I Tracked Every Minute Of My Life For One Year, Here's What I Learned.

A Year of Radical Self-Awareness Through Data

Have you ever found yourself sitting in bed at 9 pm scrolling through your phone wondering where the day went? Where did all your time go? It’s a question that has nagged me for years at this point. “NO MORE!” I screamed as I throw my phone into my pillow (to make sure it doesnt break ya know lol?) only to sit on the edge of my bed, grab it again and lay back down to continue scrolling on my phone. Enough was enough though. I need to change something about my behavior. “What get measured, gets managed”. I heard this while listening to a Tim Ferris podcast episode while I was working the next day. The idea of this quote by Peter Drucker is that if you’re measuring something then the probability of you acting on the information you have is a lot higher. SO I embarked on a year long experiment to track every single minute of my life. Why would anyone subject themselves to such an extreme? That’s a question I found myself asking quite frequently throughout the year. This post is mostly for all the productivity nerds out there that are a little curious, a little nosy, and a little fascinated by numbers.
The purpose of this experiment was two fold: Firstly, to gain a deeper insight into my own habits, routines, and priorities. Second, to shed light on the broader implications of time manage in our lives. If I changed nothing about how I was living my life, for the next year, how would I be living? Would I be making progress towards my goals? How would my life be different? By meticulously documenting my daily activities, I aimed to uncover patterns, identify inefficiencies and ultimately, make more informed decisions about how I use my time.

The scope of my experiment was ambitious yet simple: track every minute of my waking hours for an entire year. From mundane tasks to moments of leisure and relaxation. I wanted to capture the full spectrum of human activity and how each moment contributed to the larger picture that is my life.

Let’s begin with the methodology. To undetake this ambitious endeavor, I turned to an app for assistance. The app formally known as Timular, now EARLY, provided me the exact set of tools I need in my time tracking journey. With it’s intuitive interface, customizable features, EARLY allowed me to effortlessly record and catagorize my activities throughout the day. What I really liked about EARLY was it’s ability to provide me with a lot of visual information on how I spent my time. Charts, graphs, and reports.

This post wasnt sponsored by EARLY if that’s what you’re wondering. There are plenty of free time tracker apps out there that will do the job just fine if this is something you decide you’d like to do yourself. This just happen to be the one that worked best for me.

Time to get into the nitty and gritty of things. These are specific to me and some people might find them a bit weird so try not to judge me too hard okay? I broke my life up into 8 catagories which I felt best represented where I was spending my time the most. Those 8 catagories go as follows:

• Sleep

• Work

• Leisure Time

• Relationship/Social

• Proactive Work

• Gym/Exercise

• Creativity

• Hobbies

Sleep:

Sleep is actually my most well documented activity. I’ve always prioritized sleep so I’ve been tracking it for quite a while now. Up until this very day of writing this articles, I’ve tracked 2,239 days of sleep. About 6.13 years of sleep data (6 years and 47 days). In 2024, I spend about 43% of total time sleeping or 2726h 4 min. Here are some key takeaways for me:

• I average about 7h 13m of sleep per night. Which is slightly below the American average of 7h 35m.

• I’ve maintained a sleep score of 75% (I use the Whoop band along side my “sleep cycle app” to track my sleep) which is the exact average in the United States. Still working on getting this higher and learning about the factors that really affect how much sleep I get.

• The days where I slept with the AC on, saw an increase of 10% in my sleep score as where the days where it was too hot, I saw a score drop of 23%. The sound + the cold of the AC knocks me out like a baby. #Teamcoldroom

• There was a 28% increase in my quality of sleep during rainy nights and a loss of 10% during snowy days.

• The days where I got the most amount of sleep were Wednesdays and Fridays with an average of 85% on those days.

• My average bed time was around 12:22 am with the national American Average being 11:35 pm (According to my sleep cycle app). My average on Fridays was 1:44 am which I suspect has something to do with sleep procrastination. I really try to squeeze out as much time in my free days as possible.

