1/27/2021 Activity Logs - Finding More Time in Your Day

 6 MIN READ

Activity Logs
Finding More Time in Your Day
(Also known as Activity Diaries or Job Activity Logs.)
How much time do you spend at work doing things that don't contribute to your success? At first, you may say "not
much." But – especially if you haven't used Activity Logs before – you may be surprised by how much more time you
can find.
When you properly understand how you use your time at work, you can minimize or eliminate low value activities. This
means that you can do more high value work, while still being able to leave the office at a sensible time.
So, how can you understand this? One useful way is to keep an Activity Log, and that's what we're looking at in this
article.

About Activity Logs

An Activity Log (also known as an Activity Diary or a Job Activity Log) is a written record of how you spend your time.
By keeping an Activity Log for a few days, you can build up an accurate picture of what you do during the day, and how
you invest your time. You'll find that memory is quite a poor guide, and that keeping the Log is an eye-opening
experience!
Your Activity Log will also help you understand whether or not you're doing your most important work during the right
time of day. For instance, if you're more energetic and creative in the morning, you'd be better off doing your most
important work during this time. You can then focus on lower energy tasks, such as responding to emails or returning
calls, in the afternoon.
Activity Logs are also useful for helping you identify non-core activities that don't help you meet important objectives.
For example, you might spend far more time than you think surfing the Internet, or getting coffee each afternoon.
When you see how much time you're wasting on such activities, you can then change the way that you work to eliminate
them.

Tip:
Don't confuse Activity Logs with timesheets – these are used for reporting on your use of time, and for tracking the
time you spend on a task or job.

How to Keep an Activity Log

To keep an Activity Log, download this template, or open up a new spreadsheet and set up the following column
headers:

Date/Time.
Activity description.
How I feel.
Duration.
Value (high, medium, low, none).
Then, without changing your behavior any more than you have to, note down everything that you do at work, as you do
it.
Every time you change activities, whether replying to email, working on a report, making coffee, or gossiping with
colleagues, note down what the activity is, the time of the change, and how you feel (alert, flat, tired, energetic, and so
on).
Then, at a convenient time, go back through your Activity Log and write down the duration of each activity, and
whether it was a high, medium, low, or no value task. (Evaluate this based on how far it contributed to achieving your

https://www.mindtools.com/community/pages/article/newHTE_03.php 1/3
1/27/2021 Activity Logs - Finding More Time in Your Day

job goals.)

Learning From Your Activity Log

Once you've logged your time for a few days, analyze your Activity Log. You may be alarmed to see how much 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 how
you are, the rest breaks you take, when and what you eat, and the work that you're doing.
Once you've analyzed your Activity Log, you should be able to boost your productivity by applying one of the following
actions to various activities:

1. Eliminate or delegate jobs that aren't part of your role, or that don't help you meet your objectives. 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 or surfing the Internet.
2. Schedule your most challenging tasks for the times of day when your energy levels are highest. That way, your work
will be of better quality, and it should take you less time to do. (Our article, Is This a Morning Task? , has more
on how to discover your peak time of day.)
3. Minimize the number of times you switch between types of task. For example, could you check and reply to e-mails
at only a few times of the day, or process all of your invoices at the same time each week?
4. Reduce the amount of time you spend on legitimate personal activities such as making drinks. (Take turns in your
team to do this – it saves time and strengthens team spirit!)

Tip:
Sometimes, spending too much time on low-value or low-priority tasks can be a symptom of procrastination . Find
out how to deal with this here .

Key Points
Activity Logs are useful tools for analyzing how you use your time. They help you track changes in your energy,
alertness and effectiveness throughout the day, and they help you eliminate time wasting activities, so that you can be
more productive.
Once you've analyzed your Activity Log, you should be able to boost your productivity by eliminating or delegating low-
value activities, scheduling challenging tasks for the time of the day when you feel your best, minimizing the number of
times that you switch between types of tasks, and reducing the time you spend on personal activities.

Download Template

atings

https://www.mindtools.com/community/pages/article/newHTE_03.php 2/3
1/27/2021 Activity Logs - Finding More Time in Your Day

aseelsaw 2021-01-07 20:28:23

    
Non Member 2020-12-25 06:53:05
    
the articles look good, if we can add some videos, it will be easier to read.

zhangxinji 2020-09-27 05:14:28

    
shanrahul 2020-09-23 16:56:23
    
luguimen 2020-04-10 05:12:33
    

1 23…33

Learning Stream
Make Time Your Friend
Previous (/community/pages/article/newHTE_88.php)Next (/community/Bite-SizedTraining/HowtoPrioritize.php)

© Emerald Works Limited 2021. All rights reserved. "Mind Tools" is a registered trademark of
Emerald Works Limited.

https://www.mindtools.com/community/pages/article/newHTE_03.php 3/3