Picture this: You’re pouring a cup of coffee. You pull your phone out and realize it’s 3pm…on Thursday! All of the sudden it’s a mad dash to finish projects before the week’s end and you are in over drive.

A few years ago, this was happening to me all too often. Each week was busy and filled but…with what?

Then, one day, I came across a quote by Annie Dillard:

The concept that how I spend each day is how I spend my life, really hit home. Maybe you're thinking..."of course Zachary, that's common sense." But in that moment I had an epiphany?

I’m spending too much of my life watching Netflix.

I devised an experiment to figure out (1) how I’m spending my life and (2) if I am doing what I actually want to. The experiment was to:

Track every hour of the day for two weeks.

In my calendar, I would log everything throughout the day, for example:

• 5:00 - 6:00a Morning Routine

• 6:00 - 7:00a Commute

• 7:00 - 7:45a Morning meeting

• 7:45 - 8:00a Tea and Oatmeal

• 8:00 - 11:00a Project A

• 11:00-11:30a Catch up call with a friend

• etc.

When I tell you I logged everything, I mean everything!

That could be 2-3 events in an hour on some days. I included my commute, eating dinner, the hours I read or watched TV, and sleep. To be clear, this wasn't about "scheduling" events before they happened, but instead adding them to my calendar after the fact to create a log of my day.

I did this every day for 14 days.

On day 15, I reviewed the two weeks as if it was my hotel’s P&L. I mean I tore this calendar apart looking for deficits and overages.

For someone who said they were "busy" all the time. I was "busy" with a lot that wasn't helping me build the life I wanted. When looking at the 14 days of data, I had Annie Dillard's quote in the back and I asked myself: Is this the life I want to live?

My answer was "No." A resounding, unequivocal "no."

I included a mock up pie chart of how my personal time looked. I did not include any work related items or sleep hours here.

Some things that really stood out:

• About 18 hours of the week were Netflix

• My commute was 10 hours

• Reading was 1.5 hours

• Yoga was 1 hour

This didn’t represent the person I needed to be if I wanted to achieve my goals.

The next part of the experiment? Fix it!

I thought about my ideal life and the steps I needed to take to create it.

Then I weighed what I was actually doing against what I really wanted to do.

For example: Did the total hours of Netflix fulfill me? Or would an hour of Yoga be more fulfilling in that same time slot? I'll be honest, sometimes Netflix won! But other times I realized I had more time than I thought. My days didn't get longer, but my use of the time got smarter.

Some big wins for me were:

• Adding reading into my commute with audiobooks

• After work, I delayed Netflix until after Yoga, which meant I started to do it

• I added meditation into my Morning Routine by having coffee at work instead of at home

Again, I didn’t add any hours to achieve the above, I just hacked the hours I already had.

After my experiment ended, I approached time differently. I started seeing my weeks fill with more events that represented the life I want to live.

This exercise taught me that time could be a commodity. I could buy, sell, and exchange time with myself. The calendar became my own balance sheet where I was able to mold and adapt my days to work towards the life I wanted.

Interested in redesigning your schedule?

Maybe you are having similar thoughts like I had. Is it the hours of Netflix, a commute that is too long, or a project that has become overly burdensome? We all have different time sucks. But we also have the opportunity to design a new schedule. Why not try tracking your life and see where you are really spending your time?

Here's everything you need to do:

1. Set up a calendar, digital or paper. I used Google Calendar.

2. Live your life!

3. As you live your life, add everything you do to the calendar. At the end of each day there should be no blank space on the calendar. Be relentless in tracking.

4. Continue logging all events for a full 14 days.

5. On Day 15: Read it over and ask yourself, is this how you would like to spend your life?

6. If it is, great! If it is not, consider how you could start using the same blocks of time in different ways.

You may find space for a new hobby, time to dedicate to someone you love, or an opportunity to reinvest time into your business. All that matters is that you start to actively live the life you want.

Many hoteliers are used to hearing "what gets measured gets managed." Your life is no different. Measure how you spend your life, and you will start to manage it the way you want to.

If you give this a shot, let me know what you learned! @zjellson #whatsnext