Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Where Did the Time Go?

Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein. –H. Jackson Brown Jr


Mrs. P over at Quilting in My Pyjamas did a time and motion study earlier this month and I thought it was a pretty interesting idea. I've often wondered how much time I spend on things, so I pulled out a little notebook and began keeping track. And because I'm a visual person, I put it all in a pie chart so I could see exactly where my time goes.

I'm a little nervous to put this out there. I've debated back and forth about posting this because it kind of exposes my weaknesses. But since I accidentally deleted all the photos Mr. Bug took of the fishing expedition he and the Little Bugs went on on Monday, I've got nothing else.


To those who ask if I ever sleep, the answer is a resounding YES! I spent 37% of my time over the last seven days sawing logs. That averages out to slightly more than 8 hours a night. Sleep, my old nemesis, why must you torture me so?

The second biggest way I spent my time was sewing — I spent 17% of my week in pursuit of the fabric arts. That is as much as a part-time job. But if you consider that sewing makes me happy and is cheaper than therapy {or so they say :lol:}, it is probably a good thing that I spend about 4 hours a day on my mental health.

Family & household chores tied with how much time I spent at work, totaling 13% each. I divided up my household chores into sub-categories; food prep {and eating, because that is a necessary daily chore}, gardening, and then everything else {laundry, dishes, vacuuming, kids} in another category. I was too chicken to see exactly how much I neglect my children so I lumped homework and helping them get ready for school in the morning in there. There is some overlap in there too because food prep and laundry is for everyone. My work schedule over the last week has been more in line with the original amount of hours I signed on for, however, most weeks are more hours than that. I gave my commute to and from work its own category, which surprisingly only took up 1% of my time.

The computer was another big contender; 9% of my {non-work related} week. I broke that down into two categories because I wanted to see exactly how much time I spend writing blog posts. This week was a light week, and only 2% of my computer time was spent there. The other 7% was reading and commenting on other blogs, browsing the internet, and replying to e-mails.

4% of my time was spent in the 'miscellaneous' category. I put stuff in there that I didn't know where else to put, like the time you spend when you get home putting your keys and purse away so you can find them later, making a trip to the restroom, getting the mail and shredding all the junk and basically just getting yourself collected for what is coming next. It also includes T.V. time or anything else non-productive. That is kind of a lot of time to spend doing nothing.

Daily personal hygiene {showering, styling hair, applying make-up, getting dressed, putting in contacts, etc.} took up 3% of my week.

And finally, for someone who claims to be a fairly religious person, I spent a meager 3% of my time on religious-related stuff. I can see a huge amount of room for improvement.

I am going to continue to keep track of how I spend my time. Maybe I'll update you monthly, maybe each quarter, or maybe not at all. But I'm interested to see how my numbers change in the next year, because seeing on a chart exactly where I spend my time is a motivator to me to spend it more wisely so my chart looks more balanced.

8 comments:

Barb said...

This was very interesting...I would be so ashamed on some of those if I were to calculate....hummmm need some improvement in that area as well.

Paulette said...

Well, there you go. If we didn't have to sleep a third of our lives away, we could get so much done!

Paulette said...

P.S. - Eight percent of my day today was spent watching American Idol (no multitasking either; I full on just watched TV). That's 2 hours I'll never get back!

pinksuedeshoe said...

Very interesting! I've started listening to the BoM while I sew. Well, the sewing that doesn't require much thinking anyway. The other night I listened to almost 100 pages. I mean, I wasn't taking notes or pondering or anything, but I do remember some of what i "read". And I should do this..... but I don't know if I am brave enough to post my results!

Anonymous said...

Albert Einstien described why time flys or drags different in 2 ways.

1> if you sit one a hot stove for a minute it seems like and hour... Sit by a pretty girl for and Hour and it seems like a minute.

2> When you are young time drags by and when you are old it flys by. IT is a preception .. At age 6 1 year is meausres 1/6th of your life. At age 60 1 year is only 1/60th of your life time.

I tend to believe he might be right. It is all relative to your point of view.

Angie said...

Hmmmm, I might try this, but I am sure I will be dissapointed by the results. :/

QuiltNut Creations said...

I might try this but I already think I know what the answers would be lol.

Jennifer Lovell said...

I'm in awe that you were able to document all of those minutes of doing things even just in one day, let alone one week. That's committment! Good job : ). I'm interested to know about my pie slices too (and I wish my sleep piece were as big as yours). If only I could pay someone to follow me around and write stuff down?