As we approach 2025, I want you to start envisioning a year where you’re fully in control of your time.
If you often feel like the hours slip away before you can focus on what truly matters, this simple time audit exercise will help you take back your schedule and align your daily actions with your biggest business and life goals.
Accountability
As business owners and professionals, it’s easy to feel like time slips away between meetings, emails, and daily tasks.
That’s why I’m sharing one of my go-to exercises with my clients to help you reclaim your schedule and refocus on what truly matters. Conducting a personal time audit is a simple yet powerful tool to gain clarity on where your hours are going and how you can better align them with your business and life goals. Let’s dive in!
Aspiration
Take the Next Week to Conduct a Time Audit
When someone tells me, “I just don’t have enough time,” I use this 4-step process to help them spot the gaps. It’s a 20-minute-a-day activity designed to show you exactly where you’re spending your time and where you can delegate or stay laser-focused on the tasks that truly matter to grow your business and enrich your life.
What You’ll Need:
- A notebook or paper
- 20 minutes each day
Step 1: Record Set reminders for yourself at 10am, 2pm, 5pm, and 8pm. Each time the alarm goes off, jot down everything you’ve done over the past few hours—meetings, emails, deep work, social media, random interruptions, whatever it may be. This step takes just 5 minutes, and it’s the foundation of understanding how you use your time.
Step 2: Categorize Now, organize your activities into categories like emails, meetings, deep work, personal time, and social media. Feel free to assign colors to each one for a visual breakdown. Here’s an example: - Email: Blue
- Meetings: Yellow
- Deep Work: Green
- Relaxation: Purple
- Scrolling: Red This step will help you identify patterns and areas where you might need a shift in focus.
Step 3: Spot the Time Wasters Now, take a look at your list. How often are you jumping from one task to another, especially between productive deep work and distractions like social media? Recognize the moments when you lose focus, and ask yourself:
- Are there patterns to when I’m most distracted?
- What’s causing the interruptions?
- Where do I need to devote more time to deep work?
Step 4: Assess & Align Finally, calculate how much time you’ve spent in each category. Then ask yourself:
- Are these activities aligned with the goals I have for my business and life?
- Am I investing enough time in the most impactful tasks? Remember, if you don’t control your calendar, someone else will. Prioritizing deep work over admin tasks can be the game-changer you’ve been looking for.
Want to dive even deeper? The Goal-Setting Workbook will walk you through defining your goals and building accountability into your routine.
Ambition
Need even more? While this time audit can show where your time goes, but true progress comes from aligning it with your larger goals. Sometimes, an outside perspective is key to identifying where to focus and what to delegate.
Let’s work together 1:1 to streamline your strategy and unlock your full potential.
If you are ready to take your Ambition to the next level, here are 3 ways I can support you.
Library Lounge
| A resource hub for ambitious entrepreneurs looking to start, grow, or scale their businesses and build the careers of their dreams. https://marielleagency.com/shop/. |
Business Consulting
| Our consulting services not only fine-tune your strategies and operations but also cultivate a resilient and growth-oriented mindset. Together, let’s conquer challenges, unleash potential, and set the stage for a year of unprecedented success! Reach out to this email: |
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