Updated my time tracking recently. Before we get started, allow me to quote "How to Live 24 Hours Per Day" -
“To “clear” even seven hours and a half from the jungle is passably difficult. For some sacrifice has to be made. One may have spent one’s time badly, but one did spend it; one did do something with it, however ill-advised that something may have been. To do something else means a change of habits.”
“And habits are the very dickens to change! Further, any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts. If you imagine that you will be able to devote seven hours and a half a week to serious, continuous effort, and still live your old life, you are mistaken. I repeat that some sacrifice, and an immense deal of volition, will be necessary.”
As always, I recommend you start with a low amount and build up, as I described in "The Evolution of My Time/Habit/Life Tracking."
Okay, here's my new daily tracking -
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START OF DAY ROUTINE:
Time awake:
Total sleep:
Appointments today:
Other time-sensitive things:
What assets could I build/improve/acquire today:
Planning:
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DO BEFORE GOING ONLINE:
Vitamin C and Fish oil:
Stretching:
Situps:
Martial-arts:
Brush/floss:
Breathe:
Borderlands (+24 Hours):
Gratitude:
Review Life Goals:
Review "Current Targets":
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DO SOMETIME DURING THE DAY:
Exercise (walk/run/other):
Listen to audio:
Blog post:
Email in box, start:
Empty inbox completely:
Help someone:
Get slightly more organized:
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REMEMBER:
*Intelligent internet usage
*Be decisive. Look at it once, make a decision, done.
*Stop and reflect periodically
*Make WAR on Procrastination
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TIME TRACKING:-------------------------------------------
FOOD/CALORIES/TRAINING-------------------------------------------
CHALLENGES:
Did I start the day in my planner instead of online?
Did I only check email when I was ready to write back immediately?
Did I only check a site once, then done with it?
Did I prioritize books/good learning instead of mindless surfing?
Did I make war on procrastination?
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END OF DAY:
What are my key life goals? Spend 5 minutes on this.
Expenses for the day (estimate)?
Calories:
Cash gotten or worked towards today:
What did I do right to move me towards my goals?
What would I do differently if I had the day to live over?
Plan tomorrow:
Make a request of my subconscious:
Set alarm:
We'll go through that in greater detail.
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START OF DAY ROUTINE:
Time awake:
Total sleep:
Appointments today:
Other time-sensitive things:
What assets could I build/improve/acquire today:
Planning:
The start of the day I wake up, boot my computer, and fill this out, regardless of what else I have going on. It doesn't take long. I mark my time awake, figure out how many hours I slept (rounded to the nearest half hour), and check if I have any appointments or anything urgent for the day. I've added a new one, "what assets?" which I think is a good question, but I'm still not answering it most days. But I think actively building tangible things every single day would be good. As I described in "What Gets Measured Gets Managed," sometimes adding something to your daily tracking and just marking down that you're not doing it is valuable. The success comes with time.
Finally, I have "Planning" where I sketch out what I'd like to do for the day in roughly what order. I don't always obey this, but it's a good loose guideline for how I want the day to go.
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DO BEFORE GOING ONLINE:
Vitamin C and Fish oil:
Stretching:
Situps:
Martial-arts:
Brush/floss:
Breathe:
Borderlands (+24 Hours):
Gratitude:
Review Life Goals:
Review "Current Targets":
This is all fairly straightforward stuff, but now I do it before going online. I used to reminders to start my day with planning and thought instead of starting online, but this replaces it. It's fairly straightforward - the list only takes 30 minutes max, sometimes much less. It's all fairly straightforward - I stretch my legs extensively, and my arms, core, hips, and neck a little bit. I do situps and sometimes pushups, brush/floss, and take some deep slow breathes. "Borderlands (+24 Hours)" is meditative for me - it means think about how life is fleeting. Under "Gratitude" I write some things I'm happy and thankful for. Sometimes I do this really quickly and jot down three things, sometimes I spend a lot of time with it. Then I look at my life goals and current targets, again, sometimes quickly, sometimes spending a lot of time on it.
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DO SOMETIME DURING THE DAY:
Exercise (walk/run/other):
Listen to audio:
Blog post:
Email in box, start:
Empty inbox completely:
Help someone:
Get slightly more organized:
I have these as "do sometime during the day" because frequently I can't exercise before getting the day started. I really try to hold the section before this one sacred, and do it all before going online. But sometimes I've got to make a phone call or have a busy day, so I exercise in the evening. I'm religious about doing my once-per-day blog post, and less religious about the rest of it which I'm still sometimes missing. My inbox hasn't been hitting zero every single day yet, but I'd like it to. "Get slightly more organized" could be anything - clean up files on my computer, make backups, clean up my environment, patch/mend things, digitize or copy into place one set of paper, get something repaired, whatever. I don't do this every day yet, but it seems like a worthy thing to have on the list and to strive to do daily.
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REMEMBER:
*Intelligent internet usage
*Be decisive. Look at it once, make a decision, done.
*Stop and reflect periodically
*Make WAR on Procrastination
I like the general idea of this section, but I find myself tuning it out. I don't know if the answer is to convert it to some sort of checklist, to change the items in here regularly, or to just scrap it. I like the concept, but in practice it isn't doing so much.
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TIME TRACKING:
Don't be fooled by how spartan this section is - it's one of the most important in my day. I come back in here and jot a note of what I'm working on periodically. Some days I only make one or two notes there all day, other days I list 8-10 times I shift gears which gives me a good idea on how long tasks are taking. This one's very good.
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FOOD/CALORIES/TRAINING
I've been getting more serious about my diet and training, but I still haven't been filling this out most days. I'll probably put together a formal training plan with specific goals soon, and then work on it. I think that'll give me a boost instead of just tracking this to with no specific end in mind.
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CHALLENGES:
Did I start the day in my planner instead of online?
Did I only check email when I was ready to write back immediately?
Did I only check a site once, then done with it?
Did I prioritize books/good learning instead of mindless surfing?
Did I make war on procrastination?
This section is one of my favorite. You might notice I deleted a few things from it or moved it around since last time - many of the things I eliminated are because I'm straight up succeeding at them, and don't need to track them any more. Sugar and don't get into stupid arguments online are like that, I've pretty much kicked those habits, so I've stopped tracking them. But it was the tracking that helped me kick them originally, so it was a very good thing.
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END OF DAY:
What are my key life goals? Spend 5 minutes on this.
Expenses for the day (estimate)?
Calories:
Cash gotten or worked towards today:
What did I do right to move me towards my goals?
What would I do differently if I had the day to live over?
Plan tomorrow:
Make a request of my subconscious:
Set alarm:
All fairly straightforward. "Make a request of my subconscious" isn't some psychological mumbo-jumbo, it just means think about something in particular as I fall asleep. "Calories" isn't really getting filled out, as I mentioned above - haven't beent racking it so well. The rest of it is straightforward.
If you're interested in building something like this out, I recommend you start small. 3-5 things to track daily, max, then build up. Don't overwhelm yourself by trying to jump into tracking 20 different things. More details here - "The Evolution of My Time/Habit/Life Tracking." Comments/questions welcome.