What This Habit Helps You Do
Most people feel busy all the time, but very few know where their hours actually go.
A time audit gives you the real picture. Once you can see how your days are spent, it becomes much easier to spot pockets of time you can reclaim, reshape or redirect.
Think of it as checking your phone’s battery usage. You’ll finally see what’s draining you.
Why It Works
Time is one of the biggest barriers to changing habits. People assume they don’t have any, but that’s usually not true. They just don’t notice where the small chunks disappear.
A time audit turns invisible patterns into visible ones. And when something is visible, you can change it.
What to do
- Pick a normal week. Not a holiday week or a chaos week. Just an ordinary one.
- Print a simple daily timetable or open a notes app you can update quickly.
- For two or three days, jot down how you spend your time in rough 15, 30 or 60 minute blocks. Not every second. Just the main categories. Think:
- Work
- Sleep
- Commuting
- Cooking
- House chores
- Childcare
- Exercise
- TV
- Scrolling
- Social time
- “Doing nothing” time.
- Keep the entries honest and simple. You’re aiming for clarity, not perfection.
- At the end of the audit, add up roughly how much time each category received.
You’ll start to see where your days actually go.
That’s it. No stopwatch needed.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Recording too much detail. You’re not building a spreadsheet for the taxman.
- Judging yourself while writing. The goal is information, not guilt.
- Trying to change your habits during the audit. Keep things natural so the data is real.
What You’ll Need
- A printable time audit sheet or a notes app
- A pen if you’re using paper
- Two or three typical days
- Optional: a quiet five minutes at the end to total things up
How to Know It’s Working
You’ll start noticing the patterns straight away.
- Maybe your evenings vanish into screens.
- Maybe you’re rushing more than you realised.
- Maybe there’s more spare time than you expected.
The picture becomes clearer, and that clarity makes future changes feel less impossible.
Your Next Check-In
Bring your completed time audit to our next session. We’ll look at where your time really goes and decide where small shifts could make the biggest difference.