The (implied) art of Auditing 🗓️

"It's not important to get things done, it's important to get the right things done."
– Peter Drucker

🧠 Know Thy Life

At year-end, I spend hours reviewing the past 12 months. The end of a calendar year is a good excuse to slow down.

During a hectic schedule in the middle of the year, I ask myself “where did my time go?” — mostly rhetorically. I ask the same question at the end of the year, but no longer rhetorically.

While preparing to wrap up the year, I had a recent realization.

Years ago, when my friends ask for suggestions on how they can better manage time, I used to respond with ideas they can try. If I am asked now, I no longer respond with ideas. I respond with the same question: “Do you know where your time goes?”

There can be different reasons we have a hard time managing time or finances. Sometimes, it is a matter of habit or discipline. More often than not, I realize it is a matter of auditing.

📘 The Effective Executive

One book I revisited when I got reminded of this thought is Peter Ducker’s The Effective Executive.

He shared that this three-step process is the foundation of executive effectiveness:

1. Recording time. Know where your time goes. When you point to a certain time of day, do you know what you were doing? Do you know how much time you spent on a certain task? Log your time.
2. Managing time. Now that you know where your time is going, you manage it. Remove or reduce the time you spend on items you don’t think are worth it.
3. Consolidating time. This is about optimizing. Allocate a focus time to do important & urgent tasks, undisturbed. You can achieve more within 2 hours of continuous work than15 minute chunks split across the day.

I started journaling late in high school. To an extent, I used my Planners & Google Calendar as a journal. I only got into the habit of “planning” during my last year in college. I would think this is probably why I find managing time relatively easy — I have been trying to log my time coincidentally.

From time to time, I have a hard time managing my finances. The book made me realize I need to apply the same technique — know where my finances go before trying to manage them.

At the end of the day, managing time isn't checking a hundred tasks within 24 hours. You need to know how much time you have in a day, know what you want to prioritize, and allocate time according to priorities.

This concept applies to managing anything, not just time.

Put simply:

you cannot manage something you cannot see.

🔗 Links I saved

I encountered this interesting article on How Kindle novelists are using ChatGPT.

Targeting to expand my mind as much as I can, I have started to learn a new language for fun.

At the end of every year, I dedicate time to clean up my photos. I rewatch Johnny Harris' video on How to Remember Your Life to remind myself it's worth it.