Do a Time Audit: Know Where You Are
For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?—Luke 14:28
One of the most challenging things today is living out the values of our faith in this busy world.
Not only that, we are tempted to believe our prevailing culture’s emphasis on the pleasures of the temporary. The pressure of limited-time offers and the fear of lost opportunities keep us grabbing for more.
On that, the Bible agrees. It’s true—there are limited opportunities that, if we don’t take, we will lose: The important gospel conversation. Playing with our kids. Stopping to help in a moment of need.
However, these are not the same values that the world tells us are important, and unless we set an intention to value those things closest to God’s heart, we will easily be swept up into the world’s values.
How we think is important to this end. We begin by setting our intentions to live in the context of God’s eternal Story. When we do this, we live fully in the present, but always remember that this world is not our final home. This allows us to enjoy the pleasures of life and faithfully endure the hardness knowing that both are glimpses of heaven.
When life is good, we relish them as foretastes of greater glories to come. When life is hard, we remember that they will not last forever. Instead, we lean into trusting the Lord, letting Him transform us through our trials.
So how do we start moving towards living God’s Story in real time?
Start By Doing a Time Audit
Before we can change, we need to start by taking a look at where we are. One of the most eye-opening and helpful ways to do this is with a time audit.
A time audit is basically trying to track where your time is going for about one week. This allows you to see your daily patterns and weekly rhythms.
Two things that will help in doing this is to 1) be detailed, and 2) be honest. Being detailed doesn’t mean neurotically accounting for every minute but aiming to be as thorough as possible. Being honest means not recording what you would like to do; it’s recording what you actually do.
I will admit that probably midweek, you may find yourself flagging. If that is the case, I encourage you persevere (it’s just a week!). Just remember that the data you get will help you get a far more accurate picture and awareness of yourself—which will go a long way later to making wise changes.
One last note: be humble. The goal of this is not to shame you or make you feel guilty. Suspend judgment for now. We’re just gathering data, not evaluating it yet. Deal?
Here are some things to take note of during your audit:
Start time: When do I get up every day? (Note when you set your alarm and when you actually get out of bed.)
Wake up routines: What is the first thing I reach for or do when I do get up? If it is a daily routine, you can note it one time during the week. How long does it take to perform this ritual? If you don’t have a morning routine, what do you do each day?
Meals: Note when you stop to prep and eat meals and for how long.
Childcare: If you have children, note when they get up, in relation to when you get up.
Pet care (if you have them): If you have pets, how much time does it take to care for them—feeding, walking, grooming, etc.?
Travel time: If you commute to work, note how long it takes from door to door.
Phone time: How much time do you spend on the phone checking up with your parents, making appointments, waiting on hold?
Tasks at work: What tasks fill your days? How long do these take? Try to be as detailed as possible the first time you encounter the task, noting start/end times.
Chores at home: Note the time you spend each day on what is required to function at home (dishes, laundry, cleaning), including any weekly tasks, like taking the trash out.
Children’s activities: Observe how much time you spend taking your children to after-school activities, waiting for them, etc. If you are chauffeuring multiple children at a time, try to describe this in your schedule.
Conversations: Include the times at home when you are interacting with your family members: conversations about the day with your spouse, helping children with homework or planning for their homeschool day, discipleship or discipline moments, times when you are interrupted to deal with unexpected issues, etc.
Technology: Note start/end times when you go online, check email, social media, etc. Be as honest as possible for best results. This is a tricky one because we so easily reach for our phones without thinking nowadays. If nothing else, simply be more aware of the time you spend and your habits. Observe if you do this at specific times of the day (first thing in the morning, while eating lunch). Also note why you start: to look up something, a friend told you to, you’re bored waiting, etc. When do you sign off at night (shut down your laptop, put away your phone)—or do you fall asleep with the TV on?
Bedtime routines: Note when you start getting ready for bed and how long that takes. Record the steps you take.
Sleep: Note when you actually get into bed. Though this might be hard to know, get a sense of how long it takes for you to fall asleep and if it is difficult to do so.
There may be other things you do that are not on this list—feel free to add anything else you do. Again, you want to have as complete a picture as possible.
Facing the Facts: You Have Limits
Earlier in this post, I talked about setting our intentions to live in context of God’s Story, to make it our vision to walk in His paths, to purpose that our mission in life is to utilize our gifts as we consider every role we play as an opportunity to make disciples for Him.
But another thing we need to talk about is setting our limits. This starts with facing the facts.
Let’s do some math.
We all have 168 hours every week. That’s 8,736 hours per year. About 1/3 of that time is sleeping, which leaves us about 5,824 waking hours every year to spend.
Though that sounds like a lot, it really isn’t much in light of eternity, even if we multiplied that last number by our life span. The fact that there is a finite number is itself sobering, especially when we compare that to eternity. We really are a vapor that vanishes (James 4:14).
Not only is there a limit to our time, there is a limit to simply being human. We are not robots that can keep going without eating or sleeping. Try as we might, we are not like God in this way who slumber or sleep (Ps. 121:4).
Lest I leave this post on a depressing note, let’s look at this in a new way. Instead of bemoaning these limits, how about we humbly accept them?
When we do, I’ve learned, something interesting actually happens. By putting boundaries in place, God actually can help me to be more creative.
Have you ever been in a store with thousands of options and you only can pick one? We freeze, overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices.
But when we begin to eliminate those options by putting some parameters on it, we are able to actually start looking at what we have before us and start playing around with it. We start thinking outside the box and come up with better solutions than we would have if we had everything at our disposal.
So as we work on this time audit, keep that in mind. We have a limited amount of time but a vast vision. Learn to accept those limits but then be prepared to discover some creative ways to use it too!
In the next post, we’ll begin to sift through our discoveries. From these, we can then begin to tailor-design a plan within those limits that we can fine-tune until it fits us just right.
