Episode 28: How Tracking Your Time Helps You Find More of It
ITUNES | SPOTIFY
Do you really know where all your time is going? We think we have a good idea - work, childcare, chores, errands, appointments, sleep, etc. But when you're trying to find time for the things that are most important to you, you need more than just "a good idea". You need data. Time tracking is one of the most valuable tools that we have to truly understand our time and how we choose to use it. Time tracking helps you identify patterns, confront assumptions, and ultimately make meaningful changes that could get you time back in your days. In this episode, I'm sharing how to start your own time tracking exercise, including the tool that I use and love for collecting my own data.
And if you want to have your time tracking log personally reviewed by me for feedback and ideas, that's the first things we're doing in my group coaching program for working moms - Beyond Balance. We're starting in just a couple of weeks and spots are limited. You can learn more and apply to be considered for the group at www.themothernurture.com/interest.
In this episode, you’ll learn…
02:54 The Importance of time tracking
06:54 Real-Life Examples of the impact of time tracking
17:39 How to start time tracking and the tool that I use to make it easy
19:07 Get your time tracking data personally reviewed by me in Beyond Balance, my group coaching program for working moms
links & resources mentioned in this episode:
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You are listening to the Life Coach for Working Moms podcast, the show where we are talking about what it actually takes to make life work as a working mom. I'm your host, Katelyn Denning, a full time working mom of three and a certified life and executive coach. I'm so glad you're here and I hope you enjoy this week's episode
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the podcast. How are you? I am already making some small yet steady progress on one of my intentions for this year, which feels really good because January, as I'm sure for so many of you has felt like a wash in a lot of ways with illnesses and cold and sick days, but it feels good to, be doing something.
, toward, what I have set as an intention for this new year, and that is to bring more color into my life, into my home, in particular. We have been in this house about six years now, I think, and We renovated this house all the way down to the bricks before we moved in and got to choose everything, which is great.
And we chose a lot of white. I love my plants. I love the sunlight and bright spaces, especially in the winter. And I still love that. But I am feeling a pull toward some brighter colors, some moodier colors, depending on the space. And so, long story short, I decided this month that I wanted to start painting our mudroom, which we've made some progress on, and building out some cabinets and cubbies and those types of things.
And I just decided I would get started this weekend. I trimmed the space, probably took me, oh, it's got so many nooks and crannies. Probably took me about three hours on Saturday, and then about an hour and a half to roll the space on Sunday. And I need to do a whole other coat, but just want to normalize.
that house projects like this, at least in my life, are not like those makeover shows. They last a while. And that's a choice that I make. I could drop everything else that I'm doing and dedicate every waking hour of my weekend to seeing the painting through from start to finish, but my choice is to still have some time to meal prep.
To watch a little bit of football yesterday, which I did to work on the puzzle that my kids and I are working on and to just do some other things in the weekend. And if that means that my counters have, you know, the light switch plates and there are painting supplies and our mirror and hooks for keys are not on the wall and they're cluttering the floor and counter space around it.
But that's okay. That's my choice. And I don't think there's a right way to go about these things, but it does come down to choosing how you want to spend your time which leads me into. One of my favorite and most effective tools for myself and that I use with my clients in both private coaching and group coaching is time tracking. When was the last time that you tracked your time? To really know what you are doing, what you are spending time on. I know that you probably generally know what takes up your time.
We all do. You know that you work for a certain number of hours each day or each week, that you probably spend time preparing endless snacks, making sandwiches, that's a running joke, with a couple of my friends, like, How many sandwiches do we make now as parents? Meals, cooking, you spend time tidying up the house, you spend time sleeping, resting, you spend time doing laundry, running errands, changing diapers, nursing, or pumping.
All of the things take up time. But do you know the specifics? Do you know how many hours? Do you know what percentage of your total time each of those activities or broad strokes categories takes up? In my recent Fair Play facilitator certification, which I did back in the fall, we reviewed several studies in our training that highlight the perception That each of us has within our own household of who spends what amount of time doing child care and household tasks.
I'm sure you can guess where this is going. Men
in a heterosexual relationship, which this study followed. In this one example, men think or assume that they are doing more than they are, and women's perception, the number of hours that they think they spend doing childcare or household work aren't as high as they actually are. It makes sense. When I started tracking my steps to understand how much movement I was getting in a day, I would never have said, I bet I'm only walking 2, 000 steps a day.
I knew that I wasn't getting 8 to 10, 000, but I think, honestly, I would have guessed that I was in the 5 to 6, 000 range. And without a watch to actually track that data, I would have continued to assume that I was just below the recommended number. I would have continued to think that I was doing just fine.
