#74. Can a Time Audit Really Help With Productivity?
Episode Shownotes:
Join me today as I dive into time audits and their impact on work-life balance for speech pathologists and busy moms. I'm sharing my personal journey with time audits, the challenges we face in trying to complete them, and the major benefits that come from understanding where your time goes. Tune in to learn why time audits are essential for reducing burnout, identifying time wasters, and aligning daily activities with your core values. And make sure to join me next week in Episode #75 when I teach you three different--and realistic--approaches to completing a time audit.
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Episode Transcript*:
Welcome to Work-Life Balance for Speech Pathologists. I’m Theresa Harp, an SLP and productivity coach, and this podcast is all about how to build a successful career as an SLP and still have time for yourself and the people and things you love. So if you’re ready to ditch stress and burnout for a more balanced and fulfilling life, then you are in the right place. Let’s dive in.
Hello SLPs. Welcome to the podcast. This is episode 74. I'm going to be talking about a topic today that I have never covered here on the podcast, and that is the topic of a time bomb. audit. Now, before you tune me out, turn me off, blah, blah, blah. I really want you to, if you are committed to productivity and to work life balance, then to really listen and consider what I have to say in today's [00:01:00] episode.
I'm going to be covering exactly why a time audit is. so impactful, what it can tell you, how it relates to work life balance, and go through some of the reasons why we as humans, as busy SLPs, as maybe moms, hate the idea of doing something like a time audit. So if you are someone who is rolling your eyes or you've tried this and it has never worked, then Definitely stay with me for today's episode because this one is for you.
All right. So this topic is something that I have, of course, experience with as a productivity coach, but I also had personal experience with when I was going through a small business development. program. So about, I don't know, three years ago ish, I was in a, an entrepreneurial [00:02:00] program that was all about growing your small business.
And it had, you know, members, students, if you will, from all different backgrounds, and all different types of businesses. And at the time, I I had applied and was accepted to focus on building and growing my private practice. I had a private practice that specializes, specialized in children with hearing loss, and I was really working on growth.
The business had been open for several years and I really wanted to build my caseload, increase my networking and referral partners, so on and so forth. Right. So that's why I joined the program. And this was before I was. even aware of productivity coaching. In fact, it is actually what I consider to be my first introduction to productivity coaching.
So it's [00:03:00] interesting because I joined with the intention of building my private practice, but I left with an entirely new business. So What happened was one of the components of this multifaceted business development program was led by a productivity coach and her role in the program was to help business owners understand the value of their time, help us to identify what tasks we could do.
could be deleting or delegating or automating and to really help us recognize opportunities to maximize our time. And as part of this process, she had us complete a time audit. Now, this is the one and only time audit that I think I have ever done, if I'm being completely honest, and I will tell you, it was somewhat [00:04:00] painful.
It was a somewhat painful process. However, it was incredibly Incredibly informative. And once I completed this time audit, I was introduced to this whole new world of time management and productivity and long story short, decided that this was something that I really wanted to help other business owners and other SLPs do for themselves.
And so as I was moving, as I moved forward in that program, in that business development program, I sort of. went all in on the idea of becoming a productivity coach. That is how powerful the time audit was for me. Now I'm not saying that you need to go do a time audit so that you can become a productivity coach.
However, what I am suggesting is that Yes, it can be time consuming. Yes, it can be slightly [00:05:00] annoying to have to do something like this. But what it absolutely can be is informative, eye opening, and impactful. And so I really want you to consider the benefits of doing something like this. Now, I also want to offer that the way that I, the way that this woman, this coach, structured her training.
Time audit was part of the issue, I think, for me personally, and why I found it so challenging, because it was completed in an Excel spreadsheet. I had very little knowledge and experience with Excel. I still have very little knowledge and experience. But at that time, very, very little. And so I found it frustrating.
