We live in a world of information overload and sometimes I wonder when do people actually do work (like write specs, write code, create designs, model revenue opportunities, etc.). Some of the major timesinks during the week:

information streams

*see techmeme, greader, facebook, MyY!, etc. people spend a lot more time then they willingly admit on this stuff — i estimate anywhere between 2-3 hrs./day (how ironic i don’t have the time to actually back into this number)

meetings

*depending on what you can do this easily 50% of your time at work (some work gets done here, but lets not overdue it)

water cooler chat

*shooting the shit with friends/colleagues at work

daily transportation

*1 to 2 hrs./day

social nourishment

*time with friends, family, etc.

eating

*at least 1 hr a day

sleeping

*5-7 hrs. a night

excercising or whatever it is you do to relax

*0-5 hrs./week

writing blog posts like this:-)

So — what is the solution? Simple –> self-instrumentation. Basically, if we had data that showed us how we spent our time over the course of a day, week, month I assure you we would quickly realize how much of our time is wasteful and would change our behaviors accordingly. The saying “you can’t fix what you don’t measure” is so very true and why not apply it to our most precious resource — time.