Famous Last Words: Am I Wasting My Time?

This is the time management log that I used to track my daily activities.

(Source: Jobloving.com)

I am a peer educator for a course at OU called Do You Understand Integrity which is provided by the the Office of Academic Integrity Programs, and one f the assignments we give our students a time table like the one pictured above so that they can record their activities for the entire day. I filled some of these schedules out for each day of the week this week, as an economic experiment, and I am a little disappointed in myself but not surprised. Until you take a look at how you spend your time for each and every minute of the day, you might not realize how much time you waste doing activities that don't really matter. I wanted to see where I was lacking productivity, what activities took up the most time in my day, and where I could be using my time more efficiently. 

A pattern I realized that I noticed was that I was taking about 2-3 hours a day to take care of my fitness routine. Even though I told myself that going to the gym was just an hour out of my day a couple of times a week, I didn't take into account that the time that I took to stretch before my workout, shower and make a meal after, and the time that I took to procrastinate getting to the gym ended up adding an hour or two to my routine every time! I also learned that I was spending too much time watching youtube videos, but that was not anything that shocked me. Until this activity, I did not realize how much time that I spent in my car every week and it is a good time that I use that time in the car to be productive by listening to my favorite podcasts. Doing this activity also made me realize that studying for classes always takes much more time than I expect so I should always factor in hours to do my class readings, as well as factoring in time to think about my readings and critically analyze them after I am done. Taking the time to schedule things and accurately guessing how much time they will take will save me from panicking when I have two hours to finish an assignment that usually takes six hours. 

Although my own findings may not be that interesting to you guys, I highly suggest tracking what you do during your days to see if you can use your time more efficiently!