I do some time tracking every day. The latest version, v5, is here.
Believe it or not, it's not actually a lot of work. Periodically through the day, I mark down what tasks I've been working on. At the end of the day, it takes me around 5-10 minutes to tally up how I spent my time (along with some other things - what I ate, how much I spent, appointments I had, general habits I completed or didn't). Again though - this looks like a lot of work, but it's not. It takes work to set up and habituate, but then it's pretty automatic.
Over time, I've broken down how I spend time into four general categories - Excellent, Good, Okay, Bad. "Excellent" includes things like exercising and working on big expansive things. That's really excellent time.
"Good" includes reading and general maintenance-type work that keeps things how things going the way they were. Now, note that "Good" really is good. When I have a day with lots of time in the Good category, I'm happy.
"Okay" is okay. Semi-productive, general life type stuff.
"Bad" is bad. Surfing the internet mindlessly, screwing off and wasting time, deadtime and commuting. Stuff like that.
Now, I've noticed a pattern. Often after a massive ass-kicking few days in a row, my productivity breaks down for a few days in a row.
Observe:
How to read that picture above - every day the last ten days is in the vertical column. The 9th was Excellent 80 minutes, Good 220, Okay 200, Bad 330. That's a "Mixed" day in my book - some good, some bad.
You'll see 3 days in a row - 13th to 15th - were quite expansive. Minimal time into bad categories, lots of time in good and excellent.
Then 16th to 18th break down, with very low time in excellent, not much in good, and lots in bad.
I've seen this pattern a lot. After a few very expansive days, then a few days off-track.
I wonder if I should take off a day explicitly on a day like the 16th, and then the 17th and 18th wouldn't be off-track? Or perhaps slow down slightly on 13th-15th... build more willpower? Run out the very expansive time? Make the landing crash less hard when coming down?
Hmm... it's strange. Would love feedback. Anyone else noticed something like? After a few very good days building, then a few days off-track? I'd like to avoid the crash after the expansive time. Suggestions welcome.