Time Audit 101: Breaking the Autopilot Cycle

Dr. Christine Li [00:00:00]:
Welcome back to the Make Time for Success podcast. This is episode number 217. Do your days feel like they're running together, that they all feel a little bit the same with lots and lots of effort on your part, but little to no satisfaction coming from your days and your efforts. If that sounds like you, I want you to stick around because in this episode, I'm gonna show you how to conduct a very powerful time audit. We're going to audit how you are using your time so that you can actually transform your daily routine. In this episode, I'm gonna show you how to break free from feeling like you're on autopilot, how to identify things that are wasting your time, and how to create a purpose driven schedule that actually gives you the results that you are wanting and hoping for. I'm gonna share lots of strategies for how to boost your energy, how to get away from fear based thinking, and also how to make intentional decisions about how you are spending your precious time. Remember, time is your most valuable asset.

Dr. Christine Li [00:01:11]:
So let's go learn how to use that asset so well together. Can't wait to share this episode with you. Hi. I'm Dr. Christine Li, and I'm a psychologist and a procrastination coach. I've helped thousands of people move past procrastination and overwhelm so they could begin working to their potential. In this podcast, you're going to learn powerful strategies for getting your mind, body, and energy to work together so that you can focus on what's really important and accomplish the goals you want to achieve. When you start living within your full power, you're going to see how being productive can be easy and how you can create success on demand. Welcome to the make time for success podcast.

Dr. Christine Li [00:02:06]:
Today, we're going to dive in together into a very powerful concept of doing a time audit, and this is for you. If you feel like your days tend to feel the same, that you're waking up feeling one way, you continue throughout the day feeling a familiar way, and at the end of the day, you don't quite feel satisfied. You don't feel like you've gotten accomplished what you had intended, and you don't feel like you have much progress even though you feel like you've been putting in effort. If that sounds like your day recently or historically, then this episode is for you. In this episode, I'm going to point out different segments of your time usage that I think will be very good for you to pay more attention to. And in some areas, we're gonna suggest things that you can let go of so that you can audit your time, make better use of it, and end the day feeling fantastic. Like, you've really maximized your time, your use of energy and your life. Before I start, I want to acknowledge that it can be really easy to fall into a time where you are pushing forward all the time.

Dr. Christine Li [00:03:26]:
You are trying, you are efforting, you are forcing yourself to be productive. But again, you don't feel that sense of satisfaction or joy, and you're not seeing the results that you really want. But I just want you to forgive yourself at the start of this episode and understand that you can totally change your mindset, your attitude, and your behaviors so that things go much more smoothly and you get more of the results that you actually want. So the first step, perhaps in a time audit, is to just forgive yourself for feeling like you've been in a rut lately. And I just want to start the conversation off by posing a question. What if you could choose between 2 things? You can choose to spend your time fueling your growth or keeping yourself stuck. And I'm going to assume that every single one of you, even if you're feeling stuck right now, every single one of you would choose you're going to fuel your growth. You're going to specifically decide whatever I do, I'm going to do that with an aim to fuel my own growth.

Dr. Christine Li [00:04:42]:
And really, what we need to do now is take a hard look at how you've been using your time and let's uncover what's been happening so you have a better time of it and you just totally steer clear of that feeling that you are, in quotes, stuck. Alright. The first thing that we're going to do together is we're going to break the autopilot cycle. We are no longer going to move through the day as if we're robots without brains because we have massively intricate and genius level types of brains in us. So why are we gonna walk around like we have no decision making capacity, that we have no energy within us, that we are lacking creativity, and that we're doubting ourselves. We're no longer going to do tasks as if we're robots without spirit and without intelligence. And instead of being in this autopilot mode, where we're letting our to do lists run our day, we're going to decide that we're gonna break the autopilot cycle. We're going to step back for a minute, and we're going to look at exactly where our time is going.

Dr. Christine Li [00:06:01]:
And so I'm going to start by giving you an activity to do, and you can do this today. I would love for you to track what is actually going on in your day for 12 hours. I was gonna say 24 hours, but let's just do it for 12 hours. That should be more than enough, and you're gonna write down everything that you're doing in 30 minute increments. So at 9 AM, what are you doing? At 9:30 AM, what are you doing? At 10 AM, what are you doing? And I don't want you to judge or change what you're doing today for the 12 hour analysis period. We're just going to observe what is actually going on. If you're scrolling social media, write that down. If you're raiding the fridge, write that down.

