{"id":10840,"date":"2012-07-05T00:11:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-05T08:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=10840"},"modified":"2013-09-18T14:55:02","modified_gmt":"2013-09-18T22:55:02","slug":"how-to-hold-yourself-accountable-for-your-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/how-to-hold-yourself-accountable-for-your-time\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Hold Yourself Accountable For Your Time"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

<\/a><\/p>\n

Have you ever tracked your time, to see how you spent it? Have you ever really counted the minutes you spent working, playing, eating, sleeping and socializing on any given day? You might be genuinely surprised by the numbers. I know I was.<\/p>\n

I had a number of hours in my head that I felt like I needed to be writing every week. It was eight. That might sound kind of low for a budding writer, but hey, I\u2019ve got a full time job, performances and practices (I\u2019m on an improv team) and I\u2019ve also got a social life to maintain. I had to be realistic, you know? <\/p>\n

Recently there was a week where I had fallen behind on my writing goal. There just simply wasn\u2019t enough time! Life got busy, it happens. I had a lot of stuff going on. Less than an hour after coming to this conclusion, I was on the subway headed home, and I was playing Angry Birds Space<\/em> \u2013 a highly addictive sequel to a highly addictive little iPhone game. An achievement popped up on my screen informing me that I had been playing the game for five hours – and the game had come out less than a week ago.<\/p>\n

I never would have realized it if the game hadn\u2019t told me, but I managed to find time to play that game for five hours in less than a week without any effort. I just found the time wherever I could \u2013 on the subway, waiting on line, before I went to bed at night. And that was time when I could have been doing anything else \u2013 including writing.<\/p>\n

After that day I decided to start tracking my time. I spent a full week look at how much I created (which I counted as any time I spent writing, performing, rehearsing, or meeting with my writing group where we share and critique each other\u2019s work) versus how much time I consumed (all forms of media \u2013 movies, television, video games, podcasts, and even the internet). The results weren\u2019t pretty:<\/p>\n

Without making any adjustments to what I\u2019d consider a normal week, I was more than doubling how much I created with how much I consumed.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when I started thinking about what would happen if I started to hold myself accountable for my time. If I made it a point to create as much, if not more, \u00a0than I was consuming. Was it crazy? Was it possible? Could I stick with it? Well, I was determined to find out.<\/p>\n

So I picked a month -July (after all my favorite TV shows had gone on hiatus – one less temptation) and committed myself to my \u201cCreate \/ Consume\u201d project. I was going to document the whole thing, and I was going to give it my all, come hell or high water.<\/p>\n

Here we are at present day. The project starts this Sunday. I\u2019ve got all the details up on the Create \/ Consume blog<\/a>. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen, but I know I\u2019m going to come out the other end a more productive person than I was before. I\u2019m encouraging anyone else who would like to join me in this life experiment to sign up \u2013 and remember, you figure out what\u2019s important to you, and tailor the experience to your life and your creative desires. But remember: this is supposed to be a challenge, don\u2019t take it too easy on yourself.<\/p>\n

I hope you\u2019ll join me. If not, wish us luck.<\/p>\n

-Matt<\/p>\n

You can follow Matt Shafeek on Twitter<\/a> as well as his official Create \/Consume twitter page<\/a>. His first blog<\/a> before Create \/ Consume<\/a> was about his experience giving up video games for a year, and when he\u2019s not performing improv at the Magnet Theater<\/a> in NYC, he\u2019s often obsessing about Batman<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Photo credit: ‘Midnight Time<\/a>‘ by Big Stock<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently there was a week where I had fallen behind on my writing goal. There just simply wasn\u2019t enough time! Life got busy, it happens. I had a lot of stuff going on. Less than an hour after coming to this conclusion, I was on the subway headed home, and I was playing Angry Birds Space \u2013 a highly addictive sequel to a highly addictive little iPhone game. An achievement popped up on my screen informing me that I had been playing the game for five hours – and the game had come out less than a week ago. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12163,"featured_media":10844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[6],"tags":[2033,66,4651,4629,4647],"yoast_head":"\nHow To Hold Yourself Accountable For Your Time - Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Have you ever tracked your time, to see how you spent it? Have you ever really counted the minutes you spent working, playing, eating, sleeping and socializing on any given day? You might be genuinely surprised by the numbers. 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