• My average wake time was 7:35 am.

Work:

Not much to talk about here other than I spent about 21% of my waking hours at work. Which isnt terrible to be honest. I only tracked the amount of active working hours, not the amount of time I spent in my place of work which were two VERY different things. Im lucky enough to be in a position where I dont have to be in my place of employment 40+ hours a week. Overall, I spent 1449h 4min at work. No micro-tracking in this catagory. Just work. This tracks though. About 1/3 of my hours was spent working which I can acknowledge as being a pretty decent work life balance. Things Im trying to be more proactive about in my tracking this upcoming year is evaluating the relationship between the number of hours worked and productivity levels. What are the optimal times for work for me? When do I have peak productivity?

Leisure Time:

This is the third biggest catagory in my little pie chart. Coming in at an impressive 13% or 901h 23min, this catagory was incredibly detailed in my data. Not only was I tracking activities that Id consider “leisure” but I was being specific about exactly what the activtiy was. Let me explain:

• Im a big gamer. I’ve been a gamer my entire life. The majority of my free time is spent playing video games. 72% of my leisure time was spent playing video games or 650h 27min. BUT WAIT, it gets deeper. I went as far as tracking what video game I was playing and for how long. These are the top 3 games of the year for me:

  • Valorant was my number one played game of 2024 coming in at 196h 4min. Something about trying to rank up in this game absolutely took over my life. I was addicted. Eat, breathe, sleep Valo. I was watching pro matches and spending more money that I would ever like to admit to the internet. All those hours put into it to just to never get passed gold HAHAHA. Do I regret putting in that much time into this game? Absolutely not. Some of the fondest memories I have of this year were playiung this game with my friends.

  • Balder’s Gate 3 coming in at 97h 20min. Im a big Dungeons and Dragons nerd so it makes sense that this game would consume me for a bit. Absolutely the best game in the past decade. Fight me. I will hear no arguments stating otherwise.

  • Tom Clancy’s Siege coming in at 69h 12min. I’ve been playing this game for almost a decade now which says a lot about the quality, time, and effort Ubisoft put into this game. I will always come back to Siege for as long as that game is alive. Fun fact: Total lifetime hours through all consoles (PC, Xbox, and Playstation) 1905h 11min which over the spand of 10 years is NOT bad right? Tell me it’s not bad. Let’s not even talk about Minecraft.

• On average I spent about 1h 57min on leisure EVERY single day. With an average start time of 6:09 pm and average end time of 8:05 pm.

• The rest of my leisure time was spent consuming some form of media like movies, netflix, anime, and social media like Youtube, Twitter, and Tiktok. A bit more screen time than I would have liked.

Overall, when reflecting on whether the amount of leisure time allocated was sufficient enough for relaxation, it was. Im satisfied with the activites I decided to enjoy my free time on regardless of the time spent. Was it a little bit more than I would have liked? Yes it was but like most people who enjoy video games, a big reason for my gaming is the social aspect of the activity. Most of my friends are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away from me. Gaming was a way to bridge that distance and still feel like we were connected, social and building memories that we could talk about when we DO finally meet up in person. It was used a vehicle to nurture and develop my social connections and genuinely contributed to my overall happiness and fulfillment levels. Again, a little too much screen time though. When most of my work AND leisure takes place in front a screen, there’s definitely something to be said about unplugging and disconnecting from technology. I would really like to be more intentional about finding opportunities to unplug and to be outside of a screen. I did spend too much time on leisure though, Ill be the first to admit that. Definitely need to sit down and recalibrate after seeing this data.