Dr. Christine Li [00:06:46]:
If you're exercising, write that down. If you're daydreaming, write that down too. I want you to get a real sense of how your time is being used and without doing this kind of deep analysis, we're never really going to know how we're driving our car, how we are paying attention to our journey. It's kind of like driving our car without ever really paying attention to the directions. We are moving, but we don't exactly know. Are we taking the best path forward? Are we actually getting there? Did we veer off course? And we want to have like we would if we were actually driving a real car. We wanna have a definite road map. We would want to make sure we were avoiding traffic and any roadblocks, and we wanna make sure that we're making good time.

Dr. Christine Li [00:07:42]:
So we're gonna do this tracking exercise just for one day so that you can take a closer look at how you've been spending your time. Again, no judgment, and hopefully, this is gonna give you a lot of clarity as to how you're spending your time, and hopefully, it makes you surprised. Hopefully, you end up being shocked in some way that you give so much time here and you forget to do things in the other area. I want you to be shocked because oftentimes when you get new information that's accurate, you are shocked into a better direction. It's kind of like a wake up call for your time and you're no longer going to be on autopilot. You are going to assume the role of active driver of your beautiful $1,000,000,000,000 machine. You have a $1,000,000,000,000 brain and a $1,000,000,000,000 body, and now we're going to treat all this activity and all the activity that you do throughout the day as something that's really valuable, something that's really worth paying close attention to. The next thing that we're going to do in this time audit, once we've broken out of that autopilot, we do everything the same way mode.

Dr. Christine Li [00:09:01]:
The next thing we're going to do is we're going to take some time to take a look at how much fear is coming into your day. We're going to focus on what kind of fears are serving as roadblocks for your good time usage. Whenever we focus on our fear, we end up feeling like our time is not our own because fear takes our attention away from the present moment, and the only time we actually have control over and dominion over is the present time. And when we are looking at our fear, we are either thinking about the past, all the things that we've done wrong or we've neglected to do or we haven't done yet. That's past based fear. Or we are looking at the future. We are anticipating making mistakes, getting into trouble, having somebody yell at us, losing a job, running into a catastrophe. So I hope these examples show you that if you are spending most of the day really micro analyzing your fears, you are really not doing your time any favors.

Dr. Christine Li [00:10:20]:
You are basically letting your time run out the window. It's just speeding up. Actually, it's running away from you and other reasons why we should get away from fear based focus is because when we are focused on our fears, we end up not being able to make good decisions. We end up procrastinating. We end up not feeling ourselves and we end up feeling lost again. Time is running out the window and we don't feel ourselves. And it's no wonder that fear ends up being this massive roadblock to the good use of our time. So I want you to remember, maybe mark this down.

Dr. Christine Li [00:11:05]:
If you're not driving a car, a literal car, you want to remind yourself that your time will expand when you focus on the present. The more you anchor yourself in the now, in the present moment, the more clarity and time you will have to use. And we all love it when we feel clear on things and we all love it when we feel like we have all this time to sink into. We have time to make good decisions. We have time to use in the present moment. We're not wasting our time. We're not yelling at ourselves because we let a month go by without starting that presentation that we are excited to deliver, but we haven't started yet. So we want to make all of our emotions and thoughts and behaviors run-in the same direction, run with our directions and good plans, and run without the burden of being weighted down by fear.

Dr. Christine Li [00:12:01]:
So now that you've learned how to not have a fear based focus, I want you to pause right now and take 3 deep breaths. I'll do this with you, and I want you to ask yourself, what is one thing I can put my good focus on right now? So let's do the 3 deep breaths. And now that you've calmed your nervous system down and you've decided I'm not going to focus on my fear. What does your body and what does your mind remind you to focus on? What is the thing that you could actually get done in the present moment with total clarity and without worry about how much time you are taking? What comes to mind? Is it a phone call? Is it a writing assignment? Is it a job interview that you want to go for with full gusto? Is it something that could really help you be healthier and feel more vibrant in your day? Whatever it is, focus on the thing that will really get you the payoff. The fear never really gets you a real payoff. Fear just begets more fear. So let's decide in this time audit that you're going to check-in with yourself throughout the day and you're going to make sure that you are not focused on fear and that you are fully present in your focus and in your actions. And that should help your time audit really give you great results because you're going to be focused throughout the day.

