The Why…
I started this project when COVID-19 was rampant in early 2021.
I was stressed about how to mange my time, lost about what my future would look like, and unclear about how hard I should be working. I was about to enter college but I didn’t want to lose my music habit by not practicing. Additionally, I had a desire to start working out and had responsibilities to contribute to my family. But how would I be able to do well in school while making music consistently, helping my family, and working out?
My life felt like a mess and so did the outer world, so I turned to the one thing that was the most reliable within the unreliability of life: systems.
I created a spreadsheet called the Weekly Tracker where I would log the amount of hours I worked within 4 categories: Family, School, Music and Work Out. Every week, I would set hour goals for each section and track my progress through a percentage on the spreadsheet. When I achieved these goals, I would reward myself; when I failed to achieve the 100%, I would withhold rewards. Most importantly, this system gave me an exact idea of how much I was working and what I should focus on more.
I continued to use this spreadsheet throughout my first year of college online and finished my first year with a 4.0. Additionally, I had more than enough time to work on music. Intrigued by the system’s effectiveness, I continued to use it throughout the rest of my years in college.
As the years went on, this spreadsheet evolved from an hour tracker to an overall score that takes into account hours, budget, tasks, and more. Using this new and evolved version, I graduated college with a consistent gym routine, Highest Honors Distinction in my class, and more than 100 unreleased songs. Through this method, I was finally able to take control of life to achieve EVERYTHING I wanted.
In this section, I will be going through how this system works. I designed this system using my knowledge of Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets.
Hour Tracker
The first and most basic section is the hour tracker. This tracker splits your life into multiple categories that each have an hour goal. Each time you type an hour amount into a box, it will count towards your goal hours in the respective section. The percentages on the right will change according to how close your number is to the goal. For example, the total for “Business” is 6, so the percentage on the right is 100% because the total matches the goal.
Task Tracker
This section tracks how close you are to completing specific weekly tasks. For my weeks, I would make some of these tasks related to the # of job applications sent out or # of posts that exceeded a certain amount of likes. The completion score on the right shows how close you are to completing all the tasks you set. For example, if “Task 1” was # of job applications, that task is 100% complete because I sent 2 out of 2 applications. (Note: I intentionally didn’t make the tasks equally weighted)
Sleep Tracker
I’ve recently realized how important having a consistent sleep schedule is to my health and focus when it comes to everyday tasks. To account for this, I have added a section in that rewards or penalizes me based on my sleep score. I get a sleep score from my Oura ring daily, and input it into this section. The average sleep score for the week needs to reach the target score (in this case 75) or else my overall score for the week will be penalized. If I reach an average score higher than the target, I will get some additional points to contribute to the grand total.
Budget Tracker
Similar to the sleep schedule, this budget tracker has a weekly goal of how much I spend. In this example, the amount is $160. If I exceed this weekly goal, my final percentage will lower as a penalty.
Rewards System
The rewards system section awards me a reward for each hour of focused work I complete. I can choose 1 reward per hour, as shown by the dropdown. In this example, I have worked two focused hours so I am allowed to have my coffee and watch Netflix. More rewards like Instagram, Twitter and YouTube have not been unlocked yet because I haven’t worked enough hours.
Daily Requirements
This formula calculates how many hours of each category I would need to work to achieve my goals relative to the remaining days in the week. In this example, I need to work 6 hours on my business (top-right). Since I only have 5 days left in the week, I need to work 1 hr and 12 min each day to achieve this goal.
Overall Score
These are the most important stats for the whole tracker. The Hour Score represents the percentage of hours I have completed relative to the hours I need to complete. The Overall Score accounts for the hour tracker, task tracker, sleep tracker and budget tracker in one number. The “Where I should be” number represents where I should be relative to the amount of days in the week left. The “Status Amt” on the right represents the cushion you want to place for the week. In this example, I want to achieve 75% of everything, which means the “Overall Score” will be adjusted to make 100% equal completing 75% of all activities.