by Lori Vande Krol | Mar 14, 2025 | General Productivity, Planning, Time Management, Tools
Time tracking may not be the most exciting task but taking a step back to reflect on how we spend our precious minutes and hours can be a game-changer. When we examine our daily routines, we gain clarity on where our time truly goes, helping us live more intentionally, enhance productivity, reduce procrastination, and reach our goals. Many of my clients have had eye-opening realizations—both big and small—after committing to just a week of time tracking and asking themselves a few simple but revealing questions. Below, I share some practical tips and tools to make time reflection a seamless part of your time management routine.
How to Get Started with Time Reflection
If you’re new to time tracking and reflection, start simple by looking back regularly throughout your day. Chris Bailey, author and Productivity Consultant, suggests the following in his recent blog: “…set a chime on your phone that’ll go off every hour or two. When it goes off, reflect: What did you spend the last hour or two doing? Was it a productive use of your time, attention, and energy?”
A more advanced technique for time tracking allows you to work “as normal” and then reflect and evaluate at the end of each day. Small changes then result in continuous and lasting improvement.
Try these simple steps:
1. Track Your Time: Spend at least a week capturing everything you do throughout the day. Note the activity, time spent, and whether or not the activity was planned or unplanned. Use a journal, spreadsheet, or download the free Time Log below.
2. After reflecting on your day, answer the following questions:
- What did I learn? For example, What tasks took longer than expected? What distracted me from my priorities? What activities provided the most value?
- What can I change?
- What actions will I take?
3. Identify Patterns: Look for trends and areas where you can optimize your schedule, delegate tasks, or eliminate time-wasting activities.
Tools to Make Time Tracking Easier
There are many tools available to help you track and reflect on your time more effectively. A few of these tools include:
- Toggl – A simple yet powerful time tracker for individuals and teams looking for a simple, intuitive interface.
- Clockify – A free tool for tracking time across multiple projects and people.
- RescueTime – Unlike manual trackers, RescueTime runs in the background and provides insights on where your time goes without needing to start or stop timers.
- The simplest…pen and paper! For a template capturing all of the steps mentioned above, click below for a free download.
If you use a paper planner, you might also consider using this to not only plan your time, but track it. One ProAction Planner user shared that she uses the scheduling section of each weekly layout to track her time.
Let me know in the comments below if you use other time-tracking tools or methods that you enjoy.
Making Time Reflection a Habit
To truly benefit from time reflection, make it a regular part of your routine. Set aside 5 minutes at the end of every day and 10-15 minutes at the end of each week to review your time logs and adjust your schedule and routines accordingly. The more consistent you are, the more insights you’ll gain, leading to continuous improvements in productivity and overall well-being.
Final Thoughts
In a recent article by Digital Marketing News, “experienced remote workers,” including myself, were asked to share our favorite time-tracking tip and tool for remote work. Refer to this insightful article for additional ideas and tracking tools. There are many valuable suggestions whether you work remotely or not.
Time is one of our most valuable resources, yet we often let it slip away unnoticed. Taking a step back to analyze how we actually spend our time can reveal inefficiencies, uncover hidden priorities, and highlight areas for improvement. By making time reflection a regular habit, you can gain greater control over your daily schedule and align your actions with your long-term goals. So, take a moment to look back—you might be surprised at how it propels you forward.
by Lori Vande Krol | Jan 9, 2025 | General Productivity, Goals and Priorities, Motivation, Planning, Team Productivity, Time Management
“What if a goal is unachievable?” This question came from an audience member during a recent goal-setting workshop I presented. I suspect she was referring to a goal assigned by her “higher-ups” at work – a goal she felt was unreasonable. Many of us, at some point, have likely felt similarly about personal or professional goals. My immediate response was, “But what if it is possible? What could happen if you actually reached that goal?” Before dismissing a goal as unattainable, it’s worth taking a step back and evaluating why it feels out of reach.
1. Know why the goal is important to achieve.
Without a good understanding of why a goal is important, it’s hard to drive passion and motivation towards achieving it. Ask yourself, “What is the ultimate purpose of this goal?” Understanding the “why” can help you stay focused and committed, even when the journey gets tough. This clarity often reveals where the goal aligns with larger organizational or personal values, making it easier to prioritize and tackle.
