Friday, February 23, 2007

So, Just What DO You Do All Day?

Have you ever found yourself moaning about how there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get all the things you want to do done? Do you start your day with good intentions and a long list of all the stuff you are going to accomplish only to find at the end of the day you have managed to put a check mark against just one thing on the list? Do you spend hours in front of the TV and then kick yourself afterwards? Do you ever wonder what EXACTLY you do with your time?

If you do, then welcome to the club!

So, to find out exactly what it is I do all day I have decided to embark on a week long project and I am hoping that perhaps one or two or more of you will join me. Here’s the plan:

Starting from Monday 26th February, 2007 I am going to keep a Time Log of all the activities/tasks I do in a day for one week. So it may look something like this:

7.00am Woke up
7.10- 8.30 am Had shower, dressed up, got daughter ready, breakfast etc
9.00 – noon Got to work, phone calls, meetings etc.

Of course, daily logs will differ depending on whether you do or don’t work, have kids, work from home or run your own business. The important thing is to just log what you do.
It looks tedious and it probably will be but I’m sure I/you will get into the grove of things after the first couple of days.

What I am hoping it will do is give me a visual account of what exactly I do with my time each day. Ideally, it should flag up ‘dead’ time in my day e.g watching TV, aimless phone calls or web crawling - and armed with this information I can eliminate my dead time and in the future use that time more effectively and productively instead.

And that’s it!

If you do decide to join me – one week is not very long, is it? – you can, if you want, post your daily time log on your blog (if not the whole week then maybe two days out of the week will be fine). I will be doing the same.

Here’s to being more productive! Good Luck!

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8 Comments:

Blogger Araceli said...

I've been meaning to blog about time management (or how I spend my day), but ironically, I never had the time! So much to do, so I set priorities. I never watch TV for instance except when I'm on leave, which is once a year. Months and months can go by (up to 12 months) without me putting on the TV. Hard to believe but it's true.

Will join you in this one...

10:07 am  
Blogger Pilgrimage to Self said...

I can believe it Araceli. I remember before my husband moved over to join me in England, I went back to Nigeria for about 4 months and the TV broke down about a month after I got there. We decided not to replace it and I tell you, that was the best time we spent together. We talked so much, read, played board games and not to mention just how much we grew spiritually - it was a time of true self discovery for the both of us. I loved it and wouldn't mind doing it again.

I'm pleased you'll be doing the Time Log exercise

12:57 pm  
Blogger KemiMamaLopes said...

Oh no, now I have to face up to my time wasting demons :) This is great as I am a paid up member of the club with lists of things to do and then sub lists referring to original lists. I will also set up a sub experiment. WIll I finish everything on my to do list if I knew I was keeping a time diary? Only time will tell. Thanks, PTS. KK

11:21 pm  
Blogger Unknown said...

This sounds like such an intelligent thing to do which is why I won't be doing it, sorry PTS! ;-)

You may want to check this out.

6:49 am  
Blogger internationalhome said...

I don't think i should...sadly i am still in my student phase which is precisely when you do a lot of wasting time....i.e chatting on msn, hanging out in pubs, etc...You do have a valid point though, so i am going to make a concsious effort to do the things i ought to...sigh

7:36 pm  
Blogger In my head and around me said...

I am the chief moaner of "oh, if there were only more hours" "where has the time gone", so I am definitely joining you on this one.

I just read this so I should be starting tomorrow- Tuesday.

11:00 pm  
Blogger Kafo said...

hmmm...
i am interested in how this is going so far
hmmmm

3:31 am  
Blogger Moments said...

HAPPY NEW MONTH!!!

My dear, in this month God will show himself faithful in ALL that concerns you.
You will not only see, but also experience his glory.
***

11:26 am  

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