Inspired by the book I Know How She Does It, by Laura Vanderkam (reviewed here), I tracked my time for a week to see where all the precious minutes of my day were going. You can do this yourself, either with good old Excel, through a time tracking app, or with some handy templates that the author supplies on her blog,

Here is how it turned out:

Tracked categories Weekly Total Daily Average (hrs)
Misc. (getting ready, puttering) 13 1.8
Work 38 7.6 (weekdays)
Sleep 51.5 7.4
household chores 6.25 .9
Fitness & recreation 10.75 1.5
TV / movies at home 3 .45
commute & to/from time 13 1.9
Work relating to my blog 6 .9
Leisure 12.75 1.8
eating and food prep 10.75 1.5
Errands 3 .45
Grand total 168 24

 

A few things stood out to me from this mini-analysis:

As the author found in her studies, the work hours are lower than we think. Granted, I tracked my time during an unusually slow work week in which I had to step out for two doctors appointments. I was also strict on what I counted as “work time;” if I spent 15 minutes getting coffee and chatting with a coworker, I tracked that as leisure, not work.

I found some bright spots that I can pat myself on the back about: I’m getting ample exercise, I slept 7 hours or more 6 out of the 7 days, and I’m not watching too much TV – yay for me!

Here’s what I found that I’m not so happy with:

  1. I inhale my food. Most of my meal breaks, particularly at work but sometimes at home, were 15 minutes. Yikes.
  2. I need to spend more time working on this blog.
  3. For someone who lives only 8 miles from my office, I sure spend a lot of time commuting and heading to and from places. Must be diligent about combining trips and routing for efficiency.

Most interesting was perhaps the way that the act of tracking makes one more mindful of how one spends time. It made me want to track certain goals. Like, for example, I should make a point of tracking and setting goals for reading and learning time, as a way of making sure that those activities do not get squeezed out of my life.

Another thing I noticed: Sadly, it never occurred to me to track something like “family time” or “socializing” or “networking.” And when I looked back at my week, I realize that I was frighteningly low on interpersonal interactions. Which is sort of a natural state for me – I have Spocklike tendencies and am a bit of an affection camel – so I don’t really notice when I slip into hermithood. But perhaps those around me do notice that, and maybe they would like more of my time. And, perhaps, relationships with humans are a form of investment that pays by preventing isolation when one is older or in need of support. Resolved: I’ll set some minimum weekly goals around human interaction as well.