It will help you manage your time well if you determine where your time actually gets spent. One useful way of knowing your actual usage of time is to track your time. This is one of the most important part of effective time management. and is is one of the important time management techniques that you must use. The process here is like planning a schedule, but it works in reverse. Instead of noting down the things that you are planning to do, time logging is a process of noting down the things that you have already done. Doing this is sort of a get- to-know-yourself exercise because this process will highlight many of your habits that you might unknowingly ignore currently.
For example, some people realize that every time they plan to do Physics homework they end up watching TV. Instead of studying for that math test, they play Internet poker. Other people just can't seem to follow their schedule until the week before finals.
Whatever your time habits are, tracking your time will help you adjust and fine-tune your time management habits. Having precise information about your time usage patterns can serve as an important point of reference for self-monitoring. The following are a couple of ways to track your time. Take a moment to try this – it will truly help you open your eyes and take control of your time.
1. Time tracking is pretty straightforward. At the end of every hour jot yourself a quick note about how you specifically spent your time for that hour. The note needn't be long - one sentence or less will do. If the way you spend your time doesn't tally with an already planned activity, just enter a comment as to what you really did during that time. This way you will be able to review patterns that emerge in your use of time and make the necessary adjustments to improve your productivity.
2. Some may find it helpful to modify the planning page to facilitate tracking time. The modifications are easy enough: make two columns on your paper for each day of the week. In one column, write down the plan you are trying to follow; in the second column, make notes on what you specifically did with your time. The side-by-side comparison is very informative and is an excellent way of figuring out where you are not using time in the way you have planned.
3. Another effective way to make changes and get results from your time management strategies is to summarize your use of time according to time categories such as: sleep, study, work, travel, etc.
Estimate how much time you think you use for the various activities listed and enter these in the "expected" row of your summary sheet. Feel free to include further additional categories that might be helpful. Then log your time for one week on an hourly basis. When the week is done, summarize your time by category for each day, add up the values for all seven days of the week, and record the totals in the "actual" row of your summary sheet.
Summarizing your use of time allows you to discover how much time you actually spend in the various areas of your life. It is almost certain that you will see a significant difference between the number of hours you expected to use in certain categories and the actual number of hours you spend.
If you discover that you spend more time in one area than you wanted, and less in another, the weekly summary of your use of time clearly shows you which activities to reduce to find the extra time you need for the neglected areas of your life. Indeed, you will find that this method of tracking your time will serve you well as one of the most important time management strategies that you can employ as you put it to use in your everyday routine.
