We all think we know how we spend our time. But if you were to actually track it, you might be very surprised at how different from reality your ideal truly is. The way to get an accurate idea of how you spend your time is with a time audit. And of course an easy time audit is the best because it’s, well, easy.
Why Do A Time Audit?
A time audit can help you find places where you are putting in too much effort for the results returned. It can also help pinpoint pockets of time you can use to put to other uses, such as making your long-term goals come to fruition.
A time audit is not about boxing yourself into recording every last detail, but rather to get a feel for how you are spending your time.
How To Do A Time Audit
There are different ways out there to do time audits. The goal is not to burden yourself with tracking, but to give yourself an overview.
Being a data person, and uninclined to do date/time math, I have made a free time audit spreadsheet (Excel). You can set up your 14 time categories and make the tracking as granular as you would like. I like tracking for 7 days in 30 minute increments.
Setting Up The Audit Sheet
In the spreadsheet, set up the general parameters to set up the rest of the sheet.
Fill Out Your Activities
Next, classify your activities. This isn’t meant to be a burden, so don’t be afraid to lump things together.
Log Your Time
This is where you actually fill in the numbers.
View the Results
You can view the results at any point in your logging.
