Wasting your time can be pretty frustrating. You really want to get to the things one your list but may not be able to figure out just what’s going on. But before you can get to a space where you’re knocking things off your to-do list left and right, you’ve got to look at what’s going on right now. Where is your time going? What things are stopping you in your tracks or detouring you? To find the answers to those questions, tracking your time is the step to take. It may not be the most fun thing to do, but it will let you see just what things are getting your time, allow you to record all of the interruptions you get during the day, discover if you’re giving your time to things that matter.
You might not see it at first, but making the space in your days to keep track of what you’re doing and what happens during the course of your day will give you valuable information. What you see on the front end is just a list of things you did, how much time it took to do each what things actually got some or all of your time. When you look much closer, you see…
- Exactly what things you’re giving your time to
- How you prioritized things and where you made the mistake of putting one thing before another
- How to determine the importance of the things on your agenda moving forward
- What interruptions tend to happen and which ones you allow
- The difference between what got done and the things you had on your to-do list and what kept you from the important things
The biggest insight you’ll gain is seeing what your biggest time wasters are right before your own eyes. That’s priceless because it gives you the big picture. You’ve got to know what the reason for the problem is before you can create or apply a solution for it and logging your time does exactly that for you. If you don’t know where your day is going, why things aren’t getting done and always feel pressed for time, chances are you’re wasting time. This is a great starting point for you. Start tracking your time so you can get the information you need and be ready to move forward with finding and implementing a solution. Use this nifty little tool to help you.