Well, it's that time again - I'm going to do another "time audit" starting next week. As I've written in the past, I get a lot of value from periodically analyzing how I spend my time. Time audits help you better adjust your prioritization, balance, and productivity and I'm feeling like I'm due for one.
Tools for tracking
As usual, I have been looking for tools to make this easier and I've found one that I think is going to be really effective: it's from David Seah's "Printable CEO" toolset, and he calls it the "Emergent Time Tracker."
At David's site, you can find several formats of this form that you can download for free, along with instruction on how to use the tracker and interpret / analyze your results. There is even an annotated example to get you going quickly (thumbnail at right), and a beta version of an online time tracking tool.
Bren told me about another web-based tracking tool called "SlimTimer" that looks interesting.
Give it time
If you're going to do a time audit of your own, I recommend doing it for two weeks. Not only does this give you plenty of data to work with, I also find that my 2nd week is more complete because I'm more diligent about logging my activities as the habit starts to settle in.
Taking another cue from David Seah, I've also just ordered a Kitchenaid timer. I think it'll help me be more conscious of how I use my time and help me with time boxing.