Time-logging

Blog Entry #96

Introduction

The previous post talked about starting your own ultralearning project. One of the helpful techniques to monitor your activities was by keeping a timelog. In this post, I'll talk about how timelogging has (or hasn't) helped me.

TBH, tracking every hour of my day made me realize that I was getting a lot more done on good days than I imagined myself to have accomplished. I would've planned to do just 6 tasks the previous night (this definitely helps, but for me, planning first thing every morning works better because I then know my true wake-up time), but I'd end up doing 14 or more in actuality.

Keeping a timelog is fun for me because it entices me to complete more just so I can tick off more number of activities in one hour (can't help it, I'm a 'J' on the MBTI scale). Another thing I do to increase the number of things I get done in an hour is 2 25-minute pomodoro timers for important, time-consuming, focus-based tasks like writing a blog post. Then, I follow that up with three 10-minute timers to get three other shorter tasks done within half an hour.

These 10-minute timers help me sift through emails, get some household work done, make myself a cup of green tea, or just walk around the house to collect my thoughts. Through trial and error, I've figured out that either 2 10-minute timers followed by a focused task of 25-minutes followed by the third 10-minute timer work in some cases whilst 3 10-minute timers on days of high energy help me get done with chores in succession.

“A woodpecker can tap twenty times on a thousand trees and get nowhere, but stay busy. Or he can tap twenty-thousand times on one tree and get dinner.”

— Seth Godin, The Dip

Looking busy and actually doing productive work are very different things. Many times I find myself skimming through articles but not really reading anything. So, I spend the time but don't get any value out of it. Other times, I am able to focus on one article and comprehend the depths of the message being conveyed. Not only that, but I am also able to recall key points from the article at a later time and share them with the right set of people at the right times.

Example

Let's look at a sample timelog sheet taken from Google:

This is pretty much what I also do and it's exciting to see how much you can get done in one hour.

You can also make fancier ones like this:

But frankly, this one appears to be more confusing.

Conclusion

To timelog or not to timelog? That is the question.

Well, it depends on how beneficial this activity is for you. If you're a nose-to-the-grindstone kind of person, you may not need something like this because you're already disciplined. Timelogging helps me and those who feel they've not gotten anything done during the day. Timelogs help you see where your time actually went. You can also view how much time you spent doing various activities. Knowing this proportion can help you plan future activities better. If you feel keeping a daily timelog is an overkill, tryout a weekly or monthly timelog, provided you're able to recall all of the activities you've done in that period. Also, even if you're ultra focused, it might be a good idea to give timelogging a try, as you'll feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.

Happy timelogging!