The method
Time journaling
Time journaling is journaling that also records where your hours went. You write or say your day in your own words, and the entry is added up into hours by category. The time you never mentioned stays on the page as unaccounted.
Last updated
Reviewed by Mohammed Raqeeb
What it is
A journal entry that adds up to hours.
Time journaling joins two habits people already know: the daily journal and the time log. A daily journal keeps how the day felt. A time log keeps where the day went. A time journal keeps both, from one entry.
The entry is written in ordinary sentences, not in a timesheet. “Emails until nine, then a planning meeting” is enough. The hours are worked out from the words afterwards.
A real entry
What a time journal entry looks like.
A time journal entry is a few plain sentences about the day. This workday entry became 20h 55m of accounted time, including 8h 45m of work, when the Think in Numbers parser read it.
“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.
How to start
How to start time journaling.
Time journaling takes five habits. None of them need a timer.
Step 1
Write what you did, in plain words.
Write the day the way you would tell a friend: what you did, and roughly when or for how long. Rough times are fine.
Step 2
Write as the day goes, or once at night.
A line after each thing you finish is the most accurate. That way of writing has a name: interstitial journaling. One entry at night works too.
Step 3
Add it up by category.
Group the day into a few categories: sleep, work, people, meals, your phone. Add up the hours in each.
Step 4
Keep the gap.
Whatever the words never mention is unaccounted time. Leave it on the page. The gap is often the most useful number of the day.
Step 5
Change one thing, then look again.
Pick one category to grow or shrink next week. The next week's entries show whether it moved.
Compared
Time journaling, a regular journal and a timer app.
Time journaling sits between a regular journal and a timer app. It keeps the journal’s words and the timer app’s hours, without the stopwatch.
| Question | Regular journal | Timer app | Time journaling |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you do | Write how the day felt | Press start and stop | Write or say what you did |
| When | Once a day | While it happens | As it goes, or once at night |
| What you get | Your words | Hours | Your words and your hours |
| Missed time | Not shown | Lost if you forget the timer | Kept as unaccounted |
Go further
Everything on time journaling.
The guides below cover each part of time journaling: what to write, examples, printable pages and the time math.
- Hours in a weekThe week in hours, minutes and seconds, and where the average week goes.
- Hours in a yearThe year in hours, leap years, and what a daily habit adds up to.
- Where did my week go? calculatorEnter a typical day and see your week accounted and unaccounted.
- Journal promptsPrompts by moment and goal, many ending in something you can count.
- Journal entry examplesFour real entries, each shown with the hours it became.
- Interstitial journalingJournaling between tasks, a line at a time, all day.
- Time auditA week of writing down what you did, then adding it up.
- TemplatesPrintable PDFs: a daily journal, an hourly planner and a time log.
The app
Time journaling in Think in Numbers.
Think in Numbers is a smart journaling app with time tracking built in. You write or say your day, in one go or in pieces, and it reads what you wrote and returns your hours by category. No timers, no forms.
Most journals stop at how your day felt. This one also shows you where the day went. The time you never mentioned is shown as unaccounted, and you can move, resize or relabel any block on the Day page. Think in Numbers runs on iPhone and Android.
For iPhone and Android. Try it on your own day before you pay.
Questions
Questions people ask.
What is time journaling?
Time journaling is journaling that also records where your hours went. You write or say your day in your own words, and the entry is added up into hours by category, with the unmentioned time kept as unaccounted.
Is time journaling the same as time tracking?
Time journaling is time tracking without timers. A timer app asks you to press start and stop. Time journaling asks you to describe what you did, afterwards, in words. The hours come out of the words.
Do I need exact times?
No. Rough times and durations are enough, such as "worked until lunch" or "about an hour on my phone". The point is to see the shape of the day, not to bill it.
Can I do time journaling on paper?
Yes. A daily journal page with a small table of hours works, and so does a time log. Both are free as printable templates on this site.
How does Think in Numbers do time journaling?
Think in Numbers is a smart journaling app with time tracking built in. You write or say your day, and it reads what you wrote and returns your hours by category. The time you never mentioned is shown as unaccounted, and you can correct any block on the Day page.
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.