Dr. Christine Li [00:13:45]:
You're gonna be checking your fears and you're gonna say, see you later. I've got more important things to do than waste my time thinking about what ifs when I could be making things actually happen. It's a wonderful habit to develop. I promise promise promise you. Do the 3 deep breaths and then do the next action step. It's a wonderful pattern to get yourself into. The next area that I would love for you to focus on is to look at what are you doing throughout the day to boost your own energy. And I have so many different wonderful, easy to implement ideas for this section of energy boosting activities.

Dr. Christine Li [00:14:31]:
I want you to decide 1st and foremost that it is worth your time to look at how you are replenishing and nurturing and preserving your energy and well-being. So often, we run through the day chasing to do list items, and we neglect to preserve our health and our energy and our good mood. And I think that's such a shame because it's really our health and our energy and our good mood that gets us the good results in our actions. So we don't want to forget to pay attention to what is going to boost our energy. Some ideas for you to track and pay attention to as part of this part of the time audit are, 1, movement. How are you moving your body? Are you stretching? Are you walking? Are you getting up out of your chair? Are you doing the cooking? Are you doing the cleaning? Are you moving your body? Are you going to the gym and exercising? I would love for you to have a segment of movement or multiple segments of movement throughout your day every single day. I think movement is such a critical piece of well-being. And what are we doing all these to do list items for anyway? We are doing them for a creative, beautiful, enriched, fulfilling life.

Dr. Christine Li [00:15:55]:
So why don't we just put in the exercise in first instead of waiting until the end of the day, instead of waiting until you're sick or having some sort of injury to get yourself moving, let's prevent the illness and the injury and put the energy boosting activity at the top of your to do list. Put the movement in 1st. The second area you could track is how much are you planning your day? Are you being intentional with your goals? Are you designing your vision? Are you journaling? Are you reflecting about how you want your day to actually go proceed and look? And I will bet that if you spend a few more minutes planning your day at the beginning of the day, your day is actually going to go more closely according to plan. When you have a plan, typically things go a little bit more smoothly, so try that time audit activity out as well. That's the activity of planning just a little bit more so that you can feel sure of yourself across the day. The third area to track is any work that you do to increase your mental clarity. For a lot of people, I know that involves coffee or tea. It might be doing some self work activity, and by that I mean release your self doubt instead of saying, oh my god, I'm the worst person for this job, decide how can you boost your self esteem and your belief in yourself before you start the work that you've been given or the work that you've chosen for yourself.

Dr. Christine Li [00:17:41]:
Know that you don't have to be the perfect person to get things done well. You just have to invest in feeling good about yourself so that the decisions that come out of you end up being of high quality. When you believe in yourself, you are not going to make bad decisions. You're gonna make the best decisions that you can, and that has a rolling and a ripple effect. You're gonna see this as you practice mental clarity, and know that it's okay to be very clear in your decision making. I think sometimes we are so used to doubting ourselves that we end up feeling like we're confused no matter what, and I want you to shift your mindset and decide. I am someone who thinks positively. I am someone who has good judgment.

Dr. Christine Li [00:18:37]:
I am someone who uses my experience for my future decisions, and I use my powers of forward thinking. And my expectations are that everything works out in my favor, that the things I decide to do are the right things to do. Alright. So invest in your mental clarity work. The last area to track for your time audit in the category of energy boosting activities is I want you to get support. Instead of hashing out every single problem in your life by yourself, I want you to decide, I'm gonna use my friendships, I'm gonna use my community, I'm gonna use chat gpt or AI or Google. I'm gonna use the resources that I have. I'm gonna hire a coach.

Dr. Christine Li [00:19:31]:
I'm going to invest in therapy. Whatever is the right pathway for you, get some more support because I think when we rely on group thinking, oftentimes, we get inspired ourselves to think at a higher level. We start to feel safer. We start to feel like we have support, and I think support is a very valuable and much undervalued way to make good use of your time. Alright. So now that you've heard the list of energy boosting activities, I want you to decide for yourself. I like this one. I like this one for myself.

