Time Logging

Purpose: Use this follow-on activity to guide you in creating a time log and weekly summary.

When creating a time log, you need to record every activity for a week. Write down each activity as it ends, providing as much detail as possible. Each activity should be given a category and a priority. The priority should be based on whether the activity is directly linked to your critical goals.

You can use the following categories and information checklists:

• planning and organizing, which includes time spent setting or reviewing goals, creating schedules and to-do lists, and organizing files and information
• meetings, which includes time spent on formal meetings, as well as their purpose and what they accomplished
• thinking and problem solving, which includes time spent considering issues, strategies, and problems
• phone calls, which includes time spent on calls, who these calls were with, and what was discussed
• e-mail, which includes time spent reading, writing, and responding to e-mail and what the subject of those e-mails was
• reading or writing, which includes time spent reading or writing reports, articles, and evaluations, and what the purpose was for this
• interruptions, which includes time spent on interruptions and why you were interrupted
• casual meetings, which includes time spent meeting one or two colleagues in unscheduled meetings and what these meetings were about
• socializing, which includes time spent talking to others about non-work-related topics
• breaks, which includes time spent on breaks and what you did in these breaks
• personal time, which includes time spent on personal calls, e-mail, doctors appointments, and
• lunch, which includes time spent on lunch, where you had lunch, and what else you did during your lunch break

Remember that these categories are simply a guide. You can create other categories better suited to your work as needed.

Once you've logged your time for a week, create a table with all the categories you used to define your time. Then add the total time spent on each category. Next you divide the total by 5 (if you work a 40-hour week over 5 days) to get the average amount of time spent on each category per day. Finally, assess the priorities given to each category to determine how much time you're spending on high-priority tasks.

Time log table

Time	Minutes	Category	Description	Priority

For online use, complete each row as described in the instructions. If you would like to work with the page as hard copy, simply print it out using the Print link at the top of this page.

You can use the next table to create your own time log summary table.

Time log summary table

Category	Total time	Average time	Priority