Discussion Forum > Tracking DONEs
Oh, yes, a time diary.
I think I mention that in my first book "Get Everything Done".
The way I recommended is to write down the time now and what you are about to do. When you finish that task, you do the same again. There is no need to write down the time you finish a task because that is the same as the time you start the next. (Breaks, etc, are treated as tasks).
Interruptions are treated in exactly the same way except they are indented. The finishing time of the interruption is put at the end of the line.
So it looks something like this.
1855 Reply to Seraphim's comment
-------- 1906 Answer phone and pass call to my wife 1910
1915 Relax with glass of mulled wine
This can even work as a simple time management system because the act of writing down what you are going to do *before* doing it encourages you to make a conscious decision about what to do, rather than just drift into something.
I think I mention that in my first book "Get Everything Done".
The way I recommended is to write down the time now and what you are about to do. When you finish that task, you do the same again. There is no need to write down the time you finish a task because that is the same as the time you start the next. (Breaks, etc, are treated as tasks).
Interruptions are treated in exactly the same way except they are indented. The finishing time of the interruption is put at the end of the line.
So it looks something like this.
1855 Reply to Seraphim's comment
-------- 1906 Answer phone and pass call to my wife 1910
1915 Relax with glass of mulled wine
This can even work as a simple time management system because the act of writing down what you are going to do *before* doing it encourages you to make a conscious decision about what to do, rather than just drift into something.
January 15, 2015 at 19:11 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
I never meant to imply this was a new concept. You, of course, have discussed it many times, in your book and on this site. Peter Drucker also sees it as the "first step" of getting control of one's time. I've posted about it myself several times in this forum.
Nonetheless I thought it might be helpful to share what worked for me and what didn't, and some of the value I got from it, and see if anyone else has done anything similar. Which you have, and which you shared. Thanks for the ideas!
Nonetheless I thought it might be helpful to share what worked for me and what didn't, and some of the value I got from it, and see if anyone else has done anything similar. Which you have, and which you shared. Thanks for the ideas!
January 15, 2015 at 19:22 |
Seraphim
Seraphim
But none of them are as effective as just keeping a notebook open and writing things down as I finish them.
For the last month or so, I've been doing this really consistently, and it's given me a lot of insight into where my time goes.
1. I start a page in my notebook, and write in the top margin: 1/15/2015 - DONE (or whatever today's date is).
2. I keep the notebook open and nearby all day.
3. When I am done with something, and then moving to a new activity, I just take 10 seconds and jot down what I did, and what time I finished it.
I started by writing down pretty much everything. Odds and ends, breaks, larger work items and meetings. Eventually I found a good balance between the detail and the big picture.
For meetings, I try to jot down a few words about the results / outcome / decisions made / etc.
Looking back over the results, I found a few patterns that really stood out:
1. I can get an awful lot done in 20-30 minutes of focus time. A lot of items I was resisting because they seemed to be large or difficult, actually turned out to be finished quite easily in much less time that I had thought.
2. Larger work items benefited a lot from little-and-often, implemented in 15-20 minute chunks repeatedly over a few days.
3. Meetings are a huge time sink. From the perspective of (1) and (2), above, a single one-hour meeting effectively takes the place of 2-3 chunks of significant work.
4. Any kind of exploration on the Internet -- like shopping or research -- is also a huge time sink. Sometimes it's necessary but rarely high-impact, high-result relative to the time invested.
Anyway, since this process is so simple and has been so fruitful for me, I thought I'd share it here.