Instead, the data showed that I was getting like 2, 000 steps a day.
No wonder I had low energy and wasn't quite seeing the results that I felt like I should be seeing for as much time as I was spending lifting. I was just sedentary. Thankfully, I'm up to 8, 000 steps on average after a year of tracking and making a really conscious effort to change that. But it took the data to move me toward action to help me make changes.
If you want to learn more about my step goal, you can listen to episode two of the podcast, one of my favorites. So if you want to make a change, it's the data that tells you what you need to know. It's the data that confronts your assumptions, that shows you what your patterns are. And then from there you can start to change some of the variables to approach this potential change like an experiment and see what is within your control to adjust.
I used to time track at one of the jobs that I had in my young adult career. It wasn't quite the billable hours scenario like so many of my clients who are attorneys or in the legal profession have to manage, but we did work for a large external client, it was Procter and Gamble, and we worked on specific brands inside that organization that did want to see How much of our effort was split between the different projects and the different brands.
So we would track our time in 15 minute increments. Sadly, the system that we used back in the day, I'm not going to tell you how long ago that was, was not super savvy. It was kind of a pain. But I think it was a good introduction to what it takes to really think about what you're spending your time on.
When you have to track it and produce those results, especially at work, it makes you think. Now, as I moved from job to job and industry to industry, as I did, kind of reinventing myself over all of those years, I don't think I was required in any other position to track my time in that way.
But I did end up tracking, self imposed tracking, toward the end of my corporate career before I left to coach full time because I needed that data. I could do a whole other episode if you're interested on prioritizing what you should be working on when you're in a job that asks too much of you. When you are given project and responsibility one after another and expected to just do them all even though You know, there's no way you can actually get them all done in the hours that you have Well, I was in a job just like that and I wanted proof So I found this great online tool and I started tracking my own time because I was curious Was it really possible to do all of the things that they were asking of me?
Was I wasting my time? Was I spending too much time in areas that didn't matter and not enough in what was being asked of me? I wanted to know.
After several weeks of tracking, to take it to my manager and have a productive conversation. Here are the facts. I showed her my time tracking log. What would you like me to do? This is what our clients are asking of us. This is what you are asking of me. And this is the reality of how much time each of those things takes.
How should I proceed? What is going to give? Now, these days, I'm my own manager, though I do report in a way to my clients, but there's no one who needs to see my timesheet. No one who questions whether I'm working enough or not. That responsibility and pressure is on me. But I still love the data and I will occasionally track my time for a couple of weeks here and there because I want to know.
I want to analyze and see what's actually happening. The best indicator that it is time to do a time tracking sprint is when I feel like I don't have enough time. If you find yourself saying, I don't have time or you feel like you're not making the progress that you want to make on the things that you've said are important, or you can't find the time for the projects that you desperately want to do, it's a great time to ask yourself, what are you doing instead?
What is taking up your time? Now for me, I always have ideas, of course. There's a part of me that does know what I am spending my time on. That's not these projects and priorities that I've set are so important. But I don't always trust what I'm telling myself. So I time track. I use a tool called Toggle.
T O G G L, I will put a link to it in the show notes. There is a free version of it. It's fantastic, super easy. You can just open it up in a browser tab when you're on your computer and use the app that they have when you're on the go. It has sort of a stopwatch start and stop capability. And I track my time as if I'm submitting this for payment with those billable hours.
And I don't just stop at my workday. I love to see the data of my mornings, my evenings, and my weekends too. There are always changes that I can make. And when I start a time tracking sprint, as challenging as it is, I try not to change my natural patterns and habits. I want the realistic data that's going to help me understand what I'm doing and why I'm not doing those things that I want to do.
And wow. Is it always enlightening? If you have ever kept a food journal, I've done this for, when I was looking for some food sensitivities years ago, or when I track macros, you know that the place to start is always where you are right now. That's where the opportunity for change is. You need a glimpse of what life actually looks like.
Time tracking is one of the first homework assignments we'll be doing in Beyond Balance, my group program that's starting in just a couple of weeks. And it is something that I regularly assign to my private clients as well. I have yet to ask someone to track their time. and not have them come back with at least a few aha moments.
One client I had, she came back and said, wow, I thought I was working way more than I actually am. She had been complaining about 60 plus hour work weeks and feeling like she was just, All the time working and doing nothing else. And it was really interesting when she tracked her time to realize that she was working less than that.
