Time Audit
Published in the World Journal, April 30th, 2026 Issue
In 2024, as a part of a fellowship I participated in, I learned about a fun and alarming activity called a time audit. I added up all of the hours available to me in a week minus the time needed to sleep, eat and keep basic hygiene. From my calculations, that left me 85.75 hours for everything else. The next step was subtracting external time commitments (family, career, community, volunteer) and internal time expectations (working out, keeping in touch with friends, passion projects, ect…).
At the time, I had two small children at home; I was nursing an infant; I had a full-time job and two board positions on my plate. I won’t bore you with the breakdown but when I finished the audit, it became clear that — conservatively — I had negative 11.25 hours every week after all of my external obligations were met, sweeping my internal needs and expectations completely off the table.
No wonder I felt frantic and panicked all the time — there were literally not enough hours in the day. This resulted in one of two fluctuating results: I was dropping the ball at my external commitments, or I was pulling time away from basic needs, like sleeping and eating, to get everything done. The time audit was scary and left me feeling sad and hopeless. I’m so happy that I did it.
I know for a fact that I am not the only ‘burger that has overextended themselves. I would encourage others to try a time audit because what it did for me, fundamentally, is remind me that I’m a human being. In addition to being a deep validation of the stress I was experiencing, it forced me to be realistic. I am not magic. I can’t make 97 hours fit into 85, and neither can you. Admitting that attempting to do so does more harm than good goes a long way.
So then I fixed it and it was fine and I never had any troubles with it ever again… NOT. Seven months later I did another audit, only to find a 15 hour deficit after external and internal time needs were factored in! It’s not an overnight fix. It is learning to say no, identifying your priorities, experimenting with new things, accepting imperfection, and many other very difficult things to learn and unlearn. Today, one year later, I’m only short one hour a week including all my external and internal commitments.
In small towns there is the expectation that people wear many hats — and that’s OK! Just make sure your hats don’t bury you. Take care of yourselves, ‘burgers. We need you at your best for all the great things we have in store.
