How to Reclaim Your Schedule and Your Time

To reclaim your schedule and your life it is important to first have a "base line" of how you are  currently spending your time. The next step is to get clear about how you want to be spending  your time and finally to re-configure your schedule so it reflects your long term goals and desires. A Personal Time Analysis™ and a time log are two powerful tools that will help you achieve this.

Sample One Week Personal Time Analysis™

What is a Personal Time Analysis™?

A Personal Time Analysis™ is a tool I've developed to help clients get clarity on how they are spending their time and empower them to take charge of their schedules and their lives. It allows clients to re-configure the way they use their time so that they have more time for the good stuff - family and friends, travel, hobbies, spiritual growth - whatever they want more of.

Here is an  example of a one week Personal Time Analysis™ (168 hours) in a table and pie chart format.

Sample One Week Personal Time Analysis™

You can do a broad time analysis like the example above or you can drill down to specifics such as "watching TV, surfing the web, reading" etc to see exactly where your time goes. 

I recommend doing a separate time analysis for work, especially if you have your own business. A Business Time Analysis™ will include things like marketing, client hours, research, training/education and administrative. A Business Time Analysis™ will allow you to see where you are currently spending your time and how you can re-configure your schedule so that you are focusing more on high value, income generating actions. It will also allow you to see the areas you can delegate or outsource.

How do you do a Personal Time Analysis™?

To do a Personal Time Analysis™ - keep a time log for at least one week (168 hours), preferably two. You can download the time log I've included here or record activities directly on your calendar. There are also many apps available. One that I particularly like is ClockedIn which is available for iPhone.

The time log and Personal Time Analysis™ are powerful tools that will help you: 

• Get clarity on exactly how you spend your time.
• Discover how long tasks actually take to complete so you can plan better.
• Identify all the time wasters in your day so you can minimize or eliminate them.
• Make better decisions on how you spend your time.
• Improve your time management skills. 

If you want to re-configure your time there are very specific actions you can take. You can outsource tasks - for example send out the laundry or have a housekeeper come in to clean your home. You can minimize tasks - for example order groceries on line and have them delivered. You can eliminate activities all together such as excessive TV or internet surfing. Lastly you can delegate tasks. Ask family members to take over some tasks or you can hire an assistant to help you.

The point is you want to free up your time so that you can do the things that a) only you can do  b) that you really want to do and c) contribute to your big -picture goals.

Do you want clarity on how you spend your time? Do a time analysis this week and let us know what you discover.