Guide
How to do a time audit
A time audit is a week of writing down what you really did, then adding it up. Write each day down as it happens, total it by category, and compare the totals with what you meant to do. It takes 7 steps.
Last updated
Reviewed by Mohammed Raqeeb
Step by step
How to do a time audit.
A time audit follows the same steps every time. Each step below takes a few minutes a day.
Step 1
Pick one ordinary week.
Choose a week that looks like most of your weeks, not a holiday or a launch. A time audit measures normal life.
Step 2
Write the day down as it happens.
Each time you finish something, write the start, the end and what you did. A line at a time is more accurate than rebuilding the day at night.
Step 3
Use your own words.
Write "answered email in bed" rather than a code like ADMIN. Plain words keep the detail that makes the audit useful later.
Step 4
Add each day up by category.
At night, group the lines into a few categories, such as sleep, work, people, meals and your phone. Add up the hours in each.
Step 5
Mark what you cannot account for.
Subtract the day's accounted hours from 24. The rest is unaccounted time. Keep it as its own line instead of spreading it across the others.
Step 6
Compare the week with what you meant to do.
Put the week's totals beside what you planned or say you value. The gaps between the two are the findings of the audit.
Step 7
Change one thing, then audit again.
Pick the one finding that matters most and change it for a month. Then run the audit again and compare the two weeks.
One day of an audit
What one audited day adds up to.
One audited day turns into a handful of totals. This workday, written in plain words, came to 8h 45m of work, 7h 45m of sleep and 3h 5m nobody could account for.
“Up at 6:45. Showered and made coffee, out the door by 7:30. The train took 40 minutes. Emails from 8:15 to 9, then a planning meeting until 10:30. Worked on the quarterly report until lunch at 12:30. Ate at my desk for half an hour. Two more meetings from 1 to 3. Back on the report from 3 to 5:30, then the train home. Cooked pasta around 7 and ate with my roommate. Scrolled my phone on the couch for about an hour. Read for 20 minutes and lights out at 11.”
The hours it became
- Work8h 45m
- Sleep7h 45m
- Travel & Commute1h 20m
- Food & Meals1h
- Using Phone1h
- Personal Care45m
- Self-Growth20m
- Unaccounted3h 5m
20h 55m of 24 hours accounted for. Unaccounted is the time the words never mentioned.
Real output from the Think in Numbers parser (version v21), run on with the app’s starter categories. Stored as written, not edited.
Reading the results
What a time audit usually shows.
A time audit usually shows three things. Some activities take far more time than you would guess. Some things you value get almost none. And a real share of the day is unaccounted for.
The unaccounted share is the one to watch. It is made of short stretches that never felt worth writing down. To size it for a whole week before you start, try the Where did my week go? calculator and read how many hours are in a week.
After the audit
Keep auditing without the paperwork.
A time audit is a snapshot. Writing a line after each task every day, known as interstitial journaling, turns it into a running record. Doing it in words rather than a table is time journaling.
Keep reading.
- Time journalingThe method: write or say your day in your own words, then see it as hours.
- Time log templateStart, end, what you did, minutes. Then add it up.
- Hours in a weekThe week in hours, minutes and seconds, and where the average week goes.
- Interstitial journalingJournaling between tasks, a line at a time, all day.
- Where did my week go? calculatorEnter a typical day and see your week accounted and unaccounted.
Questions
Questions people ask.
What is a time audit?
A time audit is a record of how you really spend your hours, kept for a short period and then added up. It shows the gap between where you think your time goes and where it goes.
How long should a time audit last?
One ordinary week is a good length: 7 days includes both workdays and a weekend. Shorter audits miss the weekend. Longer ones are harder to keep up.
Is there a time audit template?
Yes. The time log template on this site is a free printable PDF with columns for start, end, what you did and minutes, plus a box to add up the day.
What should I do with the results of a time audit?
Pick one finding and change it. Common changes are moving focused work to the hours you have the most energy, and shrinking the unaccounted time. Then audit again a month later.
Can an app do a time audit for me?
Think in Numbers, a smart journaling app for iPhone and Android, keeps a running time audit. You write or say what you did, it returns your hours by category, and the time you never mentioned is shown as unaccounted.
Try it on my day.
Think in Numbers is a smart journaling app with time tracking built in. Write or say today in your own words, and see where the hours went. No timers.
For iPhone and Android. Try it on your own day before you pay.