And I would input numbers, and then it would mess up a formula, and I would get that error value signal in the cells, and I would get very frustrated. But once I was able to figure out that system, [00:06:00] it was It was, I was able to see exactly what I was spending my time on. And what I want to offer for you is that if this sort of process of completing a time audit has been the biggest barrier for you in doing something like this, then definitely stay with me for today and then come back for next week's episode, episode 75, because I'm going to be offering three very distinct, simple, straightforward processes and approaches for completing a time audit.
There's lots of different ways you can do this and I'd love to sort of individualize this and customize the process for my coaching clients. So I'm going to share three ways that you can consider doing this so that it isn't particularly painful. And time consuming for you. Okay, make sure you come back to next, uh, next week's episode to hear more about that.
But for now, I really want you to understand why this is so important and I'm going to offer [00:07:00] a few different potential reasons why you've been avoiding doing something like this. And then I'm going to walk you through some of, in my opinion, the biggest values. the biggest products, the biggest outcomes that you will have when you complete a time audit.
All right, you really truly do need to know how much time you have and I'm not talking about 24 hours in a day, but you need to understand how much time you have that's free versus allotted or accounted for. And you need to know where your time is going because otherwise you will just continue on this hamster wheel or Worse, you might try to make some changes to improve your time management or to work on work life balance, but you'll be solving for the wrong problem because you won't have a clear, accurate [00:08:00] picture of what is really causing the overwhelm.
The stress, the rushing, the procrastination, the missed deadlines, all of that. Think of this as, and I say this, I hesitate to say this, because you're going to roll your eyes, some of you, but think of this as a budget in terms of either finances, like a financial budget, or some sort of budget or plan for diet and nutrition.
Because a lot of the principles apply here. You really do need to know how much is coming in and how much is going out. So if you are, if we're thinking about a financial budget, right? How much money are you making? What are the different sources of income? What How often is that money coming in? How much money is coming in?
And then you also need to look at your [00:09:00] expenses. What are you spending money on? What expenses are necessary expenses? What are, you know, maybe excessive, or Um, thoughtless or, um, habitual or impulsive, right? You need to know how much money is going out. Similarly, if you've ever sort of tried doing, you know, counting calories or doing some sort of tracking, fitness tracking and nutrition tracking, diet tracking, you really need to know how much is going in, right?
How many calories are you consuming? How many different types are we? What are you consuming in terms of protein, in terms of fats, in terms of carbohydrates, all of those things. And then what's going out? What sort of output are you generating in terms of movement, in terms of exercise, and so on? Now, we [00:10:00] avoid doing this, in my opinion, for a number of reasons.
But I wanted to highlight three that I think are probably the most common for my listeners, for you as you're listening to this, for our field, speech pathology, and for related professionals, okay? And here's what I came up with. Number one is we avoid doing a time audit because we think it won't be effective, right?
We think it won't really give us any information that we don't already know or that we're going to be able to change and modify so that we can have better control, more control over what we're spending our time on. And I want to offer that if there is a goal that you have that you haven't hit, if you want a result that you haven't yet created, you have to be willing to do things that you've never done [00:11:00] before.
You have to be willing to try different things that you've never tried before. And this, time audit, Right? Gives you that information. It gives you actionable data that you can use to inform how you want to move forward. So if you think that it won't be effective, I would encourage you to question that belief.
And I'm talking again from personal experience. Okay. The second reason that I think we as SLP's want to avoid doing something like this is because we want to avoid the harsh reality. We want to keep our heads in the sand. We want to We don't want to be faced with or to choose to face the things that we're spending our time on that perhaps we wish we [00:12:00] didn't have to, or that we're resentful about spending time on, or that we know or believe that we quote unquote shouldn't spend our time on but we do anyway and we don't want to face it.
Right? It's sort of like when you are tracking your food and you maybe are eating something like a cookie and you're standing over the sink and you're just saying to yourself, well, you know what? It didn't count. I ate it over the sink. I wasn't sitting down eating it. I'm not going to track it. If I don't track it, then it's as if it didn't actually happen.
Well, I think we all can predict what result we're going to get when we operate with that mentality. Avoidance This is essentially lying. It is a form of lying to ourselves and it only harms us. Avoiding what you're spending your time on does not change the fact [00:13:00] that there is a time management issue. In fact, I would offer that you will probably feel worse by avoiding it than by simply sitting down and confronting it with something like a time audit.
