After listening to https://www.relay.fm/cortex/44, I decided to do another round of time-tracking. I had done this twice before —
https://geekygulati.com/2012/06/28/where-did-my-time-go/
https://geekygulati.com/2014/06/04/time-use-may-2014/
This time, I used a new tool, https://www.toggl.com/app/timer. More on that below.
Results
- My time is evenly spent working, and sleeping, and “everything else”.
- Everything else – “entertainment” (youtube, twitter) took the most time.
- This is a direct reaction to the political climate right now – this was me staying glued to my versions of news sources, to get a feel for “what’s going on out there”. Not necessarily healthy.
- Then Family, and being around other people
- Then Admin, which is chores and self-care thing.
Not too bad. The “Entertainment” is too large, but otherwise, this feels solid.
The way that I tracked it this time, if I was driving to work, that was “work” time, but tagged with driving. So, I could narrow down to just the “driving” tag and see where all I was driving on the behalf of:
- As expected, most of the driving was to work. My 30 minute commute is represented accurately.
- Lots of driving for “social” reasons – to have breakfast or lunch with friends.
- Recovery and Teaching are next – also good.
- Nevertheless, 9.5 hours in a car during the week. Of those 9.5 hours, 3 hours were logged as “listening to a podcast”.
I don’t always want to listen to a podcast when I’m driving. Sometimes, I prefer silence.
I also spent 11 hours and 13 minutes engaged in “eating”:
- Thanks to notes, I can see what I was eating, and who I was eating with.
- I spent around 2 hours eating by myself (at my desk, or drive through).
- The rest of the time was split between friends, coworker-friends, and my family.
Toggl
I did NOT like it. For the purposes of doing 24 hour coverage, it was NOT easier to use than Eternity (an iPhone App). However, it was definitely better at reporting.
Specific reasons of dislike:
- Starting a timer on the phone, then stopping it on a computer – timer kept going on the phone, throwing things off.
- Very hard to adjust things AFTER the fact. In Eternity, it has “locked” times so adjusting end of one thing adjusts the start of the other, etc. With a calendar display where i could just slide times around, rather than having to enter every digit. twice.
- Gap detection only possible using the website client. And then, when I detect a 6 hour gap from 4 days ago… it took way too many clicks to try to get time entered.
I would say Toggl is more directed at business-type things – not personal enthusiast things. And that’s fine.
Changes to consider for the Future
- I need to get my Youtube / Twitter / News intake, more under control.
- We might be doing another experiment – getting rid of internet at our house – and I might be downloading “what do I want to watch” to my iPad while at work, and further delaying what I watch.
- I think I overkilled with watching Colbert + Noah + the other guy. I think I’ll rank Trevor Noah at the top for me, I don’t need to see all 3 folks’ interpretations of what happened that day.
- I have to get exercise back in there somehow. I don’t yet know how. Probably less being social? Combine it with family? Here kid, let me strap you in to my chest and run on a treadmill.
- I didn’t do much (any) cooking this week. Previous weeks, I had 6 hours of cooking in there – at least. However, that’s also quality family time for me.
- I also need more personal, not-scheduled, do-whatever type time. Places where my creative side can come out. Like writing this blog post.
Good news – I have a week of vacation next week. Help me juggle and resize things and try to come up with a plan.
