Time audit worksheet you can fill in privately

Copy the worksheet below into a note, or download the CSV. Write start when you begin, and write end when you stop or pause. When you begin again, use a new row.

Day 1:
Date:

Log:
-
-
-
-
-
-

Day 2:
Date:

Log:
-
-
-
-
-
-

Day 3:
Date:

Log:
-
-
-
-
-
-

Review:
Where the hours went:

What surprised you:

Hours vs value:

Keep watching:
-
-

Let go:
-
-

This page shows how to fill that worksheet. For the method, see what a time audit is. It isn’t a timesheet to submit.

What’s on the worksheet

The log has three tables, one per day, with start, end, and note. One row each time you begin. Rough times are fine.

Choose days that represent the routine you want to examine. If you are looking at travel time, log the trip. Three days are a snapshot. Three weekdays won’t show a weekend, and three days may not show a reliable Monday-versus-Friday pattern.

The review covers where the hours went, what surprised you, hours vs value. Under that, two lists: keep watching, and let go.

There’s no rate column or client field. The rows follow your activity changes rather than a half-hour grid.

How to fill each line

When you begin, write the start time. When you stop or pause, write the end. When you begin again, use a new row.

1. Start and end. Use the time you would tell a friend. 09:10 to 09:55 is close enough.
2. Note. Name the work. “Inbox and Slack” tells you something; “Busy” doesn’t. A few words beat a blank.

Write the times at each switch. If you keep forgetting, try a reminder at a natural break; change its timing if it interrupts your work. If you estimate a missed block later, mark it as approximate.

Leave unused rows blank. A blank row does not need a task to fill it. If a busy day needs more than six rows, add more.

A filled day

A made-up sample day:

Inbox took the first 45 minutes. The proposal gets 85 minutes, from 09:55 to 11:20. The weekly catch-up fills the last 40 minutes before noon.

The gap after 12:00 is a pause. The next row starts when work begins again.

Keep the notes for yourself, including blunt ones like “ran long.”

After three days, fill the review

Fill the review after you have three days of rows.

Before you reread the days, use a separate note to guess where you think the hours went.

Read the days once and add up rough minutes for each kind of note. Write:

• Where the hours went. Which kind of work took the most clock time. One sentence.
• What surprised you. Where the rows differ from your guess, or a block that felt short and wasn’t.
• Hours vs value. The work that ate the day, next to the work that actually moved something.

Then split what you found. Keep watching is for a habit you’re changing, or hours you have to report. Let go is for the rest.

Choose one change within your control. If messages kept interrupting a project, try a separate block for nonurgent replies and see whether the project gets more time. If you cannot move those demands, use the notes to discuss priorities with whoever sets them.

A daily work log answers a different question: what finished, and what got in the way. Fill that at the end of the day if you want a handoff to tomorrow-you. Keep longer reflections separate so the time entries stay easy to scan.

Keep the file on your own device

Save the finished worksheet on your device. Don’t drop it in a shared drive “for later.” If you print it, don’t leave it in a stack someone else can read.

Use a local-first timer for the lines you keep watching. The audit can stay on paper.

If Keep watching includes inbox time, TimeRetain lets you see how much of each morning it takes after the audit ends. The primary record stays on your device. Optional Sync stores an encrypted copy on TimeRetain’s servers.

Keep a private timer for the few things the worksheet said to watch.

Start tracking →

Put the file away

When the three tables and the review are filled, close the file. Leave Keep watching for the few lines that still need a timer.