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Goal-Setting and Time Management for Venturing Crews Facilitator Guide
Appendix B
Using a Log to Determine How You Spend Your Time
Create and maintain a daily log of how you spend your time. You may be surprised at how much
time you spend on various tasks or how much time is spent with phone calls and interruptions.
e time log can provide you with a starting point to determine focus areas for improvement.
How long you maintain the log will depend on the nature of your work. For most people,
keeping the log daily for one week will suce; for others, it may require a month or two. Divide
your day into segments of 15–30 minutes (perhaps even shorter segments, if appropriate for
your schedule).
Record exactly how you spend your time—be specic. Log your time as you go, not at the end
of the day. You may not need to stop and record every 15 minutes. Just do it each time your
attention shis from one task to another.
Try not to change your habits during this time, even if you see obvious areas where you could
gain better control. Use the same approach you would take to starting a food journal if you were
on a diet. e object is to get a realistic picture of your typical schedule.
Aer completing the time log, assess your tasks and separate them into categories according
to the nature of each. For example, you may use categories such as homework, meetings, social
media, phone calls and texts, school, planning, exercising, sleeping, working, extracurricular
activities, sports, etc. Calculate the percentage of time spent on each category. is will provide
you with a better picture of how you spend your time.
Look for patterns in your assessment:
• Do you spend too much time on routine tasks?
• Could you devise ways to simplify or streamline time-consuming jobs?
• What times during the day are busiest for you?
• Where could you reorganize your schedule to work more consistently?
• When are you most and least productive?
• Are there any jobs that you should delegate to others?
• Do you work on tasks that don’t even need to be done?
• What are the consequences if you don’t do a particular task?
• How could you eectively use your “down time”?
• How oen are you able to just sit and think?
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