a free tool to help you find more time

Where does the day disappear to?

This is a question I ask myself a little too regularly. Time flies by and there are never enough hours to do everything I want to do - especially when the weather is fine and the Writers’ Retreat Garden is calling.

One quick way to discover where the seconds that add into minutes that turn into hours spent trawling down a rabbit hole of intriguing podcasts, videos and ideas that all started with one Facebook post, is to use a Time Tracker for a week. With no judgement of self, if you can.

This means keeping an accurate record of what tasks you are engaged in and for how long. You can also include such things as what domain or area of your life this is connected to, and its priority.

Look at it as a data collection exercise. It can be fascinating to discover how long some tasks take so you can allow for this next time you need to do them. Or you could decide to automate them.

Armed with the facts, you’ll be able to make decisions about what’s supporting you and what isn’t.

There are many versions and methods of Time Trackers. You can use anything from an old exercise book to an online calendar/diary.

You can colour-code it to show personal and business activities.

You can tag your entries, catalogue them, encrypt them - whatever you like. The main thing is to WRITE DOWN what you are currently focusing on so you can see in front of you where your time, which equals energy, is spent.

It’s also the first step towards putting your creative time first.

I’ve created a one-page Wild Sky Time Tracker that I use with my coaches. It’s pretty to look at as well as useful. If you’d like to try this idea out, you can download it here. Feel free to tweak it however you like so it reflects what information you are collating and is easy to fill in.

Let me know what you discover!