Where do you provide the most value, and what tasks are just time and energy sucks?

For the third time this week I’ve been talking to someone about the power of Time Audit. When people mention to me the split between the work they enjoy and/or are good at (not always the same), and the other stuff, I often reach for the Time Audit tool. It is inspired by Dan Martell and Buy Back your Time, but recently I added a dash of Patrick Lencioni and the Six Types of Working Genius into the recipe.

Our goal should be to spend more time doing things that generate the most joy to us and the most value to whatever we are trying to achieve. How does Time Audit help? By providing clarity on what we spend time on, and how much of our work is the right kind. Especially in a burnout situation or risk of burnout, this is critical. Burnout doesn’t come from too much work necessarily – it comes from too much of the wrong kind of work. Time audit also helps (and that was Dan’s main objective) to identify tasks that are the first to be offloaded to someone else. The number of epiphanies that clients get from just paying attention to what they spend their time on never stops amazing me.

So how to do a time audit and get the most out of it? The mistake I often see is when people are trying to shortcut the process, and just go to their Outlook or Google Calendar or whatever and try to work backwards. Don’t do that.

Start a fresh spreadsheet (here’s a handy XLS template). Brace yourself to adopt a new habit for the next (at least) two weeks.

Now, in 15 minute increments, fill in as you go during the day, what was it you were doing. Walking a dog, going to get a coffee, check emails, having a meeting, doing deep, creative work – EVERYTHING gets recorded. Then add the following dimensions:

• Color code the level of enjoyment. Green is great, yellow OK, red – a drab.
• Ad 0-3 $ signs to note the value created (either for you or for the organization).
• Optional, but recommended bonus: Add a letter corresponding to the Type of Working Genius that you were working from during that slot.

A client asked me today what is the difference between the color and the $$ signs, the simplest answer I could come up with was – “The color shows how you feel during the work on the item. The $$ sign shows how you feel about having accomplished it.”

I’m certain you will find the exercise valuable. Those who don’t find the value usually don’t even start. So if you have enough reason to do it, I can promise enough learning from the process.

Once completed, it is particularly helpful to discuss your audit with someone, such as a coach. Feel free to reach out to me if I can help (as long as you’ve done your audit, of course)!