Rewind: The Time I Tracked My Time

Bonus: A worksheet for creating your time budget

I once spent a week meticulously recording every minute of my workday to see where my time went. I kept track of every minute I spent on various activities, such as writing, responding to emails, teaching, switching gears, eating, making coffee, browsing social media, talking to coworkers or my partner, walking the dogs, etc. At the end of the week, I was shocked at how much time I perceived myself as “working” and how much time I was actually working.

Paid subscribers have access to a time audit worksheet at the bottom of this page!

The eight hours per day I had set aside for work turned out to be sprinkled with distractions and procrastination rabbit holes. Despite this, I was completely unaware of how little productive work I was doing and continued to perceive myself as working hard all day. I realized that I needed to be more mindful of my time and find ways to minimize distractions in order to increase my actual productivity.