Here’s a loaded question for you. Do you know where your work day time is going?  I don’t mean the big chunks that is usually easy for you to track. I mean all the five, fifteen, and thirty minute pieces that seem to get gobbled up by “stuff.” Did you know that S.T.U.F.F. actually means something real?

Stuff Happens, Unplanned, Out of Order, and Takes Your Immediate Attention

Time Wasters

Ugly Interruptions

Fires You Have to Put Out

Facebook and Social Media Distractions

There is a solution!  For just one week (better if two, but let’s not push it) keep a Time Diary of every moment from the time you get up and get going in the morning to the time you call it a night. You can do this in a notebook, on a legal pad, by blackberry, or Ipad, just don’t try to do it by memory. It is that memory thing that got you into this mess in the first place. You need to see clearly where your time is going, all of it. Don’t guess, don’t summarize, and stop thinking you know, you don’t. Oh and stop stalling your time diary by thinking you need some fancy program to do this, you don’t.

I’ve had clients reclaim as many as ten hours a week by keeping a time diary and then either stripping out the S.T.U.F.F. or delegating it when it comes up. Imagine ten or even five hours a week you can add to being productive or swap it out of work and make in fun time. (Yes, you are supposed to have fun and create that elusive life balance.)

Diaries of any sort are incredibly valuable in taking control of your business and your life and creating those to work for you instead of you for them. The time diary is your best starting point to tame the S.T.U.F.F. that you have and find out where your time robbers are and reclaim the hours. You’ll learn very quickly that while you thought you were investing just thirty minutes a day on social media, it may be more like two hours a day (not efficient unless it equals real dollars and cents return on your investment.) You’ll also get an upclose and personal look at the little tasks that are devouring big amounts of time, whether it’s cleaning, organizing, picking up and delivering things to clients and customers (depends on your business), formatting, editing and more.

You’ll get a clear picture of what tasks you must do yourself and what can be delegated and then kick off the process of finding other people to do those tasks saving you time and money (because you are worth more than they are, so by having them do it, you reclaim time of greater value.)

Stop rolling your eyes, this is a tiny bit of work and effort to snag priceless hours of your time for growing your business or expanding your life. Remember time is our greatest nonrenewable resource, there is not bank of time, you can’t get more, use what you have to the best of your ability!

Here it is, I’m throwing down the gauntlet! Do a time diary for one week, and when you have it complete, tap me for a totally free strategy session, just 15 minutes to determine your next steps. You can go it alone, if you prefer. I just want to give you a little incentive to get more done in less time, not matter what your business is.

Will you take the time diary challenge? Dish it below in comments!