The Time Audit, Part 2: Analyzing Habits and Building Momentum

In the last episode, we learned a simple but powerful technique to reclaim hours of our time. The 15 minute time audit helps us track how we actually spend our day and quickly spot obvious opportunities for improvement. We began by writing down what we were doing every 15 minutes during our waking hours.

I took these ideas from the book:

Schedule Your Success by Tom Corson-Knowles

I still use them today to improve my schedule and manage my time more intentionally. I enjoy sharing productivity hacks and lessons I’ve learned, but to do that effectively, I have to make sure I’m not overspending time on things that don’t truly matter.

Now we have a full week of data to review.

As you look back over your time audit, decide whether each activity aligned with what you intended to do during that time.

Every 15 minute block on your time audit chart is an awareness checkpoint. List all the habits you captured in your 15 minute time audit journal. One item per line.

For Example:

• Woke up
  
• Shower
  
• Breakfast
  
• Drive
  
• Check email
  

Each item will go on one line. Keep going until everything for the week is listed. You may end up with 20 or even 50 items.

This list represents how you currently spend your time.
Does it look the way you expected?

We measured 15 minute increments. Little things such as tying our shoes probably didn’t make the list. That’s okay. The goal isn’t perfection; it’s awareness.

Every small change creates momentum. This is known as the Snowball Effect.

A single 15 minute improvement each day may seem insignificant, but over the course of a year, it adds up to more than seven full 8 hour workdays over an entire week of reclaimed time.

The Snowball Effect shows us how small, consistent actions build momentum and lead to significant results over time. When applied to the 15 minute time audit, even a single daily adjustment reclaiming one wasted block, compounds into hours, then days, of recovered time across the year. This awareness helps, the time audit turns tiny improvements into powerful, long term change.

Analyzing Our Habits

We created awareness in Step 1 with the 15 minute time audit. In Step 2, we created a master list of habits during our waking hours. Now let’s analyze our results.

We are going to get crystal clear on both the pros and cons of our habits. Every habit exists for a reason. At some point in our lives, each habit served by providing a valuable, tangible payoff or benefit.

Many of us try to change a habit without understanding it. This then leads to frustration and can create cycles of addiction, depression, and self-loathing. We may tell ourselves that we shouldn’t do something. But, we return to the same activity again and again. That’s because the activity provides a benefit. It fulfills a basic need.

The first step to create lasting change is to understand those benefits and payoffs we receive from our activities. When we understand why a habit exists, we are far less likely to fall back into it unconsciously. When we understand why the habit exists we can continue to meet the same need through an activity that we value more.  This process replaces self-judgment with self-acceptance and builds a greater sense of self-knowledge. Both of these are pure gold!

Referring back to our list of habits that we gathered from our 15 minute time audit. For each item, there are six questions to ask yourself. At the top of the page, next to your list, create six columns with space to write your answers. 

Ask yourself:

1. How might this habit serve me?
   
2. What benefits or rewards do I receive by maintaining this habit?
   
3. How might this habit harm me?
   
4. What costs or downsides do I face by maintaining this habit?
   
5. How does this habit help or support other people in my life?
   
6. How does this habit harm or challenge other people in my life?
   

Remember, whenever we have a habit, it once served us in a meaningful way. By answering these questions, you now have access to a page filled with incredibly valuable information. Self-awareness and self-knowledge are foundational for all real progress in life.

By taking a balanced look at our activities, examining both the payoffs and the costs, we place ourselves in a position to make strong, long-term decisions instead of short-term emotional reactions.

Now we have a more balanced perspective on our daily activities. Let’s take this a step further. We are going to ask ourselves five additional questions to deepen our understanding even further.

Balanced Understanding of Our Activities

Have you ever tried to change a habit, only to return to it a few days later? Or tried to replace an unfavorable habit with a more positive one, only to find yourself slipping back into the old pattern?

Once we understand the benefits we receive from an activity, we are far better positioned to replace it intentionally. Let’s return to the list of activities we created from the 15 minute time audit.

We’ll ask ourselves five additional questions to gain deeper insights and break-throughs. We want to disintegrate our bad habits:

1. What is the most productive and important way you currently spend your time?
   
2. What are the least productive or least important ways you spend your time?
   
3. Which habits do you immediately want to change?
   
4. Which habits are acceptable for you right now? They are neither clearly positive nor negative?
   
5. Which habits do you love and want to keep right now?
   

Our goal is to have balance when we analyze and evaluate ourselves. To keep things in perspective, make a note of at least three positive habits and three negative habits. For every bad habit, make sure it is paired to a good habit. This helps prevent over-criticism and supports honest self-reflection.

I will admit, when completing this exercise, it is a challenge for me to find unproductive time. I like to think that all of my waking hours are truly productive.

But when I take a balanced look at my activities, I find that I could get more accomplished by delegating my work. Delegation would help me prioritize work that grows the business. It would also develop a reliable engine where necessary operational tasks are handled consistently and efficiently.

My goal for the next 2 years is to delegate up to three activities so I can focus more on the creative and analytical aspects of my work. For me, the 15 minute time audit is an iterative process, an ongoing feedback loop. It helps me identify what deserves my attention and what may be better handled elsewhere. I track my activities, review them, and ask an important question: Would someone else be a better fit for this activity?

In the next episode, we’ll build on this foundation and learn how to forecast our habits and prioritize which ones to change.