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Besides work, where do you spend significant amounts of your time?

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  • Besides work, where do you spend significant amounts of your time?

    They say time is money.
    The Chinese has a similar adage (poorly translated... by yours truely): an ounce of time equals an ounce of gold; but it's hard to buy an ounce of time with an ounce of gold.

    Do you track your time?
    Can you at the end of the day recount where you spend each hour?

  • #2
    Why would I need to?

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    • #3
      I have an app which tracks time, you can divide it into five categories, and did it as an experiment for a week. I found that during the week most of my waking time is either at work, commuting, getting ready for work - only a couple of hours of downtime a day. Instead of tracking time, allocating some time for activities which encourage personal growth (financial, non-financial) is something I found way more helpful - something each day which is not plonking yourself in front of the tv. To me that's adding a bit more value to your life.

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      • #4
        Originally posted by sv2007 View Post
        Do you track your time?
        No. As long as everything that needs doing gets done, that's all that matters.
        Steve

        * Despite the high cost of living, it remains very popular.
        * Why should I pay for my daughter's education when she already knows everything?
        * There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going.

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        • #5
          It's a habit of mine since college. At the end of each day, I reflect on where I spent my time. It's amazing how much time you'll save by doing this. It's good time management.

          For example, yesterday, I spent 1.5 hr surfing the web for entertainment (e.g. reading some yahoo news, this and a few other forums). That's a bit higher than my usual web entertainment so today I'll spend less.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by VS_ozgirl View Post
            I have an app which tracks time, you can divide it into five categories, and did it as an experiment for a week. I found that during the week most of my waking time is either at work, commuting, getting ready for work - only a couple of hours of downtime a day. Instead of tracking time, allocating some time for activities which encourage personal growth (financial, non-financial) is something I found way more helpful - something each day which is not plonking yourself in front of the tv. To me that's adding a bit more value to your life.
            That's very precise tracking, which IMHO may be counter productive. Try just remembering what you did and roughly when you did it. At the end of the day, you can reflect on it.

            I have also been writing down what I want to do everyday since years and years ago; this is nearly like the current hip scrum meetings popular at companies.

            I also meditate, but only for specific tasks.

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            • #7
              A lot of my time management skills were picked up in Franklin day planner training that I took at my first job. I don't know if anybody still remembers Franklin, they were the makers of a line of popular day planners back before electronic planners (and now smart phones) became popular.

              The training class weren't cheap; I was shocked by its price. But then, none of the corporate training classes are cheap. There's a whole industry around that area. My management class was 1 week off site.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by sv2007 View Post
                That's very precise tracking, which IMHO may be counter productive. Try just remembering what you did and roughly when you did it. At the end of the day, you can reflect on it.

                I have also been writing down what I want to do everyday since years and years ago; this is nearly like the current hip scrum meetings popular at companies.

                I also meditate, but only for specific tasks.
                Not sure if I have re-quoted correctly, I apologise if not... I used the app as an experiment because it felt like there weren't enough hours in the day and I was trying to see if I could fit part time studying in with full time work. It was certainly an eye-opener and provided some awareness with when I'm most productive. I now only use it to log in my part time study hours - we are supposed to do 10 per week and this keeps me on track. (The app also gave awareness as to how much time is spent web surfing and watching tv which can be used on more productive things!)

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by sv2007 View Post
                  A lot of my time management skills were picked up in Franklin day planner training that I took at my first job.
                  My wife and I took a time management seminar years ago through Landmark Education. We don't follow their system hardcore any more but some of what we learned in that class definitely still feeds into how we spend our days.
                  Steve

                  * Despite the high cost of living, it remains very popular.
                  * Why should I pay for my daughter's education when she already knows everything?
                  * There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by sv2007 View Post
                    A lot of my time management skills were picked up in Franklin day planner training that I took at my first job. I don't know if anybody still remembers Franklin, they were the makers of a line of popular day planners back before electronic planners (and now smart phones) became popular.
                    I was sent to one of their classes and received their planner. Never really used it. I always did an excellent job of time management without it.

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by VS_ozgirl View Post
                      Not sure if I have re-quoted correctly, I apologise if not... I used the app as an experiment because it felt like there weren't enough hours in the day and I was trying to see if I could fit part time studying in with full time work. It was certainly an eye-opener and provided some awareness with when I'm most productive. I now only use it to log in my part time study hours - we are supposed to do 10 per week and this keeps me on track. (The app also gave awareness as to how much time is spent web surfing and watching tv which can be used on more productive things!)
                      I'm also studying parttime (3 classes) and working full time.

                      The most important thing that helped me was setting up a routine. My classes are all on Tu and Th; and I managed to bunch them all together/continuous in the morning. So I'd show up on campus 1.5hr before first class and take our a practice room (I'm majoring in music). I finish everything needed to do for school during those 2x1.5hr sessions. I don't carry my school work home; so it is compartmentalized/isolated that I can "forget" about it once I leave campus.

                      I think if I were enrolled in a more competitive school, I wouldn't be able to get away with only 3hr of study per week. But the above is an illustration on how I generally manage time when my schedule gets full. I don't have too many "mix-use" time.

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