Summarizing your time use allows you to understand how much time you really spend in the various areas of your life. It is almost certain that you will see a notable difference between the number of hours you expected to use in certain categories and the actual number of hours you spend.

If you find that you spend more time in one area than you wanted, and less in another, the weekly summary of time use clearly indicates which activities to reduce to find the extra time you want for that neglected area of your life.

However you choose to understand the differences between your expected use of time and your actual use of time, your focus should be on trying to detect and adjust patterns in your own real use of time that spell trouble for you reaching your goals.

For those of you freaked out by knowing exactly where you spend your time because it only seems to reinforce your sense of time pressure, here's something to think about. We have 168 hours available in a week. Various published reports and informal studies report that fully half of those 168 hours – 84 hours - are used up for the "basics" like sleeping, eating, washing, etc. How do your own numbers compare? How will you spend the remaining 84 hours per week?

One valuable component of a time management program involves the use of a planner. Let’s explore that next....

Next Chapter>>Your Daily Planner