It’s been a week since I began tracking my time, from the time I wake up till I hit the bed. Why? Nothing but a deeper desperate need to be 100% productive… to be in control of time rather than be controlled by it.
I track my time on an excel spreadsheet. I call it TimeTracker. Excel is easier because I’m always around computers. I can never get used to carrying a notebook or scratch pad with me at all times, to log my time. Nope. I am the geek. I keep my TimeTracker mobile with Google Documents so I can access my online tracker @home, @work, @whereever.
My objective is to be better at time management; to be a productive manager, to find more time for my family, to be able to plan vacations, to never run behind deadlines. It’s not an easy fix because it would mean I’d have to change. How much change? That’s what the tracker will help me find out. The tracker will tell me how productive I am and how much time I waste.
I’m glad to see that I was able to track almost every important activity last week and derive some meaning of it. I can see that I’ve clearly wasted around 15 hours that I could have put into something productive while I’m proud to see that I was able to give my personal life a priority on Valentine’s day. In the beginning it may seem tedious to jot down everything. Do as much as you can. Don’t give up because you missed some entries or had to be less accurate. It’s ok. It takes a bit of getting used to but you will notice a perspective change almost immediately. You will start to value time, be proactive, spontaneous, etc – all qualities of an effective manager of time.
As for me, a small change I am going to introduce next week is to spend 1 hour for PmP studies (also a goal for this year) and resume 1 hour of work out – a total of 10 hours daily that I intend to put to productive use. I guess that’s good enough for a start.
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