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Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.
Good morning.
This is Laura.
Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is that, as you are starting to track your time, figure out what you want to learn from your time tracking.
If you identify a few numbers that you particularly want to see, you can track in a way that makes sure you get them.
So lots of folks are tracking their time with me here in January as part of my annual time tracking challenge.
I think it can be helpful in general to see where the 168 hours of the week go.
When we know where the time goes, we can make choices about what we would like to change or celebrate.
But it is even more useful to track time if you have particular questions you want answered.
People track in more or less detail in different categories.
And so knowing what you want to know will allow you to focus more on these aspects.
For instance, many people want the answers to big picture questions.
How many hours per week do you spend working?
How much time do you spend with your kids?
But within these categories, you might also want to get more granular.
For instance, within the category of work, you might want to know how much time you spend on email or in meetings versus other things.
Perhaps at home you want to know how much one-on-one time you have with each kid, or how much time you spend on caregiving tasks like helping with homework, or how much time you spend driving people around.
You might want to see how much sleep you get each night and also whether your bedtimes and waking times are consistent.
You might see how many times you get up in the night and when.
Some people don't remember to track this, but if you want to know then you need to remind yourself or make a note or aim to remember in the morning.
Sometimes people just note categories like leisure or personal time.
That is totally fine.
But if you want to know how much of this you spend on hobbies versus random puttering, you'll want to go into these blocks of time in more detail.
Maybe you want to look for patterns.
You are suspecting like that you indulge in more low-quality leisure time toward the end of the week when you are tired.
When you know what data you want to see going into your week of time tracking.
That will guide you in deciding what details you do and don't need on your time log.
For instance, if you are primarily interested in how much time you spend with your kids, you can probably log all your work hours as simply work.
On the other hand, if you want to know how much time you spend in meetings or on email, you will need to log the specific activity you are doing for work.
At the end of a week of tracking, review your log with these questions in mind.
Tally the categories you are interested in and see what you learn.
You might be surprised or you might not be.
We don't know until we see the results.
You can track all your time in close detail, but trying to capture too much detail often means people stop tracking.
So if you want to finish the log and get a holistic picture of your week, it helps to decide what you care about most and what you care about least.
I know.
This week I am tracking my work hours slightly more closely, since I think I need a tune-up here.
But my sleep is mostly fine, so that can stay broad.
If you identify specific data that you want from your time tracking.
I would love to hear what you focus on and what you learn.
You can reach me at laura at lauravandercam.com.
In the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening.
And here's to making the most of our time.
Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
If you've got questions, ideas or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at LauraVanderkam.com.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hi, I'm Dr. Priyanka Wally.
And I'm Hari Kundabolu.
It's a new year and on the podcast Health Stuff, we're resetting the way we talk about our health.
Which means being honest about what we know, what we don't know, and how messy it can all be.
I like to sleep in late and sleep early.
Is there a chronotype for that or am I just depressed?
Health Stuff is about learning, laughing, and feeling a little less alone.
Listen on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
A new year doesn't ask us to become someone new.
It invites us back home to ourselves.
I'm Mike Della Rocha, host of Sacred Lessons, a space for men to pause, reflect, and heal.
This year we're talking honestly about mental health relationships and the patterns we're ready to release.
If you're looking for clarity, connection and healthier ways to show up in your life, Sacred Lessons is here for you.
Listen to Sacred Lessons with Mike Delaroche on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
This is an iHeart Podcast.
Guaranteed human.
