During the week of 09 January, I participated in Laura Vanderkam’s Time-Tracking Challenge. Laura hosts this annual challenge in January, asking her readers to join her while sharing her discoveries about how she is spending her own time throughout the week. As I have mentioned in past posts, I find time tracking beneficial, especially when I am feeling overwhelmed or need to make some changes. My one-word theme for 2023 is CREATE, and I feel the need to create better organization of my time in order to successfully create a healthier and more sustainable life.
My week started with 168 hours on Monday 09 January at 7:00 in the morning. Two categories that took up a huge chunk of my time were creating content for YouTube and sleep. 35.5 hours were spent on content for YouTube (Kelsi’s channel and my own channel). This total includes 15.5 hours on watching movies and preparing notes for the Year of King project I did in collaboration with Kelsi and 20 hours for my own channel’s projects. 54.5 hours were spent sleeping. This left me with 78 hours to spend on other tasks or activities during the week.
So, how did I spend the remaining 78 hours of my week?
- Morning Routine: 2 hours
My morning routine looks quite differently than it did when I was working as an instructional coach at HGCS. Since I am currently taking a hiatus from working outside my home, I really do not have a structured morning routine. There are days when I have nowhere to go, staying in my pjs until later in the morning. Therefore, it mainly consists of pet care for two dogs and two cats, personal care for myself, and making myself a cup of coffee. When Barry is home, he will take care of the dogs during the day and generally make me a cup of coffee in the morning (sweet guy). My day then naturally unfolds and meanders around my responsibilities and appointments. Generally, I do not eat breakfast until about 9:00 in the morning.
- Get dressed: 4 hours
- Exercise: 0 hours
- Meals: 12.5 hours (prepping/cooking and eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner)
- Home/Family Logistics (insurance policy renewal, financial tasks, dental appointments): 7.25 hours
- Chores: 4.75 hours (loading dishwasher, laundry, floors, trash, cat litter)
- Travel: 9.25 hours
- Afternoon Routine: 1.5 hours (pet care for dogs and cats, sometimes make a cup of coffee)
- Outside Time (23 for 2023 Challenge): 3 hours
- Blog: 0 hours
- Read: 1.75 hours
- Goodreads: 0 hours
- Marketing YouTube (social media): 2 hours
Gretchen Rubin created the #Outside23in23 Challenge which I am participating in this year. Most days I do get outside for at least 23 minutes per day and usually because of my dogs. Unfortunately, this week I did NOT exercise (no workouts, no walking), and I barely read which is a bummer and totally unacceptable.
- Evening Routine: 3 hours (shower, take dogs out before bed, prep for bed)
- TV Shows/Movies/YouTube: .5 of an hour (watching Youtube)
- Napping: 0 hours
- Errands/Social Events: 6 hours
- Birthday Message Project: 3 hours
- Personal Development: 4.25 hours (improv, buddy read with sister, time tracking, self-care updates: check/record watch & Happier app)
I took a ride with Andrew on Monday evening to pick up sushi (our dinner) from Kirin. Tagging along gave me quality time with him. On Wednesday, I went to the post office to mail a small package to Shelly’s friend (book exchange) and stopped at PJ’s coffee to pick up sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits (for me and the boys) and a mocha latte. Around lunch time, Andrew and I rode together to pick up chicken tenders from Cane’s to bring to Mrs. Billie’s house for my birthday lunch with the two of them. My social events for this week included a bridal shower for my niece Kaitlyn on Saturday and a Livestream with Kelsi (The Shining) on Sunday.
As a result, 55 hours were spent on life responsibilities, 9.25 hours were spent traveling, and .5 of an hour was spent watching television shows, movies, or YouTube for a total of 64.75 hours.
This left me with 13.25 hours left over in my weekly bank of hours. Of my remaining time, I spent 5.5 hours of those hours hanging out with either family or friends. This is in addition to time spent with family and friends during meals, travel, or social events. My birthday was on Wednesday, so I spent 2.25 hours of the week reading and responding to texts, emails, and FB messages, as well as opening and reading birthday cards that came in the mail. I still have to respond to FB messages because I did not get to all of them last week. The remaining 5.5 hours was spent playing Trivia Crack, scrolling through social media (mainly Instagram), texting, email, time-tracking, or puttering around the house.
So, what did I learn during this Time-Tracking Challenge?
