Think As Inc

Time Diary

June 24, 2010 on 3:59 pm | In life coaching | No Comments

Having worked in professional services for most of my career, I am used to accounting for my hours.  As a consultant, you itemize which hours are spent on each client.  Ideally, the most valuable clients get the most time.  So, too, in our personal lives the things we value most should get the most attention.  How close are you to living up to the things you value most?  For one week (one month or even longer would be preferable), keep a Time Diary.

List all the constituencies vying for your time (e.g., family, work, household, finances, fitness, personal, etc).  They are your clients.

Keep a log of everything you do in half-hour increments.  Be specific and honest with the time you actually.  If it takes you two hours to do laundry one day, don’t log one hour, thinking you can get your speed up at some other time. 

Assign each individual activity to a client (in the above example, laundry is the activity, and household is the client).  Other examples:  taking the kids to school is Family; hours in the office is Work.  At the end of the week (or longer), total the number of hours you spend by client.  The percentage of time that you devote to each client is a point-in-time audit of how you spend your life. 

Sample daily entry:

Date	Client	Activity	Hours
3/2/2001	Household	Cooking	1
3/2/2001	Family	Take Daughter to school	1
3/2/2001	Personal	Dinner with friend	2
3/2/2001	Work	Office	10*

*Includes time working AND commuting/ preparing for work.

Sample monthly summary:

Client	Hrs	% of Total
Work	200	67%
Family	75	25%
Fitness	10	3%
Household	10	3%
Finances	3	1%
Personal	3	1%
Grand Total	300

Of course, quantity is not quality, but the Time Diary is a tool to keep yourself on track.  Are you even able to fill out  this type of report, or are many hours “unbillable”?  Is this how you intended your schedule to be?  Are you spending your time on what is meaningful to you?