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How Analyzing One Day Can Help You Improve Your Habits
Understanding a typical vs. an atypical day and being realistic about what you prioritize
Laura Vanderkam, in her great podcast Before Breakfast, talked about a study done asking participants to describe everything that they did yesterday. Participants were all around the world and the study was done over a timeframe so some talked about a weekday, some talked about a weekend, some people worked full-time, and others worked shifts — in other words, a mix of all kinds of days.
One study was done in 2020 and another was done in 2021 — looking at what exactly people spent time on during pre-COVID and COVID days. The study found interesting things: for example, people spent 20 minutes less commuting due to working from home. Since most people want more time to spend with kids, exercise, read, etc., it looked at what the 20 minutes saved from commuting was spent on. The reality? People spent more time on screens. It’s an easy form of entertainment.
What’s fascinating to me is using this kind of analysis in our lives.
Document the past 24 hours
The first step is to document your past 24 hours.
- What time did you wake up? What time did you sleep?
