The Embarrassing Reveal of Tracking 48 Hours of My Time

Last week I tracked how I spent my time for 48 hours in intervals of 10 minutes in preparation for a time management workshop I ran this morning for a group of employees at a global social enterprise start-up. I had asked them to do the same exercise, so I figured I should do it myself! I try to do this exercise every few months to gain insight into my schedule and habits. Normally, I recommend tracking your schedule for seven days (especially if it is your first time), but I knew no one would do it so I went for two days! 😉

Personally, I wanted to see if I was spending my time in alignment with my top five time priorities - areas of my life I’ve identified as most important to allocate my most valuable resource to, my time. With the COVID-19 quarantine in place for the last seven weeks I’ve noticed my goal of reducing my social media intake wasn’t gaining traction and I wanted to measure how much I was loosening my reigns. I unconsciously knew I was in “I’m just checking it for work purposes” denial mode, so I needed hard evidence to prove to myself I needed to clean up my act!

My top five time priorities are self-care (Getting eight plus hours of sleep a day, working out 4-5 times a week, eating healthy, meditation & spiritual exploration, doctors appointments, hiking in nature, etc.), work (building my life coaching business and serving my clients), cultivating relationships (with my family, friends and community), engaging in play & volunteer work (doing things I love, trying new activities, going on adventures, hobbies, and volunteering in my community and for causes I care about, etc.) and travel. The ranking of each fluctuates depending on what is going on in my life at the time. 

What I found was that my schedule was in alignment with my time priorities of self-care, work and building my business and cultivating relationships, but it was a bit weak on the play and obviously non-existent in the travel categories. The quarantine had a lot to do with this, as it had cancelled all my vacation and travel plans over the last seven weeks and for the near future. I could also argue it has seriously infringed on my play priorities as well, although there are plenty of ways I could play more within the confines of our home. 

Where I was out of alignment with my priorities was in my social media diet. I had spent a significant amount of time each day on it and unless I wanted to categorize it as work or play I had to seriously rethink how I was spending my time. 

In the last week I’ve started to feel restless, cooped-up and bored at home. As a result, I’ve snuck to my phone for quick hits of relief from the monotony that is starting to set in. I’m starting to get cravings for ice-cream and have been willing to go to the corner store for it. Something I NEVER do, as sugar is more likely to trigger my migraines! I’d love to blame it on external circumstances of the quarantine, but I know better. 

Circumstances are neutral until we give them meaning with our thoughts. 

These feelings are coming from my thoughts. 

Clearly, my thoughts of “I’m trapped,” “I’m tired of being jailed up in this apartment,” “I really miss traveling,” “I need to be out in nature moving around more,” “My life is starting to feel limited,” are generating feelings of restlessness, cooped-upness and boredom. 

These thoughts that I’m unconsciously choosing aren’t serving me at the moment and are distracting me from my time priorities. Seeking quick hits of dopamine from checking my social media and eating ice-cream keep me from being creative and trying to figure out new ways of being playful at home within the confines of our apartment during the quarantine. For example, perhaps I could read a book about a travel adventure in lieu of actually traveling to feed my adventurous soul. 🤣 Or I could rewatch our old travel videos instead of mindlessly scrolling through my social media feed. 

Either way, I’m not going to beat myself over the head for being off track on my goal of cutting back on social media. Creating another negative emotion doesn’t serve me. I’ve learned what I needed from this exercise and I'm going to offer myself some compassion. I recommend you do the same. It’s not about failure, it’s all about what you learn from it. Live and learn! 

What are your top five time priorities and how are you honoring them during the quarantine? Also, give yourself permission to tweak your time priorities during the quarantine timeframe as well! 

If you’d like to dive deeper on this topic, set up a free consult by clicking here. Coaching is for people ready to live a life by design, set goals and create lasting change.