168 hours. That’s all the hours there are in a week, for any of us.
Once you subtract time for sleep and basic bodily functions, you wind up with about 13-15 hours a day, or around 100 hours a week for all the things you need and would like to do.
That sounds like a lot — it’s a triple digit number, after all. But once you start plotting out on paper how you’re going to distribute those hours, it can be kind of a surprise to realize how quickly they get filled up.
What Is a Time Map?
I’ve been working on a time map this week for the new semester. A time map is Julie Morgenstern‘s term for a kind of guideline or template for your time. It’s not a schedule, exactly, or a calendar, where you would note down specific appointments.
Instead, a time map sketches the basic structure of your days. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, for instance, my time map shows most of my day blocked out for teaching, which includes class prep, office hours, classroom teaching, and administrative work. On my calendar for a specific Tuesday, I might have student appointments listed, a list of topics to prepare, my class schedule, and so forth.
The time map is useful as a general guideline for thinking about when you’re going to fit things in. Morgenstern compares it to thinking about shelves in a closet: you might have one where you put sweaters, and another where you put jeans. You know which kind of clothing goes where, and it helps keep everything organized. When the pile of sweaters gets too large, you know that either they have to move to a second shelf, or you have to get rid of some sweaters.
Unlike clothes on a shelf, which usually can be folded or rolled or just squished a bit to accomodate an extra sweater or two, the hours in the day aren’t going to change. Sure, you can skimp a little bit on sleep if you have to here and there, but that’s not a good long-term solution.
Make Your Own Map
To create your own time map, use a spreadsheet or wordprocessing program to create a grid with columns for the days of the week and the hours of your day as the rows. First, color in or label the boxes on the grid where you have fixed time commitments, like a class or meeting that occurs most weeks. Then label the boxes on the grid for your high-priority activities, basic life tasks (bathing, dressing, commuting, etc), and fun rewards. It works best if you group tasks into categories: just block out an hour for “morning routine” instead of 15 minutes for breakfast, 15 minutes for dressing, etc.
Here’s an example of a time map and another from LifeHacker.
At this point, your time map may already be looking pretty full. Mine usually does. This is when you have to ask yourself what else should be on the map, and where it’s going to fit.
It’s not always sunshine and roses at this point.
Like most people, I have many more things I’d like to be able to do than I actually have time for.
Making a time map helps me get clear about my priorities. It also helps me make sure there’s a designated spot in the week for the activities that are most important. I’ve cleared early mornings for writing and I know that if I want to make it to four yoga classes a week, they have to occur on certain days. I know what days I can schedule meetings and when I really can’t.
I use the time map as a guideline as I’m planning each specific week. As a map, it shows the general, ideal shape of the week. How you travel through that terrain is of course going to vary, but I’ve found the time map to be a very helpful tool in making the most of those 100 hours.