Obsessive Time Tracking [Weekend WRAP 85]

Hey Reader, apologies for the delayed send this morning. Most of the time I write this newsletter Friday afternoons over a beer at the local brewery or after the boys go to bed.

But yesterday I met my brother for a beer and “coworking” and we mostly caught up on the last few weeks. Then I took my wife out for dinner and a walk through the city. So I’m writing this after making the best pancakes ever and before a trip to the Farmer’s Market. I appreciate your patience, and here’s what we’re covering today.

My return to obsessive time tracking
Surprising inspiration from a former pro skater
Templates for your own time tracking practice
My favorite conference of the year (sponsor)

💡 One Big Idea: Obsessive Time Tracking

This month I kicked off my own 30 day time tracking challenge. I like to do this personally before I open it up publicly - so look for a 30 day time tracking challenge in June! The biggest change this time around is I built a Notion template for tracking my hours across 12 key categories and 3 major buckets — (1) Work (2) Relationships (3) Personal.

Part of the inspiration for this latest challenge came from an unlikely source. MTV star and former professional skateboarder, Rob Dyrdek. To me, Rob was the skater dude from Rob & Big or guest spots on Jackass. So when he came up as a guest on the My First Million podcast, I was very intrigued.

Rob talked about his time tracking process, which is both very sophisticated—he has a custom code script that pulls his Google Calendar into a spreadsheet that becomes his personal life dashboard. Rob fills out his calendar (much of it is pre-scheduled) and adds his own qualitative score of the day on a scale of 1-10.

Long-time YouTube fans will remember I went deep down the time tracking rabbit hole a few years ago. I still return to the system a couple times a year to establish a new benchmark for time working, on relationships, and personal growth.

Here’s the good news (for me): both Rob and I have similar time commitments to each of those core buckets, plus sleep. Rob aims for a 30(sleep)-30(work)-30(family)-10(personal) balance, and so far this month I’m in a similar range. It really is a very balanced life!

Here’s the bad news (for me): Rob is very focused on his work and family hours being the highest value time in his life, i.e. doing the things only he can do to bring value to the company and presence to his family. I’m not there yet, in fact one of the things I’m tracking is the sub-values of high-value work (content, coaching, sales, training) and the quality score of family time.

What’s Next ⏰

I’m tracking every hour of my life in April, then in May I’ll share my results and some helpful tips in the To-Do’s Day emails. I’ll continue tracking my time in May and improving the Notion template. In June I’ll have a new Time Tracking video plus Notion template for everyone to access.

👀 7 Videos to Watch: Time Tracking Systems

If you’re unfamiliar with my time tracking systems, the playlist below has 7 videos to walk you through everything. The TL;DR is to start with your bullet journal or a pocket notebook and then migrate the sum total of hours in each category to a spreadsheet. I already have a video about Airtable, but for this round I’m building a new template in Notion.

🧵 One Thread I Read: Rob's Life System

I downloaded most of my research for this newsletter from the MFM podcast and Rob’s extremely unrelatable podcast episodes. But I first was tipped off to Rob’s system through this thread from Max Hertan.

It’s a great 2 minute breakdown of Rob’s life manual—but spoiler warning—it is very unrelatable on the surface. But don’t skip over this because Rob has a chief of staff, a nanny, a chef, and a personal assistant. As noted above, pay attention to the principles of the system and apply the best parts to your own life.

My Favorite Conference of the Year: Craft and Commerce is June 8-10 in Boise, ID

ConvertKit's Craft + Commerce conference is my favorite event of the year. Even if you're not in the "creative content" market, many of my favorite people and speakers show up to this conference every year. I've seen Seth Godin, Tim Urban, James Clear, Glo Atanmo, Rachel Rodgers, and Casey Neistat.

This 3 day event also includes workshops, meetups, live ConvertKit support, and parties! This is the perfect opportunity to gain valuable insights, network with your peers, and have a blast doing it.

Use my link to save $50 off your Craft + Commerce ticket. Bring a friend and you can save even more! I hope to see you in Boise this June!

Get your Craft + Commerce ticket

Have a great weekend,

Matt Ragland