Women sitting at a desk with her laptop and notebook, How a Simple Time Audit Can Help Interior Designers Get More Done (Without Working More)

In The Weekly Install®, I recently shared I had decided to do a time audit. Over the summer, I had worked fewer hours, but still got everything done. As I returned to my regular full-time schedule, I wondered what exactly it was that fills my time during the rest of the year. Why do I typically work SO many hours, when over the summer months I could work less and still avoid things falling through the cracks?

I mentioned my time audit (which I’m wrapping up now) but didn’t explain what a time audit is, SO thank you to all the designers who asked for more info!

What Is A Time Audit for Business Owners?

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 Should Interior Designers Do a Time Audit?

The purpose of a time audit is to collect data 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 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 Interior Designers Can Do a Time Audit

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.
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, 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:

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 happened to me. Part way through my first day of auditing my time, I was MADDDDDDD at myself. ANGRY at my findings. Frustrated that this was how I was spending my time.

Mind you, I just came back from almost two weeks off and our most fun DTS Method launch ever while still meeting all my goals and getting everything done that needed to get done. So I was frustrated when I realized, from my time audit, that even though I was ‘back at work’ with a wide open calendar, I was barely doing anything that was moving the needle.

I wanted to feel the momentum and efficiency I felt while I was mostly off for two weeks yet everything still moved forward.

SO, I knew I had to ease up on myself; after all, my whole purpose for doing this audit was to see how I was spending my time so I could delegate more and determine if I needed to bring on a new team member. (Side note: this year has been all about change for my team: Maria (who has been with me for three years) went on a six month sabbatical to hike the Appalachian, Casie came on to support our growth and in preparation of Maria leaving, and Ashlee (with me for four years) was gearing up to go on maternity leave this fall.

SO, I needed to make sure I was leveraging my time and my team well.

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 - I spend SO much time with my three little girls. 💕

How Interior Designers Can Analyze Their Time Audit Findings 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 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. 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.

Threes are trickier because they are things you’re good at doing and you probably also enjoy doing, but they do not move you toward your goals and do not necessarily need to be done by you. These were a bit trickier to figure out an action plan for. On my list, these looked like, reviewing asana messages from my team, doing research for an upcoming project, trying to find a sectional for my basement (yes, STILLLLL working on replacing all the furniture that was damaged during our home flood).

These 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 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 sectional - well obviously, I should hire a designer because I need a custom size and I have a specific color, fabric, and vibe I want. I LIKE looking for furniture, but I am not good at it and it so far has been a week-long process when a designer could probably have this done for me in just a few hours with way less stress on my end. Sigh.

Thankfully, dealing with activities you ranked with a #5 can be stopped immediately and should no longer be done. Fives are easy. BYEEEEEE.

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.

My Personal Takeaways After Doing A Time Audit

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 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 must 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 certain new role I could fill. It wouldn’t be 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 plan 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 an everyday process OR I may do it for just one week at a time. 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. It was almost as though, because I was “watching” myself, I was 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.
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.