This is a chapter (slightly edited to make it more readable as a stand alone article) from my Time Management Book.

How do you spend your time?

You need to ask yourself some important questions about the tasks that you spend your time completing:
• Does it need to be done?
• Can you change the frequency?
• Can you change the quality?
• Can you change the method?
• Is it possible to delegate part or all of the task at hand?

The best way for you to assess how you spend your time is to track your time usage with a time log. See the Time Tracker Time Log I use. Feel free to print my time log and use it to help assess your time. You can also personalize it to meet your needs.

As you can see, my time log a full day divided into fifteen minute increments. At the top there is a space for me to write activities that I often find myself doing, such as reading, writing, emailing, incoming call, outgoing call, travel, etc. This saves me time from rewriting down each task. There is a large column where I can jot down specifics of what I was doing.

The most important three columns on my chart are on the far right: enjoyment, productivity, and energy. The first column measures if I enjoy what I have done. To track my enjoyment, I mark down if I like or dislike a task in the L/D column. In the productivity column, I use an H or an L to denote high-productivity or low-productivity. Similarly, in the energy column, I use an H or an L to denote if I am high-energy or low-energy.

You might wonder why I have both a productivity and an energy column. This is because I can be very high-energy and wide awake, and still have fairly low productivity because I am doing something that is not necessarily relevant. Conversely, I can be fairly low-energy yet still be highly productive.

I only do my time logs for a few consecutive days once a month, because it takes extra time to complete the logs. After completing a few of the logs, I am able to look over my day and begin to answer the ultimate question of Time Leadership with which we began: How do I spend my time?

Completing my time log gives a concrete answer to the question: How do I spend my time? It allows me to answer the questions of need, frequency, quality, method, and delegation raised earlier. Often, I realize that I can change the frequency of one of my tasks. Sometimes I find that I am doing tasks that do not need to be done. Sometimes I can change the quality, or delegate some of the tasks. The time log helps my awareness of my time use, and with that awareness I can make informed and positive decisions regarding my time use.

The Five Whys

Once I have completed my time log, I ask myself another question: Why am I doing this? I ask myself why five times, because by asking this question repeatedly I can find my true motivation.

As an example, let’s take an instance of answering a call from an insurance salesperson.

Why am I answering a call from an insurance agent that I don’t really want to?
Because I’m polite.

Why am I polite?
Because I don’t want to offend people.

Why don’t I want to offend people?
Because I envision myself as a polite and courteous person.

Why do I envision myself as a polite and courteous person?

Ultimately, I come to the conclusion that maybe I don’t have to be as polite and courteous when I receive unsolicited insurance phone calls.
No offense intended to insurance agents, of course.

Asking “Why?” five times gets to the root of the issue.

Since I wrote this article years ago, Time Tracking Software has come on the market.  It is perfect for seeing not only how you spend your time but ideal for anyone who bills by the hour.