How to care of your time

TACTIC: Take a time inventory.

Use a sheet of paper or a computer spreadsheet to draw a grid. Make the cells large enough so that you can write a few words in each. Across the top, label columns with the days of the week. On the left side, label the rows with the hours of the day starting with midnight: 12am, 1am, 2am, and so on up to 11pm.

Fill the in the cells of your time grid with what you are typically doing during those times. Time spent sleeping takes up many squares. Fill in regular work hours, classes, appointments, or any other typical event in a week. Also include the time it takes you to prepare for work and prepare meals. Include estimates for the typical times for hobby work or housework.

Now look at your grid. Are all the squares filled? Probably not--and that is the problem, not because you are not doing enough, but because you can't account for how you are using time; you may seem to be experiencing "missing time."

You can improve your awareness of your time use by taking a time inventory over a period of several weeks. Create several time grid sheets that are blank. As you go through the day, write down actions that you've done in each hour block. For example, your 7 am block might be: wake, shower, eat, dress, drive. Your 8 am block might be: drive, work, meeting. Your 9 am block might be: meeting. Your 10am block might be: meeting. And so on. At the end of several weeks of keeping this log, answer these questions:

Where was the time for productive and rewarding work?
Where was the time that you particularly enjoyed, or renewed your energy, spirit, and motivation?
Where was the time for your personal goals and dreams?
Where was the time for you to plan your work and organize your home or life?
By using suggestions from the rest of this section, you may be able to increase the time that you are productively engaged in work or personal time.