Time must be the most equal substance on the planet. We all have exactly 1,440 minutes in our day, no matter what your sex, skin colour or occupation is. So how is it possible that some people can create more happiness, wealth and impact with those minutes? They are able to align the way they use their time towards their goals.

What stops you from reaching your goals and your dream life is your refusal to change your daily habits. Most people keep doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. You must radially change the process if you want to change the outcome and reach your goals.

At DrivenWoman we use a powerful tool called Time Audit to align time with goals. This simple exercise has helped thousands of women change the way they use their time, those precious 1,440 minutes, to reach their goals.

How to do the Time Audit

1) List everything 

Start by picking a typical week day and list everything, yes, absolutely everything you do (including taking a shower etc). You need to list eating, sleeping, commuting, time spend on facebook for fun or for business. Write down everything: taking the kids to school, making dinner, and all other household chores. Write down your typical tasks during your office day too. Taking with your boss, writing emails, sitting in zoom meetings and so on.

Be as honest as you can and write down everything you use your time on. No need to list how many minutes or hours everything takes, just list the tasks in your usual existence. 

2) Stop doing

This is the most difficult box to fill in. We’d like to keep everything in, but there is only 1,440 minutes in the day so if you want to increase doing what is really important you have got to stop doing something to free up the minutes! Life just isn’t popcorn cosy, watching TV every night for the ones that want a bigger life.

3) Reduce = do less of

What are the tasks you can do less of? Some of your daily tasks are not that important towards your goals, but they still need to get done. You may need to accept a lesser standard on some tasks that aren’t that critical on your path towards your dream life.

4) Delegate 

Think ruthlessly where you add value right now, and delegate the rest, within your means and resources, of course. Most women have a lot of people around them they could delegate stuff to such as husband, relatives or children, but they rather do everything themselves. This is linked to trying to please and do everything perfectly, even those tasks that have nothing to do with goals. “Nobody can fill up the dishwasher as well as me!“.

Start trusting people you delegate stuff to do their job and accept lower standards than if you would have done it yourself. Just keep in mind how critical that stuff really is. How that 4 year old’s birthday present is wrapped (elephants or trucks in the wrapping paper, who cares!) or if the dinner is a bit overcooked isn’t seriously critical.

Some women think they teach a great lesson and set an example to their kids by doing all the housework (and being extremely grumpy and exhausted as a result). I’m yet to discover the benefits of being such role model and have opted to delegate non-critical tasks, and have my boys grow in a clean house with a happy mother.

5) Focus = do more of

Take a look at your list and pick the tasks that are going to take you towards your goals and write them down. Your task is to align your time towards these actions because they will take you to your goals. The more minutes you spend with them the faster you will succeed.

This exercise is very revealing, how you spend your time tells you what you value most. You may learn that you put everyone else’s tasks before your own. Or that you can’t start working on your goals until the house is perfectly clean. Reflect on what that tells about your priorities and how you must change them in order to create a bigger life.