How to Do a Time Audit for Your Interior Design Business (And What It Will Reveal)
As I head into my summer slowdown (no summer nanny this year and my three girls home - no camps, which means I’M THE NANNY!) I've been working these last few weeks to streamline as much as possible so I am able to fully enjoy the summer with my kids.
My first step to streamlining always starts with doing an honest assessment of what I do all day.
Now, we use Asana for project management and team communication. We have everything organized in Google Drive. We use Voxer to voice chat each other throughout the day. We have Zapier running zaps behind the scenes. And things are pretty streamlined, but yet there are still days where I’m like, WHAT.DID.I.DO.ALL.DAY?
ENTER: a time audit.
Every single time I do one, I find something that surprises me (maybe angers me is the better way to look at it…). But nevertheless, it changes how I work for months afterward. Which is a good thing.
If you've never done one (or you did one years ago and haven't done one since) now might be the perfect time.
What Is a Time Audit for Interior Designers?
A time audit is basically a real-time inventory of what you spend your time on.For a specific amount of time (I recommend two weeks), you track exactly what you do during your entire day. First, record your activities and how long they take. Then, analyze your time allocation.
Why Interior Designers Should Do a Time Audit
The purpose of a time audit is to collect information on how you spend your time. You might want to do one because:
You want to become more time efficient and eliminate non-productive tasks.
You want to figure out what tasks to delegate to your team.
You want to determine whether a specific software will be a good investment.
You want to determine whether to hire another team member.
You wonder why you aren’t as productive as you feel you should be, even though you work all.the.time.
You want to identify your most productive times of the day, or days of the week.
You want to switch from billing hourly to fixed fees and need to know how long tasks take.
How to Do a Time Audit: A Step-by-Step Guide for Interior Designers
Here’s what I did during my time audit, and what I recommend:
Choose a duration. I recommend a two-week period to get sufficient data, especially because I know your work week varies so much depending on what phase your projects are in.
Start on a Monday. This sets a clean slate for the week.
Avoid unusual weeks. Don’t do your audit during a holiday, scheduled time off, or when you have an unusual non-business activity (like taking a special class or attending a seminar).
Keep it simple. Use a Google Doc, a Google Sheet, OR, a piece of paper. NOTHING FANCY—don’t let tools become a barrier. When I started my time audit, I used a blank piece of printer paper and a pencil for the first three days.
NOTE: You might be tempted to pull from your calendar and your project management software to piece together how you spent your week. And while that's a fine starting point, your calendar will only show you your meetings. This audit shows you everything in between the ‘big things’ and that’s usually where the really good, helpful info is because it’s often when our time is unstructured and we might not be as efficient with it.
Write everything down. Track the start and end times of every activity you do, from the moment you sit down to work to the moment you are done. Personally, I tracked my ENTIRE day, it was much easier that way (I’m an all or none type of person and the strict black and white made it easier for me to stick to the process). I also WANTED to see the time spent with my kids and on personal activities (like exercising, walking the dog, reading, etc.). Of course, you can JUST track your work hours, but again, going ALL IN really helped me stick to the habit for a solid two weeks.
Categorize your activities. After a day or two, categorize the activities. I used these priority levels (adapted from Buy Back Your Time):
#1 - High-level tasks that move me toward my business, personal, or financial goals. These are CEO level tasks.
#2 - Important tasks that are an investment in my long-term goals, health (physical or mental), family, team, or professional development.
#3 - Replacement tasks I’m good at and might enjoy doing but should hand off. MOST PEOPLE GET STUCK HERE, DOING THESE TASKS EVERYDAY, BECAUSE THEY FEEL IMPORTANT but these are “manager” tasks, not CEO tasks.
#4 - Delegate tasks that someone else can do or that software can do, often for much less than it costs for me to do them.
#5 - Trash tasks that are completely unimportant and need to be eliminated as soon as possible!
Here’s what my time audit looked like once I moved into Google Sheets:
Super simple!
Again, I cannot stress to you the importance of just getting started. You DO NOT NEED anything fancy. Pencil and paper are perfect. I started with pencil and paper then moved everything into a Google Sheet by day four so I could categorize everything and work on an action plan (more on that later).
Now, I want to warn you about something, because it always happens to me. Part way through the first day of auditing my time, I am usually pretty MADDDDDDD at myself. ANGRY at my findings. Frustrated that this was how I was spending my time.
Mind you, we are moving into the final month of DTS Method cohort #7. We hosted our live Elevate Your Design Presentation training in May. I spoke at a DDA Canada event in May. And I’m prepping for my live training with Alex at the PR Academy in June.
So I’ve been feeling really productive and energized. But I also knew I was not being 100% productive with my time and knew a time audit would help me figure out what was eating it up.
Heading into summer, I needed things to be as light as possible so I needed to make sure I was leveraging my time and my team well and delegating and automating as much as possible.