Because otherwise we sort of have this. underlying thought that we try and push down of, Oh, I shouldn't be spending my time on this. Or, Oh, I just, I can't get a hold of, Oh, I can't get a handle on this. Or, Oh, I don't want to see all the things that I'm squandering my time on. Right. But newsflash, if you really are serious about making changes to your productivity, to your time management, to work life balance, you have got to become aware.
of what you are spending your time on. Otherwise, you're just going to be solving for the wrong problem, okay? We also think, thirdly, that it will be too time consuming, right? Hello, um, [00:14:00] here I am, Teresa, listening to a Work Life Balance podcast episode because I don't have Work Life Balance because I have no time.
I'm telling you I don't have enough time and now here you are telling me I need to spend time on a time audit, right? I understand The objection, I understand the tension, the resistance to doing something like this. And I'll acknowledge that yes, in fact, this may be an investment of your time up front.
This might cost you some time to complete. But I use that word investment a lot. with intention because it truly is an investment. The information that you get when you do something like a time audit is so incredibly powerful. It is absolutely worth the cost of the investment. The ROI, the payoff of that information, [00:15:00] Can on the back end help you save time.
So if you're willing to invest a little bit of time up front, it can help save time. On the back end. Hopefully that makes sense. Alright? So, those are some of the biggest reasons why we avoid, in my opinion, doing something like a time audit. Now, I said I was also going to talk to you about the benefits of a time audit.
And I've sort of touched on that a bit. in terms of, you know, in response to some of the reasons why you might be avoiding a time audit. But I really want to spend a little bit more time and detail talking about how powerful this can be. I want to paint you a picture so that you really do understand the potential impact for something like a time audit, okay?
Now, there's lots and lots of benefits that I could talk about, but I've chosen to focus today's episode on four particular [00:16:00] benefits. Four benefits in particular that I think are really strong, compelling reasons for doing something like a time audit. All right? Benefit number one. A time audit can help you to identify what I call time sucks or time wasters, things that you are spending your time on that you don't need to be.
That you do not need to be spending your time on. Think about it. As SLPs, we're juggling so many things, right? Same thing for those of you who are listening, who are parents. We are juggling therapy sessions, documentation. Communication back and forth with clients and then our own responsibilities, our personal responsibilities, family responsibilities.
And if you are willing to invest in, invest time in doing a time audit, you can identify where those valuable [00:17:00] hours are actually being spent on things that are low priority. Things that really aren't necessarily going to move the needle. Now, I. Acknowledge that for most of you who are listening, documentation is probably one of the biggest, uh, consumers of our time.
We are probably spending our time, a lot of time, on documentation. I want to offer that having a very clear picture of where you're starting in terms of time mana or in terms of time being spent on documentation can give you information and give you a goal. It can give you something to work towards in terms of completing your documentation more efficiently, spending less time on your evaluation reports or session notes.
Um, but it also will help you to recognize Where you're spending too [00:18:00] much time on things that actually, that not necessarily are required, right, but that you like to do or you choose to do because you feel that they are important to your work as an SLP. So maybe you're spending time. Reorganizing your materials, right, are our therapy materials and you're spending time reorganizing your materials, or maybe this might be more likely, maybe you're spending lots of time creating therapy materials.
I used to spend a lot of time when I first started as an SLP. Creating different activities and manipulatives and handouts and all that stuff, right? But I might not have realized that unless I was keeping track of what I'm spending my time on. This is especially helpful for those of you who are listening who consider yourselves to have time blindness, right?
So once you are [00:19:00] Tracking where your time is going. You can very easily identify the things that you want to eliminate completely. And probably more likely the things that you still need to do, but that you want to spend less time doing. It gives you a very nice clear picture of how valuable, how important are these different activities.