Relationship/Social

I’ve always been of the mindset that any kind of relationship takes effort and time to nourish and nurture. It takes consistent effort. In total, I spent about 863 hours of my year being social or cultivating relationships in my life. 13% of my total hours or 20% of my waking hours, were actively spent being surrounded by people who I wanted to develop a deeper connection with. While the total hours may vary, the consistency and quality of interactions played a significant role in maintaining strong bonds. Whether it's sharing meals, engaging in activities together, or simply spending time in each other's company, prioritizing meaningful connections with my loved ones enriched my life and provided a sense of belonging and support. Looking back on the data, I can tell you that I prioritized quality of social interactions over quantity. For example, I try to make the biggest effort I can to hang out with my best friends at least once a month. We decide on some kind of activity, a place to eat, and a place to hang out where we can get to together, catch each other up on our lives and just have something to look forward to for the month. It usually ends up being some kind of arcade or billiards, Korean BBQ, and then going to someone’s apartment to have some drinks and play some games. This was also the first year where we decided to have a cabin trip where we all went away for a weekend, secluded in the woods with some drinks, board games and camp fires. Again quality over quantity. Let’s get into some data:

• I spent about 750h 2m with my girlfriend this year. We don’t live together so this was all the time we got to actively spend together. About 2.05 hours per day on average. Some much more, some much less. To some, the idea of tracking something like this might feel odd, maybe even a little cold. But for me, data is how I make sense of the world. I’m very much a numbers person, and when things start to feel blurry or unbalanced, having a record like this becomes a sort of emotional compass. A visual reminder. Without it, I might not realize how easily life’s other demands can crowd out the most important people in it. There were times during the year when I felt distant or distracted and being able to look at the actual numbers helped me recognize when that distance was reflected in time spent (or not spent) together. It showed me when I needed to be more present, more deliberate. Because connection doesn’t happen on autopilot. In relationship researcher John and Julie Gottman’s work, they talk about something called the magic six hours. According to their research, couples who intentionally dedicate at least six hours per week to nurturing their relationship through conversation, affection, appreciation, and connection tend to be stronger and more satisfied. That benchmark works out to about 52 minutes per day. So even though I might be analyzing love with a spreadsheet, I don’t think that makes the love any less real. It just means I’m trying to understand it in the way I understand most things: through clarity, patterns, and intention.

  Does it feel overly analytical? Maybe. But for me, tracking is a form of care. It’s how I make sure I’m not taking something precious for granted.

• I once came across a quote that hit me like a punch to the chest:
  “Over 60% of Americans say they only see their parents on important occasions like holidays and birthdays. Meaning most American adults will only see their parents a total of 50 more times before they pass away.”

  I don’t remember exactly where I read it, some article, maybe a tweet but I wrote it down in my phone and later journaled about it. Because honestly? It scared the hell out of me. My parents mean the world to me. I’ve been lucky, really lucky, that in my 31 years of life, they’ve shown up for me in every way imaginable. Always there. Always steady. Always giving. That quote made me stop in my tracks because it forced me to face something I don’t like thinking about: time is finite. And for me, it’s even more real considering my dad is 89 and my mom is 69. I don’t know how many more years or even how many more holidays I’ll get with them. None of us ever really do.

  After a few unexpected events during COVID, I ended up moving back home. At the time, it felt like a step backward. But looking back now, it was one of the biggest blessings of my adult life. Because for the first time, I got to know my parents not just as my parents, but as people. People with their own rhythms, quirks, stories, and quiet routines. I got to see who they are when they’re not busy raising someone. I got to be with them. They’ve been the best roommates a guy could ask for. Supportive. Funny. Ridiculously patient. And I have no shame in saying that I’ll look back on these years with nothing but warmth. It’s a season of my life I didn’t expect, but one I’ll always be grateful for. Even though we share the same house, I still wanted to be intentional about the time I truly spent with them. According to my logs, we shared about 106 hours this year doing things together. Watching movies, painting and sipping wine, going for walks, or just sitting in the kitchen talking. Not counting the small everyday interactions, that number feels... a little low. But it’s also a reminder that time slips by quickly, even when you’re close by. So if anything, it’s become clear to me: this is where I want to put more of my energy. More slow mornings. More movie nights. More walks and casual conversations. Because I already know I’ll miss these days when they’re gone. And I don’t want to be one of those people who only looks back, wishing they had spent just a little more time.

