BellaOnline Forums Family Moms Are you brave enough to audit your time, mom?

Do you feel like you don't have enough hours in the day to get it all done? I'll bet you do - and, if you audit your time, you'll find the "time sucking spaces".


Not Enough Hours in the Day

how often do you check your email, FB account, Pinterest?

Great article!

It is SO important to know how much time you're spending on what each day. As a mom, you'll be suprised at how much time you spend in childcare. I'm actually glad I didn't do this audit when my children were young or I would I have fainted away, I'm sure when I saw how many hours a week I was working.

I began to keep careful track around 2010 (when my kids were 10 and 12) and discovered that I worked around 80 hours a week between childcare including housework, work outside the home, and writing.

Now that my children are 15 and 12 (turning 13 this month) childcare has lessened considerably so I feel more free to take on more personal projects like going back to school, something I've wanted to do for the last 20 years.

Oooh, Leah. You give hope and inspiration to moms with younger children. A look at what is around the corner!! I'm somewhere in the middle - with 13 the oldest and just turned 7 as the youngest.

You're right. It can be disheartening to see how much of your time goes to childcare and household stuff.... It can also be an eye opener to discovering how you CAN create more time for yourself, how you can minimize the more 'useless' time drains.... etc.

I wrote the article because I was about to do another time audit for myself.... but I haven't done it yet.

The next step after auditing time is - breaking old habits. It's hard.... to stop watching TV after a long day of working, caring for children, making dinner, cleaning the house.... to stop checking your email and FB several times throughout the day.....

Take out the habits that don't really serve you and create habits that will serve you well, refuel you, and make you feel good!

Hi Lisa,

After reading your article. I started to keep track of my time again for the first time in months!

As you mention above breaking bad habits is easier when you realize how much time you’re blowing on them. Sometimes I get caught up in celebrity gossip stories. Time auditing keeps this bad habit to a minimum.

What do you use to keep track of your time? I’ve been using Toggl.com since about 2010 or so.

Oh and one more thing about time auditing. I was looking at my audit from yesterday and there a was a 1.5 hour gap. I could not remember what I did from 12:30 pm until 2 pm. I finally remembered that during that time I was struggling with a difficult article. I finished the article and then rushed to start preparing to leave for a class, that's why I forgot to make the time entry.

It's best to put the entries in as you are doing the work because it can be hard to remember just a day later.

Hi Lisa!

Thank you for bringing up time auditing. I have been keeping careful track of my time for the last few weeks. During this time I wrote a term paper for a class, spending more than 30 hours on the endeavor. Probably around 36 hours.

When I was finished the paper, looked at how much time I spent on it and reflected back on the process, I realized much I enjoyed that time. So much so that I felt let down when it was over.

This is why time auditing is so important, it helps you to be more conscious of *how* you spend your time and the specific activities you spend your time on.

If you find that there’s an unnecessary activity that you don’t like, you can cut it out. conversly if there’s something you absolutely LOVE, you can figure out how to do more of it, which is what I am doing now. I want to write more academic papers! Now let's see how I can do this...

Confession: I have not completed my time audit. I am certainly due for another (why do you think I wrote about it?).

But, that brings up a great point. I have been paying attention to my schedule and what I am doing during the day. I have some ideas of things I'd like to change and where I could accumulate more time in the day.... BUT, a time audit is always eye-opening and helps you see the things you are not aware of.