Dr. Christine Li [00:20:11]:
This one I can implement before the week is over. So for this section, I want you to review your schedule and ask yourself, when can I make time for activities that boost my energy, that help me to move my body, that help me to make decisions and help me to avoid feeling like I'm running on empty or that I'm headed towards burnout? This will be well worth your time to do this part of the time audit. The next very important section of the time audit is I want you to really take a hard look at where you are wasting your time or where you are focusing on very low value tasks. I want you to eliminate anything that is just blowing your time away. So what is it? Social media? Is it unproductive meetings? Is it worrying yourself sick about things that are just beliefs in your mind and they're not actual problems? Is it a list of unnecessary errands that you've piled onto yourself that you've volunteered for? Whatever it is, make a list and then decide how are you gonna get rid of these time wasters. Are you gonna delegate them? Are you going to do them super quickly instead of spending all day long doing errands? Are you going to be ruthless in taking care of your time and cutting out the waste, cutting out the material that just does not serve you? It's like when we do physical decluttering of our space, we end up feeling really energized and empowered after we've done the ruthless decluttering. So I want you to be ruthless about eliminating or reducing the time wasters so that you have more room in your life, you have more room in your schedule, you have more room in your brain to think, oh, what are the things that I want to focus on that truly matter to me? What are the really important things that I want to focus on? Alright. So an activity that you can do to take care of this part of the time audit is you can highlight 3 tasks that you do regularly or semi regularly that you are really ready to get rid of? Can you eliminate these 3 tasks? Can you delegate these 3 tasks or can you minimize them? I would love for you to do this and do not skip this section because we all have areas of time waste.

Dr. Christine Li [00:22:48]:
No matter how good we are, I think, because we need to fill our time, but we also can be better at how we're choosing to fill our time. So declutter your schedule, create more time by removing what is unnecessary. And the last section of this time audit is I want you to create something. I would love for you to create a purpose driven time map. Again, that's creating a purpose driven time map, and this is really what it sounds like. It's a map of your day with the big rocks already in front and center. The big rocks are your 3 priorities for the day, the things that you would be upset about if you didn't try to get these things done, The things that might be for other people, for your family, for your finances, for your health. Pick the top three areas.

Dr. Christine Li [00:23:52]:
Don't overwhelm yourself, but decide that you are going to make your day focus on these three areas and that you're gonna do this with deep focus, with kindness to yourself, with a sense of taking care of your energy as you are addressing the big three, and with the sense that no matter how busy you are, you have time to take care of your priorities. So you're going to basically create the atmosphere of success that there's no holding you back, that there's no more distractions, and there's no more confusion, and there's no more doubt. And when you have that mindset, you'll find that you actually have fuel in your gas tank, that you actually feel more motivated to try to handle the priorities, to try to get them knocked off the list and taken care of. And note that when you take care of your priorities, your life tends to go a little bit better, and that's what we're looking for. Again, we're looking for success and satisfaction and a great use of our time. I want you to design the purpose driven time map in a way that actually reflects how you want to live. I don't want you to be ashamed about this. I don't want you to feel embarrassed or feel funny about this.

Dr. Christine Li [00:25:20]:
I want you to start dreaming. Wow. I'm like a magician here. I can actually reclaim all my time, get all my priorities taken care of, and get to the gym as well. This all can really happen when you eliminate the time wasters. You eliminate the self doubt. You start focusing on what you can do instead of your fears. It all will work out, especially when you do things like the time audit.

Dr. Christine Li [00:25:47]:
I really hope you have learned a lot from this episode. I really enjoyed putting this content together for you. I want you to remember this is not about being perfect. It's not about having every 5 minute period scheduled and taken care of. Believe me, I actually think that you're going to feel like you have more flexibility, more fun, more time for freedom, more time for feeling well when you do things like the time audit because you're going to feel like you've gotten control back of your time. And that is such an important state to get yourself into. I'm so excited for you to try this. Please let me know how this works out for you.

Dr. Christine Li [00:26:29]:
You can send me a direct message over on Instagram at procrastination coach is where you can find me and just let me know how you're doing in general. I can't wait to give you more suggestions for leading a good life and not wasting our time next week on Thursday when the next episode drops. If you would like a nice worksheet to remind yourself of what is involved in the time audit so that you can do the time audit on the worksheet, go to maketimeforsuccesspodcast.com/timeaudit. Again, go to maketimeforsuccesspodcast.com/timeaudit, and you'll be all taken care of. Enjoy doing the audit. And again, let me know how it works out. I'll talk to you soon. Bye.

Dr. Christine Li [00:27:22]:
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Make Time For Success podcast. If you enjoyed what you heard, you can subscribe to make sure you get notified of upcoming episodes. You can also visit our website, maketimeforsuccesspodcast.com, for past episodes, show notes, and all the resources we mentioned on the show. Feel free to connect with me over on Instagram too. You can find me there under the name procrastination coach. Send me a DM and let me know what your thoughts are about the episodes you've been listening to. And let me know any topics that you might like me to talk about on the show. I'd love to hear all about how you're making time for success.

Dr. Christine Li [00:28:02]:
Talk to you soon.