My time diary from part of one day. Messy, of course. The numbers on the far left side show computer time.
Last week my friend Kristen (The Frugal Girl) and I (and some of you!) did a time diary experiment to see what in the world was happening to those 24 hours each day.
My hypothesis was that I have Computer Time-Suck Syndrome.
I was right. And remember the whole thing about how I was going to do better just because I was keeping track and I knew I would be reporting it to the world? Can we forget about that part? Because…well, you’ll see.
I could tell as I was going through the week that I was losing track of time on the computer. I would go to do a quick email, blog, Facebook check-in, thinking it would be 5-10 min., and discover upon emerging that it had actually been 20 or even 60 minutes. Really? It didn’t seem like that long!
I went through the time diary to try to total my computer usage for each day. These times are approximate, because I didn’t always write down the exact time I sat down and the exact time I broke away.
Computer Time
Monday: 3 hours
Tuesday: 4 hours
Wednesday: almost 5 hours!?!
Thursday: 4 hours
Friday: 2 1/2 hours
Now, I don’t consider all of that time as wasted. Some of it was intentional and planned. Some of it was productive time. But waaayyy too much of it was me, floating around from one interesting recipe/blog post/Facebook update to another, when I really should have been doing something else.
The thing is, when I’m on the computer, I’m often doing things that I think will ultimately be good for my family, like finding new recipes, researching activities to do with the kids, or learning about decluttering and organizing. But I need to spend time actually living my real life.
I need to spend time actually decluttering and organizing my own home, not just looking at a gazillion ideas and methods from others. Not that that’s all bad, but I need a better balance between the two.
I just want to throw in here that we did lots of good offline things this week, too! We went to the library twice, we made smoothies and banana bread, we cleaned, played, colored, and danced. Yay!
Here are some updates on a few other things I mentioned in my post when I introduced the time diary experiment:
Sleep Schedule:
I went to bed between 12 – 2 AM each night and woke up between 6:30 – 8:59 AM. (My goal is to get to bed earlier and wake up earlier.)
Average sleep time : 7 hours (I think my body would prefer 8-9)
Cleaning Schedule:
I think I did a little better than usual. And I’m really improving on getting the kids involved. No big decluttering projects, though.
Planning Ahead:
I made To Do lists for at least 3 days. I don’t follow them very well. I don’t look at them enough. I need to simplify this and force myself to have less things on the list so that I’m not too overwhelmed to look at them.
Next Steps:
Even though I’m tempted to try to fix everything at once, I think I will start by simply reducing the amount of time I spend on Facebook. I love Facebook. I love it a little too much. So I’m thinking 30 min. a day. I’ll be sure to let you know how it’s going!
Be sure to check out The Frugal Girl’s time diary update, too!
If you did a time diary, I’d love to hear about it! And if you blogged about it, feel free to put your link in the comments.
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