Proactive Work:

Proactive work. The quiet and unglamorous grind that no one really claps for but is absolutely essential. This is the catagory that I created for all the time I spent working on myself or on things that don’t have immediate payoff. Projects even. No one’s paying me for this kind of work. No one’s asking for it. But it’s the type of work that still matters. This includes things like long term planning, skill building, research and writing, and even writing this blog post.

In total, I logged 383h 38min of proactive work in 2024. That’s roughly 1h and 3 minutes per day. And while that might now sound like a lot, I’d argue that these are some of the MOST important hours I spent all year.

• Video editing took up a good amount of time even though I wasnt posting nearly enough or as much as I would have liked. I spent 106h 40min editing my content. There’s so much work that goes on in the background to create content that I wish people would understand a bit more.

Everything else was little sporadic things like coding, planning, journaling, recording my videos, writing, and working on my stickershop.

A lot of this time was spent just sitting with a notebook or in front of my computer, writing. Free thinking. Other times, it was creating roadmaps for personal goals, building systems to automate part of my life, or working on passion projects that may never see the light of dayu but felt very creatively fulfilling. It’s look like the kind of work that doesnt feel productive but compounds over time.

To be clear: I wasn’t always “in the zone”. Sometimes, this hour looked like me pacing around my room listening to a podcast, pausing every few minutes to jot down a thought or an idea. Sometimes, it was just me planing out my week and figuring out where my energy was leaking.

There’s a quote I love by Naval Ravikant:
“Escape competition through authenticity.”
And that’s what I was trying to do with this time. Align my actions with who I really am and what I really care about. Looking at the data now, I feel proud of this category. It didn’t have the most hours, but it had some of the most meaningful ones. It’s the time that reminded me I’m not just reacting to life, I’m actively shaping it. If nothing else, this proactive work became a mirror. A way to check in with myself and ask, “Am I being intentional… or just busy?”

Gym

Ah yes, the gym. The temple of discipline. The land of sore muscles and motivational playlists. In 2024, I clocked in a total of 181 hours and 53 minutes at the gym. That’s roughly 30 minutes every single day on average, although let’s be real, it definitely didn’t happen every day. Some weeks I was consistent, other weeks... well, let’s just say the gym and I were “on a break.”

This category wasn’t just about lifting heavy things and putting them back down. It was a space for me to clear my mind, decompress, and feel like I was doing something good for my body after hours of screen time. I didn’t track this as meticulously as I did some other categories (you won’t find detailed breakdowns of sets and reps here), but I did make note of what type of workout I was doing: weightlifting, cardio, mobility work, or just walking on the treadmill because I needed to move and didn’t want to overthink it

I went crazy in April. I dont even know what got into me.

Here’s what I noticed:

• My best workout days were Mondays and Thursdays. Something about starting the week strong and getting back on track later in the week helped keep the habit alive.

• The average duration of a gym session was about 48 minutes, usually in the evenings. I’m not a 6 a.m. gym warrior. I’ve tried. It’s just not me.

• The consistency felt better than any particular result. I wasn’t chasing PRs or body comp goals, I was chasing momentum. And I think that made the gym feel less like a chore and more like a daily ritual.

There were also weeks where I fell off. Times when work got chaotic or life got in the way. And every single time, the data helped me see that. I wasn’t just feeling like I was slacking, I could actually see the drop-off. That little gap in the timeline was like a quiet nudge: “Hey man, remember how good you feel when you move?”

For me, fitness isn’t about six-packs or maxing out deadlifts. It’s about protecting my energy, maintaining my mental health, and showing up for the rest of my life a little sharper, a little stronger, and a little more grounded.

181 hours may not make me a gym rat, but it made me a gym human. Someone trying, failing, getting back up, and learning how to build consistency over perfection. By the way: Brazilian Phonk is the best way to get through your workout. Trust me.