That I'm spending my time on. All right, that's the first reason the second reason very similar to the first But it's a really nice segue The second reason why it's so important to do a time on it is because it helps you to reduce The burnout and overwhelm by seeing very clearly what you are spending your time on that is in or out of alignment with your values.
I talk a lot about core values and needs with my coaching clients. [00:20:00] I even did a webinar over, I don't know, the course of sometime during the course of this year, all about walking you through this values and needs assessment and all about how knowing your values and needs is crucial to. Time management.
In fact, I'm going to link to that workshop or webinar here in the show notes so that if you want access to the values and needs resource that I mentioned, the assessment and uh, the, the recording of the webinar, I'm happy to share that with you. You can click the link in the show notes and get access today.
Now. In terms of why this is so important, okay, we have so many responsibilities, right? As SLPs and moms and partners, we have so much on our plate. Family obligations, client planning, client [00:21:00] prep, research, CEUs, administrative tasks, All of that, right? And it's so easy to spend all of our time and energy on those things, the things that are on our list, you know, our to do list, that we fail to recognize the importance of our own needs, our own values and how to prioritize those and how to make sure that we are spending time on what matters most to us.
So by doing a time audit, you start to notice where certain parts of your day are overrun by things that don't align with what is important to you. Of course, there are always going to be things that we need to spend our time on that probably aren't quite frankly, one of our core [00:22:00] values or one of our core needs.
However, we have to make sure that we are building time in for those values and needs, because we're the only ones that can do it. If we're not prioritizing the time for that, no one else can do it for us. And when you do a time audit, you're able to recognize where are those gaps? Where are those opportunities for me to Incorporate time and spend time on what is important to me.
No wonder I'm so overwhelmed. No wonder I'm burnt out. I'm not spending time on what matters most. And sometimes just seeing that, staring you in the face. This is the very first step, quite honestly, to making the change. And remember what I said at the start of today's episode, you're gonna want to stick your head in the sand.
Some of you are going to want to avoid this. But that's not going to change anything. So if [00:23:00] you want this to change, you really have to face what you're spending your time on. And you have to believe that it is possible. possible to make these changes. And that's what we're going to be talking a little bit more about in upcoming episodes.
All right. So that was the second reason why a time audit can be so powerful. It can help you identify the values and needs that are not being met in your day to day life. Third, third benefit for you of a time audit is that it helps you to identify what I'm going to call the time. bottlenecks in your workflow.
Okay. So this is going to be particularly Relevant for those of you who maybe own a private practice, but this is also true for those of you who are working in a private practice or in a school setting or in a hospital setting. So this really does relate to everyone. But so many [00:24:00] times I hear SLPs tell me that they feel like they're constantly putting out fires.
I feel like I'm constantly just responding to different demands of my time, whether that's from a supervisor, administrator, or a mentor, or an employee, or a contractor, or a student, or a client, right? Lots of different people and things that demand our time. And even when we have the best laid plans, Of what we want to spend our time on, right?
A lot of it, a lot of you feel like it's out of our control because there's going to be these little fires that pop up that you have to respond to. And if you're completing a time audit, we can really begin to highlight any patterns, any systemic issues, in terms of where are, where are you most likely to be pulled?
Where are you most likely to have [00:25:00] to deviate, we'll say, I was going to say derail, but deviate from your plan because somebody needs you, right? Where are there, you know, where are there certain patches in your day or blocks, time blocks of your day where you're being frequently interrupted? Or, Where you don't have any admin time to complete tasks.
The things that we need in order to be productive, we aren't able to see those patterns unless we have them right there in our face, clear as day, on paper. in writing, on the computer, right? So by having that information, then we can solve for those issues. We can solve for those problems. We can identify where you might expect or anticipate some things to pop up.
We can identify what's going on. It's truly realistic in terms of how much work you can get done, in terms of how long [00:26:00] that work is going to take you. Sure, you might say that you can get a session note done in 10 minutes, but if you're in a setting where you're getting a phone call, a text message, an email, a knock on the door while you're trying to write that 10 minute session note, it could very easily become a 30 minute process.
