The Kat Files

As mentioned in my previous post, I decided to track my time for an additional week to get a clearer picture of how I am spending my time. Therefore, this analysis is from the week of 17 January – 23 January. During this week, I worked 32.5 hours at school and devoted 54 hours to sleep. This left me with 81.5 hours to spend in other areas of my life.

Therefore, how did I spend those remaining 81.5 hours?

• Morning Routine (T-F): 5.75 hours 
• Morning Routine (M/SAT-SUN): 3 hours
• Travel to and from work (T-TH): 2.25 hours
• Travel to and from other places: 4.25 hours
• Afternoon Routine (M-TH): .5 of an hour (pet care for Tooty and cats, unpacking lunch box and school bag)
• Chores: 11 hours (loading dishwasher, laundry, floors, washing out litter pan, bathrooms)
• Walk (20 for 2022 Challenge): 2.75 hours
• Read (includes #Read21in21 Challenge): 5.5 hours
• Instagram Post (#yearofjoy2022): 1 hour
• Goodreads: .5 of an hour 
• Meals: 3.75 hours 
• Evening Routine: 3.75 hours (shower; take Tooty out before bed)
• Blog: 5.25 hours (Sunday-write, edit, revise, publish)
• Content Creation: 13.75 hours (collaboration with Kelsi-YouTube)
• TV Shows/Movies/YouTube: 2.5 hours
• Napping: 0 hours
• Social Events/Errands: 7.75 hours
• Hanging out with Andrew: 1 hour

As a result, 74.25 hours were spent with family/friends, walking, creating content, fulfilling commitments/life responsibilities, and completing household tasks. My time bank still had 7.25 hours, and those additional hours were spent on other activities, such as playing Trivia Crack, interacting on social media (FB and Instagram), texting, phone calls, checking email, time-tracking, or puttering around the house.

It was an unusual, but gratifying, week since I was off Monday instead of Friday (MLK Day), played Pokeno on Monday evening (as a sub), attended Elton John’s concert with Shelly on Wednesday evening (original date 06/2020), worked from home on Friday (weather day), and did a livestream with Kelsi (Misery) on Sunday.

Clearly, the two weeks I tracked were not exactly the same. I had 2.5 extra hours this week than last week. So, on average I have about 6 hours a week to spend on my goals for 2022. Compared to last year when I had 19 hours, that is not very much time. Nevertheless, I am not discouraged. Last year, we had stricter COVID restrictions, so I was home more. After today, I do not have any social events scheduled for February or March. I am also participating in Frugal February again this year since it was a huge success last year. Therefore, my extra hours may increase considerably. In the next few weeks, I am considering keeping track of the time spent on items from my 22 for 2022 list.

There you have it, dear reader. Two weeks of time tracking, and I am a bit wiser about where my time is going, so I can adjust my schedule to be more productive and reach my goals for the year. It is also clear to me that I cannot do EVERYTHING I want to do at the same time. I will need to protect my extra time for the next two months and finish the first quarter of the year strong. In the meantime, I need to get ready to leave for Canton, Mississippi where I am attending an Audition Intensive Workshop today. Happiness!

“We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.” ~ John F. Kennedy

Note: Photo at the top is by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Pexels.com.