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Sometimes, if you’re feeling particularly overwhelmed, it helps to take stock of what you do with your time. It’s kind of like an inventory of how you use your time. There are a couple of ways you can do this.

Time Logging
When you do a time log, it is kind of like making a schedule, but in reverse. You take a scheduler — it can be a grid you’ve made for the week or it could be your Day Planner, and instead of writing in things that you are planning to do, you write down things as you do them. At the end of every hour, jot yourself a quick note about how you actually spent your time for that hour. The note needn’t be long — one sentence or less should suffice. This gives you the most accurate view of your time, but it can be a little frustrating at first.

You want to have a good record of at least three days, a week is better. So, you may have to do this for a week or two to get accurate data. You might be surprised by how you use up time. I know that some activities take much longer to do than I imagined!

Back Time Logging
This method is not as accurate, but it can help you at least block out large chunks of time. And that may be all you need to do.

Take a black week schedule or grid and fill in blocks of time that you know you use. For example, maybe you go through your email every morning between 9am and 10am. Block that out. Then you add a block for lunch. Another block for picking the kids up from school. Another block for your weekly Bridge game. Whatever you do on a regular basis, block that in.

The Combo
Some people find it helpful to modify a planning page to facilitate tracking time. This modification is easy enough: make two columns on your schedule for each day of the week. In one column, write down what you plan on doing with your time. In the second column, make notes on what you actually did with your time. The side-by-side comparison is very telling and an excellent way to figure our where you’re not using time in the way you intend.

What Does Your Inventory Tell You?
Now that you’ve taken an inventory of your time, what does it tell you?

• Are there blocks of time you still have unaccounted for?
• Are there blocks of time that you could re-arrange for better efficiency?
• Are there blocks of time that can be delegated to someone else or otherwise eliminated?

Whatever your time habits, time tracking can help you adjust and fine-tune your time management practices. Having accurate information about your time usage patterns can serve as another important point of reference for self-monitoring.