Track Where Your Time Really Goes (Free Weekly Time Tracker Download Included)
- John Stephenson
- Jul 24
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 25
I was tracking my time last month, and something caught me off guard.
Three hours. That's how much time I spent just copying client information from emails into my project management system. Three hours I could have been doing actual work.
Maybe you have similar time sinks hiding in your week.
The thing is, most of us don't actually know where our time goes. We feel busy, we know we're working hard, but those little tasks that eat away at our day? They're almost invisible.
The Small Stuff Adds Up Fast
Think about your typical Tuesday:
Logging receipts into your expense tracker
Updating project status in three different places
Moving data between spreadsheets
Taking notes from client calls and filing them somewhere
None of these tasks take very long. Maybe 5-10 minutes each. But when you add them up across a week, they can easily consume hours of your time.
Hours you could spend on the work that actually moves your business forward.
A Simple Way to See What's Really Happening
I put together something that might help you figure out where your time is actually going. It's called the Automation Opportunity Discovery Worksheet.
It's just a Google Sheet, but it's designed to help you spot patterns in how you spend your workday.
The idea is simple: track what you're doing for a week, then look for the stuff that feels repetitive or manual.
Here's what the worksheet helps you do:
Log your daily work in short blocks
Tag different types of tasks
See where most of your time goes
Find the biggest time drains in your week
Identify what could potentially be automated
I think the tagging part is particularly useful. When you start categorizing tasks as "admin," "client work," "meetings," or whatever makes sense for your business, patterns emerge pretty quickly.
How to Actually Use This Thing
The process is straightforward, though I'll admit it takes a bit of discipline to stick with it for a full week:
Make a copy of the worksheet in your own Google Drive
Throughout each workday, log what you're doing in 30-60 minute chunks
Add a quick description and tag for each task
At the end of the week, review where your time went
Look for anything that feels repetitive, follows clear rules, or seems manual
The key is being honest about what you're tracking. Don't just log the "important" stuff. Those 10 minutes you spent reformatting a document or the 15 minutes moving files around count too.
Perhaps the most eye-opening part is seeing how much time gets consumed by tasks that don't require your specific expertise or creativity.
What You Might Discover
After using this for a week, you'll probably find a few surprises. Maybe you're spending way more time on administrative tasks than you realized. Or perhaps there are certain types of work that could be streamlined or eliminated entirely.
The goal isn't to optimize every minute of your day. That would be exhausting. But finding even one or two processes that could be automated might free up several hours each week.
And honestly, those hours can make a real difference in how your business runs.
Get Started
If you want to try this out, you can grab the worksheet again here:
Fair warning: tracking your time for a week isn't the most exciting activity. But I think you might be surprised by what you learn about how you're actually spending your workday.
The worksheet is free, and you can customize it however makes sense for your business. Sometimes the simplest tools end up being the most useful ones.
What Happens After Your Week of Tracking?
Once you've completed your week of time tracking, you might find yourself staring at the data wondering what to do next. Maybe you've identified some clear time sinks, but you're not sure how to actually automate them.
That's where we come in.
If you'd like help analyzing your results and figuring out which tasks could be automated, feel free to reach out to us at Knowbie. We've helped dozens of business owners streamline their workflows and reclaim hours each week.
Sometimes it's as simple as connecting two apps you're already using. Other times it might involve setting up a more comprehensive system. Either way, we can take a look at your time tracking results and suggest specific ways to automate the biggest time drains.
You can contact us through our website or shoot us an email. We'll review your worksheet and give you some practical ideas for getting those hours back in your week.
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