasks we do. So, when it comes to how we’re spending our time, we also need to think about our energy level as we are doing it.
Not only will this give you an idea of how you feel about a certain task or time frame during your day, but you’ll also start to notice patterns around the times and activities that give you energy - and the ones that suck the life out of you.
Next to each activity, rate your energy level. If it’s something where you have high energy, put a “+” next to it. If it’s something where you have lower energy, put a “-” next to it. And if you’re like, “This is neither high energy nor low energy,” put a “=” next to it.
We’ll use these levels in the next step to figure out where and when we should be prioritizing our time.
STEP 3. DO YOUR HOMEWORK.
Like any good teacher (and y’all, I was not that good of a teacher… I was just an OK teacher…), I’m going to give you some additional homework along with this Time Audit activity. While it’s all well + good to be figuring out where you’re spending your time and the energy it is taking for you to live your daily life, the real magic comes when we start to dive deeper into the what + why behind it all.
After you’ve finished your time audit, I want you to answer the following questions…
What activities did you spend the most time doing? List 2-3 activities.
Are the activities you are spending the most of your time on PRODUCTIVE (bring in money, check things off lists, etc.)?
At what times was your productivity +/or energy level the highest?
What activities did you seem to have the highest energy level? The lowest?
What is one thing you would change with how you spend your time?
The whole idea behind this Time Audit is to help you be MORE productive! If you’re reading this (and read this far), I have a feeling this is where you’re struggling. You feel like you just don’t have enough time to get everything done, when it reality, we just need to figure out how we can manage your time better to help you be more productive.
And look, I know some of you don’t know how you can possibly spend anymore of your time. I get it. I worked full time, had an hour commute, 2 kids at home, coaching, etc., and I still was able to successfully grow 2 businesses while doing “it all.” Did I have to wake up at 4AM to workout in order to do it? Yup, but that’s because that was a priority to me and working out in the afternoon or evening would cut into time with my family (my TOP priority).
Do I think this is easy? Not one bit. But, by taking a deeper look into our days - and with a little bit of practice - I believe you’ll be able to find how you can better manage your time to be more productive!
If you missed it, definitely hop back to the last post where I talk more about Priority-Based Living and how important it is for your productivity! Without knowing + understanding your priorities, it’s hard to figure out exactly where you need to be spending your time.
