Talane’s Blog of the Week, April 9, 2007

A Classic Tip from Talane . . .
Track Your Time
Excerpted from bestselling book Coach Yourself to Success by Talane Miedaner

If you have the feeling that time is going by too quickly and you just don't know where it is all going, it is time to take a closer look. Take one week and track your time in fifteen- minute increments. Just record as accurately as possible what you really do in a regular week. You will have a precise record of where your time is going, and you will be able to make some intelligent decisions based in reality. Most people are appalled to discover how much of their time is spent in seemingly important tasks that in the end are not fulfilling or could be easily delegated.

One client discovered he spent over 16 hours a week commuting. To maximize that time he played books on tape. Another big time waster was phone calls. He eliminated the chitchat and found that two-minute calls were more productive. He thought he was organized but the log revealed he spent 3 hours a week looking for memos and other things on his desk. At home, the big time waster was watching 15 hours a week of TV!

Track your time and see what you are really doing. Ask yourself if this is how you want to be spending your life. Then start automating, delegating, and deleting the time wasters and start using that time for working on one of your big lifetime goals.