Length: 6:29
[/text_block]
Resources
[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””]
[/op_liveeditor_element]
[op_liveeditor_elements][/op_liveeditor_elements]
Exercise 1
[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””]
-
How’s Your Time Spent
We all have the same 168 hours available to us each week! The question is how effectively are you using those hours to move you towards your bigger goals and overall life vision?
It’s time to find out how you really spend your time each week, and more specifically how much ‘free time’ you have left over at the end of the week on average.
Download the Time Tracking Worksheet above and start tracking where your time is spent over the next 7 days. The worksheet has 8 tabs on it, one for each day of the week and a weekly overview tab. What you need to do is fill in the Monday – Sunday tabs as the week progresses and the weekly overview tab will auto-calculate you weekly numbers.
Remember the average numbers where:
Sleeping – 56 hours
Working – 40 Hours
Travelling, Eating, Washing etc – 35 Hours
Free Time – 37 HoursSo start by keeping a journal with you at all times to track where the main areas above are being spent.
Sleeping
With sleep you can just take note of when you jump into bed and get up in the morning. Or you could install an app like Sleep Cycle on your phone that tracks how much sleep you get each night and the quality of your sleep.
Something we will be going into more detail on in the coming weeks.
Working
The amount of time spent at work should be an easy one to track based on when you start and finish each day. There are a number of tools to track your total time at work and even down to specific tasks each day. One we like to use here is Toggl and this can really help to start drilling down on your daily productivity in the workplace, another area that will be elaborated on later in the course.
Travelling, Eating, Washing
This section is a little harder but we just need approximate figures here. If you know you have a 30 minute commute to and from work every day then that’s easy, 1 hour and fill in roughly when the hours are each day.
Washing and eating again there will likely be some sort of schedule here like washing in the morning and evening and 3 meals a day. Just use a journal to keep track of this as the day goes on and fill it in on your time tracking worksheet at the end of each day.
TV & Social Media
Make sure you track this the best you can. The TV side of things will be fairly straight forward, the one that might get you is the social media but just do your best to take approximate numbers here.
Or better yet don’t waste your time on either of them unless they are vital to your career or life in general!
Anything Else
Of course there will be other things that are happening in your life like family commitments, exercise, community events, social activities and anything else that pops up in a typical week.
Again just keep track of these and fill them in on your time tracking worksheet.
Once you have a week’s worth of data take some time to analyse where your time really is being spent. Are there any surprises in the week that you didn’t realise so much time was being wasted? And how much free time did you end up with at the end of the week? Also look for areas where you can be a little more efficient.
We have said that improving your knowledge will undoubtedly improve your overall success so look for ways to read a book or listen to a podcast on the way to and from work or whilst cooking in the kitchen. This way you can still improve your knowledge, being the personal growth area of your life but still do all the other things you need to. Plus still have free time left over to enjoy with your family and friends.
[/op_liveeditor_element]
[op_liveeditor_elements][/op_liveeditor_elements]