Conducting a Time Management Audit
,If you are going to be successful managing your time, then it is critical that you know how you spend your time. If we are focusing on accomplishment, then it is important you realize when you are productive and when you are not. The best way to conduct a time audit is to record your time, activity by activity, as you progress throughout the day. To conduct a time audit, follow the seven steps listed below:
1. List boundary times. For example, list what time you get up in the morning and what time you go to bed at night.
2. Then write down/fill in activities that are conducted on a ritual basis: things like taking a shower, reading the paper, driving to work and back, or eating meals are things that you do on a consistent daily basis.
3. Shade in meetings and other large blocks of time where you spent your day.
4. Outline all other activities that made up your day.
5. Compute the length of time you spent in that activity.
6. Circle anything you accomplished or completed.
7. Summarize the areas where you did not make the best possible use of your time.
One problem with this method of a time audit is that when you forget to record your activities as you complete them, you may find you have blank spots during your day. If someone asked you what you did at that time slot, you may find it necessary to reply, “I worked…I think.”
A sample time audit might look something like this:
What are the benefits of conducting a time audit? It lets you see how you really do spend your time. Some of the learning points from this audit are:
I spent four hours in meetings in the day.
I spent 40 minutes of my day listening to John whine.
I wasted 15 minutes walking to Andy’s desk when inter-office mail would have worked just fine.
Mary’s review was the most important task I had to complete and I still did not get it done.
The ABC proposal could have been easily delegated if I had planned ahead.
A blank page is provided so you can complete a time audit. You are welcome to make multiple copies if you would like to chart more than one day. We recommend that you conduct a time audit at least four times a year.