I’m continually trying to improve my work processes. As part of that, I am almost always reading at least one business-related book at any given time. Currently, that book is The Effective Executive, which may seem an odd choice for a small business owner. Regardless, it is the exemplar of the Lindy effect in business management books and so I decided that now was the time. I’m not quite halfway through it as I’m focusing on content output, but the second key concept of the book (the first is that effectiveness can be learned) is that to be in control of your time, you have to know how your time is spent. This seems obvious, but it is something I haven’t done in the last five years.

I learned to hate time tracking when I worked at a big law firm. I had to record every task I completed in six minute increments. It was a task that I frequently neglected, leading to a regular scramble at the end of each month to record all of my time. I was not alone. The problem was so widespread that there were several policy changes about inputting time during my stay at the firm. A lingering dislike for the tedium of time tracking is a secondary reason why we use flat-rate billing for our client work.

Anyway, it’s time for an experiment. For the next four weeks, I’m tracking all of my working time. I want to know totals and breakdowns, but also I hope that I’ll find dead spots that can be reallocated and that I’ll be more able to reflect on how different tasks at different times affect my energy levels. I’ll write about my conclusions whether anyone else finds them interesting or not when the analysis wraps up. I hope that I’ll be able to make some educated changes to how I handle my schedule by mid-August.

Next on the business book list is going to be re-reading $100 Million Leads as one of my upcoming content projects is to create targeted lead magnets. If anyone has other recommendations for resources in creating lead magnets, I’m happy to include them in that effort as well.