And that would be pretty gracious if I'm being honest. So by having that information in front of you, we can then begin to solve for it. Okay? So that's the third reason why it's so helpful to have a time audit. And then last but not least, I want to walk you through what I think is one of the more exciting and compelling reasons for doing a time audit because I'm a complete nerd and I love goal setting.
I love planning and I love, you know, big goals, long term goals, short term goals, all of that, right? And by having, by taking some time to complete a time audit, [00:27:00] I am much more more realistic and much more effective in setting goals for sustainable growth. Now, this certainly can apply to those of you who own private practices, right?
Understanding where your time goes is crucial for business development, for scaling your business, for growing your business, for scaling your business, um, for identifying tasks that can be delegated or automated. to identifying where you as the business owner are spending your time versus you as maybe the clinician if you're still working in your practice.
Where's your time going there, right? So it can really give us a better picture of the different categories of tasks, the different categories of things that you're spending your time on. This is also true though for SLPs who maybe don't own a private practice necessarily, [00:28:00] but you have personal or professional goals.
You have things that you want to work on, things that you want to improve to make your life easier, to make your days smoother, to make your work life balance better. Okay, and by having this information, this data, we can very easily then use it to determine, okay, what is a realistic goal that we can set?
Maybe we want to set a goal, for example, of hiring a, uh, an, uh, contractor, a part time contractor, if you own your private practice, that you want to delegate different tasks to, whether it's. intervention or admin or whatever, right? Or maybe those of you who don't own a private practice but work in a specific setting, maybe you have [00:29:00] certain visions and plans for where you're going to be in one year, three years, five years.
Maybe you know that you're What you're doing right now is a stepping stone to where you want to go, or it's not really meeting your needs and you really want to have a plan in place. But you can't make that plan, you can't make that pivot until you know where your time is going. This is also true for those of you who have a, what I'm going to say, a side hustle, right?
Where you maybe see a few clients on the side, but you work full time. Or in, in one place, or maybe you have multiple part time positions as a contractor. And then you work for yourself as you know, on the side, having sessions that are through a private practice that you have started and want to grow.
Well, spoiler alert, it's going to be really, really hard to grow a private practice. If you don't know how to manage your time, maybe you think that it's not possible to grow a private [00:30:00] practice because you don't have enough time. This is the first step. A time audit is the first step. It gives you your starting point.
It gives you the information you need and it tells you how you can move forward. All right. So, to wrap up this very lengthy episode on the value of a time audit, I have walked you through some of the reasons why you've probably been avoiding this. Maybe not wanting to face the music and, and address what you're spending time on.
Maybe you think that it's not going, a time audit is not going to be actually effective. Maybe you think that a time audit will be too taxing, it'll take too much time when you're all ready. pressed for time. And I've talked you through each of those and why the juice is worth the squeeze, as I would say, right?
Why it's still important to go ahead and invest the time in something like a time audit. And [00:31:00] then I've walked you through more specifically, different ways that a time audit can empower you and inform you to make changes to work life balance. So, what's next, you might be wondering. I mentioned earlier in next week's episode, I'm going to be reviewing three simple, but different approaches to completing a time audit.
I know all of you are overwhelmed, busy. All of it, right? I get it. I've been there. I understand. I am there still sometimes. Truth be told. So I have thought about different ways that we could structure time audits for you. And I've practiced doing this with different clients, different coaching clients, clients who have ADHD, clients who own a practice, clients who don't own a practice, right?
All different scenarios, all different learning styles. And we've come up with lots of different ways that we can make this work so that it is [00:32:00] doable and achievable and doesn't take. a whole lot of time. Okay. Because that truly is our most valuable resource. And I truly do want you to maximize yours. So make sure you come back and listen to next week's episode.
I'll walk you through each of those approaches to doing a time audit. And if you want more support with this book, a call, I'm happy to walk you through what a time audit might look like for you. And how I can help you when it comes to work life balance. The link for a free consult is always in the show notes.
All right. That's it for today's episode. I will talk with you all next week.
*Please note that this transcript was generated by AI and may contain errors.