Time Calculator: How Much Free Time Do You Really Have?

Where does your time go? Do you know how much free time you really have?

If you’re like most people (myself included – I get it), you’ve probably convinced yourself that you don’t have enough time. Whether it’s time to start a new business, set new fitness goals, *cough* clean the house… we often give up before we even start because we believe it’s just not possible to fit into our busy lives. I get it. Mom life is Busy with a capital B.

But, if you sit down and really take a look at your schedule, you’d be surprised at just how much time you really do have. How do you calculate how much time you have with kids? Do this simple exercise to find out!

To make it easier to figure out how much time you actually have, grab this awesome free Time Calculator. It’s a simple, but highly effective, spreadsheet (you remember how much I love spreadsheets, right?) that will reveal the time you actually have to work on things you’ve been putting off. And it will help you identify the time blocks you can use to your benefit each day.

Instructions to use the Time Calculator:

Open the spreadsheet and you’ll see all the days of the week across the top and then 60-minute time blocks on the side. These time blocks should start from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed, so you may need to make adjustments. You can also switch to 30-minute increments to be more precise if you prefer.
In each time block, mark all the times you are busy. For example, include getting dressed, commuting, time at your job, family time, meal preparation and eating, etc.
Then for open blocks, write in “1” for each hour block that you have free. If you switch to 30-minute blocks, enter “0.5”.
Once you’ve completed these steps, you’ll be able to see how much free time you have each day AND the total free time you have each week.

Of course, this calculation is just the first step in getting more done with your time and reaching those big goals you never thought you had time for. From here, you’ll need to connect that time to the goals you want to achieve.