Regardless of it being my birthday week, socializing with family and friends throughout the week, and preparing for the livestream for my Year of King project, I did devote time towards my aims for 2023. I was able to combine my already scheduled dental cleaning appointment with getting the impression made for my implant crown. BAM! I created my first Readathon for February and released the announcement video for it on my channel and social media. BAM, BAM! And, finally, I registered for Laura Vanderkam’s Tranquility By Tuesday Challenge which means I have started reading her book this week. Triple BAM!
With that being said, I still had 5.5 hours that I could have read more, dealt with digital clutter, or organized spaces around my house. “Puttering around the house” is also not necessarily wasted time. Puttering is where I squeeze those little tasks in between major tasks, such as going through the mail, writing a check, putting a book back on the shelf, or taking out the trash.
Additionally, I used the Strategy of Pairing quite a bit last week, generally when eating my meals. My YouTube watching hours would have been higher, but I watched several videos while eating breakfast and lunch. Also, my television watching hours would have been higher because I ate dinner a couple of times while watching The Shining movies. I also read a little more while waiting for my turn at the dentist. And, I listened to podcasts or talked on the phone (hands-free) while driving to improv class and Kelsi’s house.
Where do I go from here?
You should not be surprised I am time tracking again this week, dear reader. Last week was an unusual week with my birthday and everything related to the Year of King project. I want a more structured daily routine (M-F), especially in the mornings and throughout the day. I want to purchase a planner or create a binder to organize the content I am creating for both my blog and my YouTube channel. In addition, I need to create some time this month to get my home office organized, so I am not spending so much time get my little corner in the bedroom ready for me every time I film a video. I am actually excited about these results because they are motivating me to create a better schedule and to get me a step closer to becoming a better steward of my time. Happiness!
“We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.” ~ John F. Kennedy
Note: Photo at the top is by Andrey Grushnikov on Pexels.com.
I spent a great deal of time in the kitchen this morning which is highly unusual for me since I despise cooking. I whipped up some French Toast for Andrew and me for breakfast. This is the first time that I have made French Toast using Brioche bread. The particular Brioche bread that I bought had cinnamon in it, so I did not need to add much cinnamon. I also added some vanilla extract this time. We both thought it tasted delicious. I also had some rather ripe bananas, so I decided to bake some banana bread. I know what you are thinking, dear reader…lots of carbs. Yep, and lots of comfort. Thankfully, I will not be cooking dinner this evening. My hubby plans to grill steaks for the three of us.
This upcoming week is my spring break. It will last until April 13th with on-line school resuming on April 14th. Normally, my spring break begins on Good Friday and extends the week after Easter. However, when the Governor announced our first stay-at-home mandate that was going to end on April 13th, our school along with other schools in the Diocese of Baton Rouge decided to move spring break up a week. Now, we are mandated to stay at home until April 30th, but our spring break did not move back to its originally scheduled time. In the grand scheme of things, it is not a huge issue. However, my hubby took vacation the week we originally planned to be off. And, SLU is off, too. I guess the silver lining is that even though I will be working from home the week Andrew and Barry are off, we will still be home together.
which is extremely beneficial when you want to see how you are REALLY spending your time. We all (myself included) like to say we are busy; however, that is a story we like to tell even to ourselves. I found her “three versions of the self” interesting. She describes each version: “The anticipating self is wondering about, planning, and worrying about the future. The experiencing self is in the here and now. The remembering self thinks back to the past” (Vanderkam, 70). The anticipating self sets our intentions or goals while the remembering self reflects on the fruits of our labor. Our experiencing self follows through or falls through with plans, intentions, or goals depending on the circumstances or feelings in the present moment. My experiencing self gets in my way of taking action on a regular basis. It is pals with FEAR and PROCRASTINATION which has robbed me from realizing a few goals or pursuing a couple of dreams. This is my year to COMMIT, so in order to take more action and waste less time, I need to commit to listening less to my experiencing self, plan the task/event, and execute.
Subsequently, I dragged my booty out of bed the next morning, took a selfie of myself making the commitment, and walked for an hour. After walking, I documented my starting weight at 158 pounds. I dug in a kitchen cabinet and pulled out my “pounds to go” and “pounds lost” containers. Diligently, I counted out 18 marbles, dropped them all in the “pounds to go” container, and sat both containers on my kitchen counter. This means that by 31 December 2018, I will need to weigh at least 140 pounds. There is no more “I don’t have time” because taking care of my health is important, and it is time for me to make my health a priority.
I struggle with time management and hope 2018 will be the year I can tame the beast. Therefore, I decided to sign up for Laura Vanderkam’s 
The Kat Files 