Track Your Time

This is an exercise I do every couple of months, when I find that I've been slacking and procrastinating. It's a great way to get motivated and it offers inspiring insight into your own behavior.
Basically, what you do is, you record how you spend your time for a couple of days (ideally) or just one day, even. Knowing where your time is going and what times of the day are already planned, will give you an idea of how much time you really have to yourself. Chances are, it's not as much as you think, or way more than you think. Most people have no clue how much free time they have in a day.

Keep a notebook with your for the duration of the experiment. Don't change your behavior now, that's not the purpose of the exercise. Just record every activity in your day and how long it takes. You write down when you get up, how long it takes you to eat breakfast, get your stuff packed, travel to work, eat lunch, etc. How much time do you spend on each activity, and how do you fill the in between minutes? 
Be honest! No one but you has to see the end result, and you're trying to help yourself here, not anyone else. Don't feel guilty about spending time on relaxing or taking extra minutes to drink a cup of coffee. Those activities matter too. You're not doing this to judge, only to understand.

I often use a calendar program on the computer and color code all my activities. Seeing how much 'green' I have in one day (relaxation) can be an instant reminder that I have to get my act together. Seeing all the 'purple' (teaching) and 'blue' (writing) makes me feel great at the end of the day.

A random week in March