My days, in numbers

     I have always been prone to introspection, but in the past few years I have become more serious about it. One of the books I was reading on the science of what makes us happy suggested tracking activities. I loved this idea. I already consider whether, in general, what I do aligns with what I value, but this lets me examine things on a more fine-grained detail.

     I tracked all of my time for roughly two weeks, one in the spring and one in the fall, down to the nearest 15-minute interval. I categorized them and made this pretty graph. The only things not displayed are sleep and work, which I felt I could safely remove from analysis: I am almost always well-rested and I almost always limit my work week to the 37.5 hours workweek my company keeps.

Hours logged during 14 days

     A few things I notice right away- I'm spending the most time on things I really love - DIY and friends. Also, since I hate to clean, I have streamlined my household to minimize cleaning and I'm really pleased with that number. I'm outside a lot, because being outside is captured in half of the DIY, most of the pets (walking Ada), and "Outside", which is what I call my morning routine of drinking coffee and reading comics outside every morning. I am sort of astounded at how much time I'm spending on laundry for one person.

     This graph is really just preparation for a silent retreat I'll be taking this fall. I'm planning the retreat myself, and I knew I wanted to head in with a good understanding of how I spend my time and how I spend my money. I'm not quite sure what I'll be doing with my time when I get there, though, so if anyone has good suggestions on how to examine your life in three days, please send suggestions my way.