When you choose to make changes in your eating habits (whether your goal is to lose weight or just make healthier decisions) the first thing a coach, nutritionist or diet guru will tell you is to write everything that goes into your mouth in a food journal. The idea behind this is to hold you accountable and make you aware of what you are eating (and depending on your goal, the calories behind it).

The same can be done if you are trying to figure out where all your time goes. Pretend for a moment that you have billable clients. For companies that do, employees are required to bill their time to customer accounts. Start thinking of your day in the same light. Keep a running tab on everything you do that day from answering calls to attending meetings to reading your personal email. Write it down in list fashion with the corresponding amounts of time spent on each line item. At the end of your day or while you’re sitting in front of the television that night, color-code your day.

Use a color like red for the absolute have-to’s of your day — these are the things you can’t say no to without jeopardizing your career or your organization’s reputation. These include responding to member questions, attending to job duties and the like. Use blue to identify things that have nothing to do with your position. This may be explaining things to/training co-workers or staff, navigating the political aspects of your position or personal break time. Use yellow to highlight everything else.

Next analyze your day. What color makes up most of your time? Are you surprised by anything you see? We’ll talk about what to do with these results on Monday. In the meantime, anyone want to share findings?