After a few days of groveling, I changed my attitude and realized, HOLY SMOKES, I can create processes for just about EVERYTHING I’m spending my time on. And also, hats off to me - my time audit revealed I really do spend a ton of quality time with my three little girls. 💕#goals
How to Analyze Your Time Audit and Take Action
Once your audit is complete, it’s time to take action. Look at how you spent your time versus how you WANT to and create a plan to prioritize the most important activities (#1 and #2). Here’s how:
1. Identify activities you ranked with a 3 or 4. Add an “Action” column to your time audit and outline a plan to spend less time on these tasks OR to delegate them.
For example, if you spend a lot of time on client emails, your ACTION could be to draft email templates and hand email communication over to your team. You could also schedule specific times to check emails instead of being available all day.
2. Consider whether you need to hire a new team member based on the tasks you can delegate or if implementing a new software or AI tool could handle that role so you don’t have to hire for it. If so, what skills would they need, and what training would they require?
The big difference between #3 and #4 tasks is that #4s are easier to delegate with a clear process. You can create a step-by-step process, include any templates or resources needed, and assign it to someone on your team to manage from here on out.
If you're not sure where to start, our Business Blueprint SOPs & Financial Toolkit in The Design Library are the same operating system we install in our private clients’ businesses!
Tasks that fall into the #3 category are trickier because they’re things you’re good at doing and you probably also enjoy doing, but they don’t move you toward your goals and don’t necessarily need to be done by you. These were harder for me to figure out an action plan for.
On my list, #3 tasks looked like, reviewing asana messages from my team, doing research for an upcoming project, or on a personal level getting quotes from local trades for a very small interior design project.
The business related ones are tricky because my team is asking for my final input on something or needs more direction - I AM the only one who can do that right now.
However, I know in the long run, I can use software to empower them more and include them in more decision making so they can make decisions without me.
The research for a future project feels harder to delegate because I know exactly what I’m looking to do and I need to find the people who can support the project BUT I also know that I can work to provide more clarity and visibility into future initiatives so my team can support FULLY on all aspects of a project, not just the part they see.
The small interior design project at my primary residence - I can’t delegate that to my house manager because she doesn’t fully know what I need and also I don't fully know what I need yet either (I sound like a dream client, right? LOL).
Thankfully, dealing with activities you ranked with a #5 can be stopped immediately and should no longer be done. Fives are easy. BYEEEEEE.
Do NOT Miss This During Your Time Audit
Almost just as important as getting those 3 & 4 activities off your plate are making SURE you have ENOUGH 1 and 2 activities on your plate. Without needle moving, zone of genius work that lights you up, your days will likely feel hard and draining. You HAVE TO make sure you are doing some bit of work every day that you love.
What a Time Audit Revealed About My Own Business
I can delegate SO much more than I currently do, and I’m excited to i) reclaim that time and ii) provide more work for my team.
I MUST prioritize at least one #1 task every single day AND do it first thing. Otherwise, #3 and #4 tasks sneak in and then it’s 3 pm and my kids are rolling in and my focus is gone.
I’m okay with some tasks in the #3 category because I know these will eventually be handed over to my team or software once we have all of our 4s documented properly.
I can do two blocks of deep focus work per day—one in the early morning and one after lunch. I know I have to reserve these time slots for high priority tasks, not admin or emails.
I can schedule tasks in the 2 and 3 categories much more intentionally. Going forward, my goal is to implement certain times of the day to check my Asana messages. Then, I’ll schedule in breaks in my day to focus on tasks in the #2 category (and those won’t be happening during my natural deep focus times).
I also have determined a few new roles I can fill. Nothing huge, maybe 10-15 hours a month, but that would be 10-15 hours a month I would have BACK on my plate to spend on #1 and #2 category tasks.
The time audit was actually SO helpful to me that I continue to do it as a regular part of my routine. Because I did it for two weeks straight (including weekends) I may keep it as once a month process. At a time where I am trying to optimize for more whitespace on my calendar, more time with my kids, and a bigger impact, this has been a game-changing exercise to take on.
As the days went on, I noticed I was spending FAR less time doing tasks in the #4 category because I was “watching” myself. Being more aware of what I was doing and the action of entering something into my spreadsheet was motivation enough for me to simply tag my team and say, Hey, could you help me with this or could you do this thing? It was quite interesting. Accountability is huge, right?
My most surprising takeaway?
On days where I didn't do a single #1 activity, I was a total GRUMP. I felt like I’d worked all day but accomplished nothing. I felt very mentally and emotionally exhausted. Versus days where I spent a good chunk of time doing 1 and 2 activities, I felt energized and productive. ← But, after a few days of auditing my time, I realized my mood was greatly impacted by what I was doing, so I made sure to work on #1 tasks every single day.
Yes, I know a time audit may feel like ONE MORE thing to do during your busy days and weeks but it takes less than a second to write down your time and what you’re doing. It is well worth the investment of your time. In fact, when I was analyzing my time and coming up with an action plan for the tasks in the 3 and 4 categories, I categorized that as a #1 task. That’s how important I thought this work was: it was (and is) moving me closer to my goal for how I want my life and my company to look.
I would love to hear from you if you have completed a time audit. Let me know what you learned, and what adjustments you made to your work life based on your findings.
