In this exercise, you’ll be using time as one way of noticing what you’re already caring for in your day to day life, and where your attention and energy is going throughout the day.
There are two ways to map out your day or week: in the moment, and in hindsight, and you can choose whichever you prefer:
- Spend a day or a week actively tracking how you spend your time.
- (If you use any tools that track your time (i.e. Intend, RescueTime, Toggl), you can also use data from these sources.)
- Start by creating a spreadsheet (you can use this Google Sheets template, or a piece of paper).
- Create columns for each day you want to track. Make the rows represent 15 or 30 minute intervals, starting at the earliest time that you wake up and ending at the latest time you go to bed.
- For each block of time, write down the activity you usually do. You can also group activities into categories — for example, “Gym” and “Soccer” might both be “Fitness”.
- You can fill out the spreadsheet little by little throughout the day, or all at once at night time. If you fill it out as you go, you’ll get more accurate data, as you won’t have to try and remember every little detail.
- Do the time mapping retroactively. You can either choose a specific period of time (say the past 5 days), or do the time mapping for a “hypothetical” weekday / weekend / week. Some search strategies include:
- Looking at your calendar/schedule
- Imagine a typical day from start to finish (maybe do a weekday and weekend separately)
- Look at the apps on your phone and your most-visited sites
- Answer questions like “what do I do when I’m bored?”, “what do I do when I get home?”
- Ask what major activities you do each week. If you’re already working with a list of goals, you can ask this question of each of your goals.
- (If you use any tools that track your time (i.e. Intend, RescueTime, Toggl), you can also use data from these sources.)
- Reflect on your time mapping
- What are some of the major categories of how you spend your time?
- Are there any goals, commitments or responsibilities reflected in your time mapping that you didn’t realize you were putting so much time towards?
- Maybe you thought something “goes without saying,” but you’ve realized it really matters to you and you want to incorporate it into your goals more deliberately!
- Or maybe you’ve found some things that you feel conflicted about. What deeper need or value might those be serving?
- Are there any goals, values, commitments or responsibilities that feel especially left out, and aren’t reflected in where your time goes?
- For each category, ask yourself:
- About how much time out of your typical day and week am I currently investing in this?
- Why? Is this delightful in and of itself? How does it connect with my deeper dreams, goals, or values?
- How do I feel towards this activity or category?
- Would I ideally like to put more time towards it, or less, or about the same?