Tracking My Time #1: Confession

Apr 9, 2014

Thus begins a 3-part series of guilty admissions, ahem, lessons learned, March 10, 2014, when I actually took a look at what I was doing and when.

Awhile back, I decided to track my time in 30-minute increments over the course of a week, as recommended by Laura Vanderkam, author of 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think. I did it, painfully and mostly accurately. As most of you know, I’m a reasonably busy lady with a full-time job, heavy travel, two kids under the age of three, a lovely husband, and friends and family I like to hang out with. And I really want to finish Downton Abbey!

The week I chose to track was an interesting one as it involved travel, workshops for teachers, train rides, pediatrician appointments, a book proposal deadline, and a hair appointment. I like to think I’m good at juggling and managing my time well, but I was proven wrong when staring at my hard data.

I figure I can be honest with you guys, right? I learned a few really interesting things. I’ll share them with you over the course of three posts.

Confession #1: I am guilty of cyberloafing ESPECIALLY when I’m doing harder work, such as the aforementioned book proposal. There was one quiet morning in a hotel room (unheard of in my world) when I had planned to use two hours to polish off my proposal. Instead, I decided I absolutely had to order diapers, find my husband a spring coat, take a teeny-tiny peek at Facebook, look at my webinar feedback from a recent series, read multiple articles on the sad story of the missing Malaysian jet, and peruse reviews for books I wanted to read on vacation. Whoops.

Solution: I am turning off the wireless on my computer when it is time to focus. I did that this week, EVEN WHEN ANSWERING E-MAIL, and I got SO much more big stuff accomplished.

Try it. Disconnect. For an hour. And then two.

If you are interested, you can download one of Laura’s trackers here or one of ours right here.