2. Review current and needed resources to achieve the goal.
Are there resource limitations that may hinder progress toward the goal? This evaluation should include people, time, money, tools, and technology. If the goal is truly unachievable using current resources, a case should be made for including needed resources in the plan for that goal. For example, if you lack the necessary expertise, consider seeking training or outsourcing. Similarly, if time constraints are an issue, reevaluate deadlines to ensure they are realistic and manageable. You might also look for ways to automate steps or work to create other efficiencies.
3. Get everyone in the boat and rowing the same direction.
Even if all of the people impacted by a goal know and understand the “why,” you may still have team members who disagree with the goal. A rowboat reaches the finish line only if all team members are rowing together in the same direction. Think how far and fast you can go if everyone is in sync and working together. To achieve this unity, foster open communication, address concerns, and ensure everyone feels heard and valued. When team members share a sense of ownership over the goal, they are more likely to contribute wholeheartedly.
4. Break the goal into smaller milestones.
Sometimes a goal feels unachievable because it seems overwhelming. Breaking it into smaller, actionable strategies and steps can make it more manageable. Each milestone achieved provides a sense of accomplishment and builds momentum toward the larger goal.
5. Evaluate potential obstacles and solutions.
Identify the barriers that make the goal seem out of reach. Are they external, like market conditions or budget constraints, or internal, like skill gaps or low morale? Once identified, brainstorm potential solutions or workarounds. This proactive approach transforms challenges into opportunities for innovation.
6. Be open to revisiting and redefining the goal.
While it’s essential to push boundaries, some goals might need to be adjusted to reflect reality. If, after thorough evaluation, a goal remains unattainable, consider redefining it. Adjusting the scope doesn’t mean failure; it’s about being strategic and focusing on what can realistically be accomplished while still striving for excellence.
Final Thoughts
Unachievable goals can feel daunting, but they also present opportunities for growth and innovation. By understanding the “why,” assessing resources, fostering team alignment, and adopting a strategic approach, you can turn seemingly impossible goals into achievable ones. Remember, the journey toward a goal often teaches us more than the destination itself. Even if you don’t fully achieve the goal, the progress made can set the stage for future success.
For a list of goalsetting resources, check out our prior blog: Goal Setting is Hard.
by Lori Vande Krol | Jun 25, 2021 | Goals and Priorities, Task and Project Management, Time Management
You are constantly presented with new information, communications, to-dos, and ideas. At any point in time, you have hundreds of options for how you choose to spend that moment. While it may feel good to check things off a to-do list, if you aren’t intentional about what is on your to-do list or in your schedule, as well as the choices you make throughout the day, you are not productively working towards goals but instead just “being active.” This can eventually lead to feeling drained, overwhelmed, directionless, and even a sense of failure.
Oxford Dictionaries defines time management as “the ability to use one’s time effectively or productively, especially at work.” But you are only managing your time effectively if you are spending it on the right things, i.e. those tasks and activities that support your greater vision and goals. This starts with knowing what is important and where you want to go. Then, you can better define your shorter-term goals, ensure your actions relate to and support those goals, and achieve the success and happiness you desire. Let’s break this down.
Step 1: Know What is Important and Where You Want To Go
If you aren’t clear about what is important in your life and work, you will likely be overwhelmed and unsure if you’re using your time in the most optimal way. All of the planners, apps, and products in the world can’t help you if you don’t know your priorities.
In order to create the needed clarity, the first step is to determine your long-term vision for work and life. If this is an exercise you haven’t done before, it can be difficult but eye-opening. Start by setting aside some focused time to write your answers to the following questions:
- What do I love about my life right now? What do I enjoy doing? What am I good at?
- How can I do more of this?
- What do I spend time on now that I don’t enjoy?
- How can I do less of this?
- What would I like to do that I am not currently doing?
- Where would I like to see myself in 5 or 10 years? Where am I? What am I doing? Who am I spending time with? What does success look like to me?
- What do I want to contribute to the world?
Once you have written your answers, circle words or phrases that stand out to you the most. Use these words and phrases to draft a few sentences defining your vision and priorities over the next 5-10 years. Don’t worry if it isn’t perfect, and know that it may change a little from year to year. What is important is that you have been thoughtful and intentional about your vision and high-level priorities as you see them right now.
