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Activity Logs

The document discusses using activity logs to analyze how time is spent each day. It recommends keeping a log for several days to record all activities and accompanying feelings like alertness. Analyzing the log can reveal unproductive tasks and fluctuations in energy levels throughout the day. The log allows identifying tasks to eliminate, scheduling important work for peak hours, and reducing multitasking to make the best use of time each day.

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Rohit Chaudhary
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42 views2 pages

Activity Logs

The document discusses using activity logs to analyze how time is spent each day. It recommends keeping a log for several days to record all activities and accompanying feelings like alertness. Analyzing the log can reveal unproductive tasks and fluctuations in energy levels throughout the day. The log allows identifying tasks to eliminate, scheduling important work for peak hours, and reducing multitasking to make the best use of time each day.

Uploaded by

Rohit Chaudhary
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Activity Logs

Find Out How You Really Spend Your Time

How long do you spend each day on unimportant things; Things that don't really
contribute to your success at work? Do you KNOW how much time you've spent
reading junk mail, talking to colleagues, making coffee and eating lunch? And how
often have you thought, "I could achieve so much more if I just had another half
hour each day."

And are you aware of when in the day you check your e-mail, write important
articles or do your long-term planning?

Most people find they function at different levels of effectiveness at different times
of day as their energy levels fluctuate. Your effectiveness may vary depending on
the amount of sugar in your blood, the length of time since you last took a break,
routine distractions, stress, discomfort, or a range of other factors.

Activity logs help you to analyze how you actually spend your time. The first time
you use an activity log you may be shocked to see the amount of time that you
waste! Memory is a very poor guide when it comes to this, as it can be too easy to
forget time spent on non-core tasks.

How to Use the Tool

Keeping an Activity Log for several days helps you to understand how you spend
your time, and when you perform at your best. Without modifying your behavior
any further than you have to, note down the things you do as you do them on this
template. Every time you change activities, whether opening mail, working,
making coffee, gossiping with colleagues or whatever, note down the time of the
change.

As well as recording activities, note how you feel, whether alert, flat, tired,
energetic, etc. Do this periodically throughout the day. You may decide to integrate
your activity log with a stress diary.

Learning from Your Log


Once you have logged your time for a few days, analyze your daily activity log.
You may be alarmed to see the amount of time you spend doing low value jobs!

You may also see that you are energetic in some parts of the day, and flat in other
parts. A lot of this can depend on the rest breaks you take, the times and amounts
you eat, and quality of your nutrition. The activity log gives you some basis for
experimenting with these variables.

Your analysis should help you to free up extra time in your day by applying one of
the following actions to most activities:

 Eliminate jobs that your employer shouldn't be paying you to do. These may
include tasks that someone else in the organization should be doing, possibly
at a lower pay rate, or personal activities such as sending non-work e-mails.
 Schedule your most challenging tasks for the times of day when your energy
is highest. That way your work will be better and it should take you less
time.
 Try to minimize the number of times a day you switch between types of
task. For example, read and reply to e-mails in blocks once in the morning
and once in the afternoon only.
 Reduce the amount of time spent on legitimate personal activities such as
making coffee (take turns in your team to do this - it saves time and
strengthens team spirit).

Key points:

Activity logs are useful tools for auditing the way that you use your time. They can
also help you to track changes in your energy, alertness and effectiveness
throughout the day.

By analyzing your activity log you will be able to identify and eliminate time-
wasting or low-yield jobs. You will also know the times of day at which you are
most effective, so that you can carry out your most important tasks during these
times.

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