Constantly question yourself if you are doing something valuable for you right now, right here. At first it is going to take extra effort to track things you spend time on. However, in the long run it will give great insights into what your life is spent on and will boost your personal efficiency. One of the greatest tools is time tracker (something like Toggl). Another good approach is an app that tracks your screen time if you work a lot on computer or mobile phone.
Tracking your personal is not about all kinds of tracking from your employer.
Example of using time tracker
I use a Toggl tracker on my daily basis (for example, writing this article goes as “Writing an article” in project “Blog”) along with Screen Time on my phone. In the end of the week I can clearly see whereI spent my time.
For example, I see that lunch breaks during my work became too big (so I start missing out on time I spend in the evening with my family and friends). In this case I compare it with Screen Time on my phone and see clear correlation between time spent on YouTube while having lunch. This way I am not eating food to get more energy, I am just procrastinating, so next time I pick up the phone during lunch break I can track it and stop myself.
Summary
- use time and screen time trackers to understand where you spend your life. Create projects with different activities like work, reading, woodworking, sports, etc.
- optimize low-hanging fruits like spending too much time on lunch. Just because you historically go to remote diner, it does not mean that you can not save time and eat in the same building you work at
- once a week invest 10-20 minutes and go deeper into the timesheets to get more insights. If you doing too many “Data entry” activities, maybe it is time to hire an assistant or use some AI magic to get rid of such repetitive tasks
After you understand where the time is spent, you are ready to get to the next stage – understand what matters for you and what is the overall goal of everything!