Alex Shalman.comPractical Personal Development

The other day I decided to do a little experiment in productivity. I knew that I would have a free day to myself, with no responsibility to anyone. It would not have been possible to keep up with every task, time limit and priority unless I had someone pushing me.

I’m not the type of person that needs a personal motivator to get me up and running, I do well on my own, but when you have an absolutely flexible schedule it opens up many opportunities to waste time. If you think you need some extra management for your free time, I’ve got a great method to obtain a motivator, free of charge.

The title was a bit of a gimmick to get your attention. There won’t actually be a person coming over your house to motivate you, but now that you’re here I hope you’ll forgive me. Let me tell you what I mean and how it works.

Time logging

I had a small note pad with me at all times. I recorded every significant move that I made; this included commuting, class, eating, studying etc.

Establishing Baseline

Starts at 2% up top and goes clockwise

Establishing the baseline allowed me to see exactly where my time was going. This allowed me to adjust which task I thought I was spending too much or not enough time on. You also start to look at areas that are unavoidable, such as commuting and eating, and plan ways of making that time more efficient. I listen to audio tapes while performing both of these activities, so would it be fair to classify them both into audio learning instead? I don’t, but at least I know my time is being used effectively.

It is good to occasionally update your baseline and keep a couple of different ones on file. You want your work days to be just as efficient as your weekends. If you have the weekends off, you might as well get maximum enjoyment out of them, which you can do with a time log. I’m not saying that being spontaneous is bad, what I’m saying is that there are better things to do than spend 3 hours watching cartoons on Saturday morning. (Since I decided to go without any TV this hasn’t been a problem for me )

What I got out of it

What time logging really did for me was keep my attention on what time it was and how long I had been attending to a certain task. When you’re having fun and you’re in the zone it’s easy to lose track of time, which ultimately takes away from another important activity.

When you look down at your notepad and see exactly how long you have been doing an activity, you know when to stop. When you start an activity you should have a set time allocated to it. This is where the push comes in.

If you know that you have 1 hour to browse the internet and you know that someone (your time log) is watching and counting your every minute, you tend to go for the important stuff. Similarly, when you are studying for a test and you give yourself 1 hour to go through a certain amount of material, you feel the pressure, and perform better. You develop focus.

The process is really worth it. I categorized both the time logging and log evaluation under planning and it barely reached 1%. For the boost in productivity that I saw, it was more than worth it.

What are you experiences with time logging? Please share in the comments section below.

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