If you want to lose weight, you keep a food diary. If you want to get out of debt, you record your spending. Likewise, if you want to use your time better, keeping track of your time is the first step. Once you know where the time goes, you can make changes that will help you spend more time on the things that matter to you, and less on the things that don’t.
IMPORTANT: If you click the duplicate icon while on the instruction you will ONLY duplicate that page and NOT the tracker. Please only duplicate from the Happier Hour Time Tracker
Over the course of the next two weeks, use this Time Tracker to write down what you are doing in 30-minute increments.
Write the activity you’re doing.
In addition to writing down what you are doing, rate each activity on a 10-point scale (1 = not at all happy to 10 = extremely happy). For this, think of “happiness” in its very broadest sense: your overall positivity from that activity. Think beyond mere enjoyment (though that may be the crux of it). The activity could make you happy because it is wonderfully satisfying, it gives you energy, it’s engaging, it makes you feel serene, or it fills you up—making you feel great and capable and excited. The unhappy activities might be negative because they are depleting, activities you dread, or activities that make you feel lousy about yourself or anxious. You will use these ratings at the end of the tracking period to help you go back and take stock of the various ways you spend your time.
Also, enter the duration: the amount of time (in minutes) that you spent doing that activity at that time.
Feel free to add additional notes about this experience, so you can come back later and look for your underlying sources of happiness (and frustration).