Step 2: Turn Your Long-Term Vision into Short-Term Goals
Once you’re clear on your priorities and vision for success and happiness, you can now set shorter-term goals and objectives. Using your vision statement from above as a basis, determine what you will do in the upcoming year to support your long-term vision for success. In other words, create your SMART Goals* for the upcoming year. (You might categorize these goals by area of work and/or life.)
Then for each goal, answer the following questions:
- What resources do I need?
- Who can help?
- What might get in the way of success and how can I address it?
Document your goals on paper, in a spreadsheet, word document, or in a project planning tool. Once you are clear on your annual goals, you can then determine the strategies needed to reach each goal. In other words, how will you reach your goals by the desired dates? If your goal is to lose 20 lbs by the end of the year, your strategies may be to exercise at least three times per week, learn and implement meal planning, and hire a wellness coach.
Step 3: Determine Goal-Based Next Actions
With annual goals and strategies in place, you can now determine the specific actions required to support them. Don’t worry if you can’t yet list every action needed throughout the year. Focus first on the upcoming quarter, or at least the next 1-3 actions needed to make progress towards your goal. Once these actions are complete, the following steps should become clearer. In the weight-loss example above, the first three actions might be to: 1. Purchase a gym membership, 2. Research potential meal planning programs, and 3. Set up interviews with 3 wellness coaches.
With specific next actions defined to support your goals, strategies, and long-term vision, you are NOW ready to plan and schedule these actions into your weeks and days. The tools and strategies you use for weekly planning and scheduling may vary depending on your job, your work style, your specific challenges, and personal preferences. Check out my blog or follow me on social media for guidance and tips related to weekly planning and other daily time mastery tips.
Step 4: Review and Reset
It is important to periodically review, and potentially reset, your annual goals and objectives as well as your long-term vision. This will help you continue to work with intention, stay focused, and achieve more. When you face obstacles, it will help you remember your “why” and keep you motivated to continue.
The time you spend on this process will help to ensure you are spending your time, energy, and focus on the right things each day. You will have more control over your time and feel less stress and greater joy.
*SMART Goals are: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Based
by Lori Vande Krol | May 20, 2021 | General Productivity, Planning
I had a blog ready to post this month but changed my mind at the last minute. The original blog I wrote focused on the importance of tying a clear vision, goals, and priorities to your daily to-do list. While I still think this is vital to making sure you are working on the right things each day, I decided to put that blog aside until next month. What has been coming up over and over the past week, that I felt more important to share this month, is the fact that no matter how much we plan and prepare, life often throws us curve balls. I’m sure no one would argue, especially in the environment of the past year. So, why even plan at all?
Why Plan?
Planning takes time. It requires difficult decisions. Good planning also creates the need to know your vision, goals, and priorities. Some people may determine the time and effort isn’t worth it…life doesn’t go according to plan anyway, right? But without a plan, without the knowledge and clarity of who you want to be, where you want to go, and how you will get there, the odds of reaching your goals are very low. Without a plan, the stress of the unexpected and the unknown is much higher. Without a plan, you are reacting to the needs and changes around you without intentional thought and value-based decisions.
With a plan in place, you gain more control over your days, your weeks, and your life. A plan puts systems and boundaries around the chaos. Barbara Hemphill, a mentor and leader in the productivity industry, says “Control what you can, so you can cope with what you can’t.” Planning provides you with this control. When the uncontrollable occurs and you are required to “pivot,” you can do so with a great deal more confidence that you are making the right choices. The stress and overwhelm that often results from change is much lower. Your original plan is adjusted, not forgotten, so you will continue to progress towards your vision for success.
Characteristics of a Good Plan
How do you create a plan that allows for the unexpected or for a change in direction? Following are the key features of a good plan:
- It ties to your life and career mission, vision, priorities, and long-term goals,
- It is written. Studies show writing something down makes it more likely to happen and allows for better processing, so pen to paper is ideal, but getting it out of your head and in digital form is better than not getting it down at all,
- It leaves room for flexibility. In other words, don’t plan every minute of every day.
- It is reviewed and reset regularly.
Stay tuned for next month’s blog as I dive deeper into #1 above which is the key to creating the best plan for YOU.
If you need some assistance with creating or adjusting your planning process, I’d love to help. Click to learn more about my Productivity Coaching plans.
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