And that had been a story that she'd been telling herself that was making her frustrated. Now, there were many more questions that we had to ask about why it felt like that. And what was she not doing in the time that she wasn't working, that she wanted to. But that was some great confronting.
data to have.
Another client of mine has found that time tracking is really motivating. It's helped her get unstuck when she has to write down or start the stopwatch on what she's working on. In the same way that often with food journaling, we find that we reach for different choices when we know we have to write it down.
And she is continuing to time track weeks after the initial homework assignment. And I had another client still who When she reviewed the data from her time tracking, realized that she actually has more time in the evenings after the kids go to bed than she realized. She said, I had no idea. There's this time here that I'm just frittering away on mindless scrolling or kind of moving around my house aimlessly doing things that aren't really meaningful to me.
And I could be using that time more intentionally. I love reviewing time tracking data, my own and especially my clients. For starters, it helps me really get to understand what your days and your weeks look like. And I can always spot things that are hard for you to see. It's that fresh perspective, it's how someone can come into your house and help you organize or clear out a closet that you've just been stuck in because you're too close to the problem.
And time tracking always starts a conversation. Why do you do things the way that you do?
I can ask questions like, what if you switched these two activities during your workday so that your meeting was at this time and you got an hour here to focus during your peak productivity time or what would happen if you push dinner out 30 minutes to take a little bit of the after work pressure off?
How would that impact bedtime routine? What would need to change? Or what if you did your grocery pickup order on Friday instead of Saturday? Would that make the meal prepping a little bit more relaxed and less stressful? These changes are small. In reality, they probably won't produce an extra hour of free time, but they could create 15 minutes.
They could make the feeling of that time of day less stressful or less chaotic. They could change how you are able to focus. Or change how you view your time and how much you have. Those things add up. It might mean 15 minutes to sit down and put your feet up. It might mean a few more minutes of just being present with your kids after a long day.
Hearing what they're feeling, giving hugs, or just coloring or enjoying a snack together. They might mean an easier bedtime or an easier morning routine, getting everyone out the door. Or they could mean more focus during the workday, which means you get things done and feel satisfied when you leave work at the end of the day.
But you can't make those changes when you're just guessing.
When you're assuming that it's not possible to fit anything else in your days are just too full Maybe that's true
and I'd ask you to show me the data to back that up but what if it's not and what if having the data the right questions and a fresh perspective is All you need to start making time for the things you wish You could be doing, or were doing, more of. What if it's all you need to feel better about your days?
How do you start time tracking? If you want to get started, here's how you do it. You just start. I know, that's too simple. But seriously, you just start. You get a free login for Toggle, and you start. You don't need to wait for a Monday, or the start of the next day.
You could do it right now. If it's 2 o'clock in the afternoon, if it's 7 o'clock at night, if it's 10 a. m. in the morning, just start. Whatever you're doing, add it to toggle and hit start on the timer. Doesn't have to be perfect. Do it as much as you can, as often as you remember. I can't tell you the number of times I've logged back into Toggle and realized that I've been folding laundry for 12 hours.
Not true, I just forgot to hit stop on the timer, but that's okay. Go back and adjust it and start where you are now. The more you do it, the more you will remember to log. Then look at your results. After a week, then after two weeks. Maybe that's all you need. Two weeks to gather some data and start to make some changes.
Or maybe you want to do more, like my client who is still time tracking a month and a half later. I would say you need at least two weeks to make any meaningful assessments and changes. When I do a time tracking sprint, it's always for a minimum of two weeks.
If you want my eyes on your time tracking data, I would love to take a look and give you some tangible ideas of changes you could make to have more time for the people, the passions, or the projects that you have been putting on the back burner. I invite you to join us in my group, Coaching Program for Working Moms Beyond Balance.
We're starting in just a couple of weeks, and we are starting with time tracking. That will be everyone's first homework assignment where you'll get actual feedback from me, specific feedback on your Life. The goal of this program is to make consistent time for something that you have struggled to fit into your schedule up until this point.
That could be one on one time with your kids, more time to hang out with your girlfriends or with your partner, time for a hobby or something you love, maybe you want to exercise more, or time for those projects like painting my mudroom that you have been wanting to do for forever but just can't find the time for.
This will be a small group, no more than five women, so you get one on one individual attention from me. You can fill out your application today at themothernurture. com forward slash interest or just reach out to me if you have questions and want to know whether you'd be a fit if this would help you.
So. With that, I'm going to stop my time tracking app for recording this podcast and get back to work on the next thing. I will talk with you soon in the next episode. Take care.
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