Time Tracking - Creating 'The Extra Hour'

How many times did it happen that you didn’t read a book that you wanted to, pursued a hobby, or had to cancel an outing with your family or friend due to lack of time?

“I don’t have time.” Or “I didn’t get time.” is the most common excuse for not getting things done. And, have you noticed, we the working or business class people, often cut down on our “me time” or “family time” to stay on track at work and business.

However, very little we realise that the activities that we are cutting down actually are productivity boosters. When you give some time to your family, hobby, and skill or knowledge development, like reading a book, it creates positive vibes in your internal and external environment. Your family feels valued and loved; you feel good about yourself, which shows that you care for your loved ones, you love and care for yourself. This strengthens your bonds with family, friends, and yourself. Devoting time to your family not only frees you from the guilt of not paying heed to their needs but also earns you a sense of being responsible and greater support from them while you are at work. Giving yourself some “me time” acts as a great stress-buster and an energizer that drives you to work with greater focus, enthusiasm, and efficiency.

I know, you must be thinking and would be wanting to ask me - How to create extra time when I have only 24 hours, and aren’t enough to get things done?

If you aren’t in the habit of prioritizing your work, or even after lots of planning you fail to achieve the set target, you must try this one hack that will help you stay organized, productive, and create that extra time you must devote to your family, friends, and yourself.

Track Your Time – ?

“Take care of minutes, and your hours will take care of themselves.” – Lord Chesterfield

"Busy" and "business” are two different things. What you are busy with may not necessarily be adding to your work or business and thus eating up your “family time” or your “me time." Track your time, and learn how to create an extra hour for your family and yourself to do the activities that you love.

How to track the time

You have to do this only for a day. And if you are genuinely interested in increasing your productivity, one day is enough to realize your time-killing activities, and organize yourself. Put your phone to some good use. Set an alarm for every hour, followed by another after 15 minutes, before going to bed tonight. For example, – If you wake up at 6 a.m. Your first alarm must be set for 6 a.m. to wake you up, set a second alarm for 7:00 a.m., followed by another at 7:15 a.m.

So, the next day, when you wake up at 6:00 and begin your routine, what you have to do next is – the moment the alarm rings at 7:00 AM, you have to stop doing whatever you are up to. For the next 15 minutes, give yourself a break to look back and evaluate the activities you did in the past hour. Take a pen and paper and note down the wasted and unproductive time and mark it "EXTRA." With the next alarm at 7:15, get back to work for another hour, but not before resetting your alarms to 8:15 and 8:30 AM. Repeat the same step until half an hour before you go to bed. Keep the last half an hour before bed for reviewing your entire day. Take note of how much time you managed to spend creating "EXTRA."

Now, suppose you got 1:45 minutes (I am being very humble, it could be even 4-5 hours) extra; multiply it by 7, which means you have 12 hours extra a week, and 52 hours a month, which is a pretty good time to have a nice outing with family every month or giving everyday some time to relax yourself like a 30 minutes’ walk, or reading a couple of pages, doing some exercise etc.

You can now reorganize yourself, box your time, and enjoy the extra time.

#planning #preparation #routine #timemanagement #stressmanagement #organizing #trainyourself #timetracking #takecareofminute