On April 15th I downloaded the time tracking app ATracker. In part I was inspired by the 1000 Hours Outside Challenge; it’s always been important to me to spend time outside, especially with my child (thank you Linda Åkeson McGurk), and I was curious able to put a number on how much time we actually spend outside. The other reason is that I was looking for a way of optimizing my waking hours.
“I’m Grinding While You’re Sleeping” (and other nonsense)
Time tracking is so important in hustle culture and determining where your time is being wasted is the first step to achievement. I am unashamedly tired of hustle culture. I’m tired of the word hustle. Catch phrases like “rise and grind” are tedious. The idea that sleep is something shameful is just…yawn. In my five years running a business I posted a sum total of zero inspirational photos involving lions and wolves. Unfortunately, I am also not immune to the temptation to squeeze a little bit more out of myself. I don’t want to start preaching Kim Kardashian style about hard work, but I do want to fit more into my life.
So I downloaded an app that is easy to use. I customized the five different activities to be biking, gym, outside, writing, and “Courtin Cottage” to encompass work like painting and decorating. I had no desire to be logging every second of day, but whenever I was doing those activities I would try to remember to start the timer.
In short, I think that tracking my activity has been good for my discipline. Appeasing the pie chart has inspired me to squeeze in a quick bike ride before my son’s nap a few times and it has been great for both of us. Time tracking also had a delightful, yet adverse effect.
Seventeen Hours of Painting
Let me explain.
One Friday evening after we put my son to bed I was considering skipping the gym. I thought I should keep painting the living room and I was feeling stressed about finishing it. This is my modus operandi and it ends in late nights and a lot of shunting things to the side. I opened up my ATracker app to see that I had logged SEVENTEEN hours that same week under the category “Courtin Cottage”. I had spent 17 hours that week in priming and painting alone.
So I went to the gym with zero guilt.
If you log your time you might realize that the time you spend scrolling Instagram could be spent learning a new language. That might work for you. I didn’t have an epiphany that I needed to give up TV or wake up at 4am to improve my life. In fact, I had the epiphany that the only thing that needed to go was the guilt. The unexpected results of a time log: the realization that I’m already doing enough. What my life actually needed was balance. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
One Bite at a Time
When I’m “in the zone” working on a project, I give myself permission to keep going. However, and more importantly, I give myself permission to stop. Rome wasn’t built in a day. I use the app to inform my decisions, but I take guilt out of the equation and I focus on the positive. It isn’t “I’ve only done an hour of painting in the past four days”; it is “in the past four days I have spent almost ten hours outside”. I don’t say “I am a bad mom for only taking my son to the park once this week”, I say “my son has spent over five hours this week biking with me”. Next week we might spend more time at the park, and feeling guilty about missing an afternoon bike ride is unnecessary.
There are a lot of reasons why we feel guilt and pressure to perform and “have it all”. You’re no stranger to it. If you are a stranger to it I don’t think you’re my target audience but I need to know your secret is. Social media is only a click away to remind you of all the people who are, at this very moment, living in your dream home (or on your dream vacation or working your dream job). There are a thousand people who would love to tell you how waking up at 4am will change your life. It probably will, though I think that before demanding more of yourself you might start by taking stock of what you’re already doing.
I think that anyone could benefit from giving time tracking a go, even if it’s only for one week. I don’t know that this will be a permanent fixture in my life, however right now I am committed to using this for as long as it keeps me feeling so encouraged.
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