Creativity/Hobbies

This is the quiet corner of my life. The part of the pie chart that doesn’t get much attention from the outside world but feels like mine in a way nothing else does. Combined, I spent 266 hours and 13 minutes on creativity and hobbies in 2024: 144h 53min on creative work and 121h 20min on hobbies.

It’s not a massive chunk of my year, but it might be one of the most soulful.

Let’s start with hobbies. Most of that time was spent either drawing or reading: two things I’ve loved since I was a kid. Drawing is meditative for me. It slows my brain down. It’s one of the few things that makes me lose track of time in the best way. Like turning off all the noise and tuning into something quiet and internal. Ever since I learned Urban Sketching, it’s been one of those things I come back to whenever I need to slow down.

Reading? Same deal. I used to think reading was a luxury, something I had to "earn" by finishing other tasks. Now I see it as fuel. Stories, ideas, perspectives. It all goes in and somehow rearranges the way I see the world. It’s not just entertainment. It’s part of how I grow.

Then there’s creativity, which for me, this year, mostly meant journaling.

I journaled a lot.

Not every day, but consistently enough that it became one of my go-to tools for processing life. Sometimes I was writing about a moment I didn’t want to forget. Sometimes I was working through something hard. And other times it was just a brain dump, a stream of consciousness to clear the mental clutter. There’s something powerful about seeing your thoughts on paper. It makes everything more real, more organized, and a little less overwhelming.

Looking at the data, I know I want to give more time to this next year. Not because it’s “useful,” but because it keeps me grounded. It reminds me who I am when no one’s watching. When there’s no goal. No deadline. No dopamine hit.

Just me, my thoughts, a pen, a page, or a sketch.

Random Other Things I Tracked This Year:

Okay, so if you’ve made it this far into the post, you’re a little nosy bird and just my kind of person. ALSO, it’s probably no surprise to you that I went a little overboard this year. Once I started tracking the big stuff, sleep, work, relationships, it opened the floodgates for all kinds of little curiosities. Some of it was for fun. Some of it was to spot patterns. Some of it? Yeah, probably just for the vibes.

But here’s the thing: these little data points ended up telling me a lot about myself. So, here’s a quick peek at some of the more random things I tracked throughout the year, and what I learned from them:

• Number of Gym Check-ins: 133
  Pretty happy with this. That's over 2.5 times per week. Not a fitness influencer, but also not just paying for a gym membership out of guilt. Respectable.

• Podcast Episodes Listened To: 309
  That’s nearly a podcast a day. I'm basically a one-man walking university. Shoutout to all the creators who kept my mind fed during long walks, workouts, and dishes. The Diary of a CEO, The Tim Ferris Show, and How To Take Over The World. Thank you for keeping me sane.

• Showers Taken: 294
  Which means there were 71 days where I... well, didn't. Look, some of those were two-shower days. Some were camping trips. Don’t judge.

• Anime Episodes Watched: 61
  A quiet year on the anime front, honestly.

• Movies Watched: 33

  Shoutout to The Wild Robot. Had me BAWLING my eyes out for no reason.

• Netflix/HBO Episodes: 35
  I really thought this would be higher. Apparently, my attention span is shorter than I thought.

• Times I Cried: 16

• Games Beaten: 4
  The journey is more important than the destination, right? Right?

• Books Read: 37
  5369 pages. 253 hours(This is including audiobooks which I didnt actively track since it was done with other activities). 76-day reading streak. I’m incredibly proud of this one. Reading helped me slow down, reflect, and feel like a version of myself I really like. My average rating was a 3.81. So I’m either too generous or just good at picking books I know I’ll vibe with.

• New Recipes Cooked: 6
  Listen… I’m trying, okay?

• Times I Spent Money on Myself: 63
  This one helped me be more mindful of purchases that weren’t “essential” but brought joy. Think books, snacks, candles, plants. Little acts of self-love.

• New Experiences: 30
  These were everything from trying a new restaurant to traveling somewhere new. Every one of these felt like a memory in the making. A moment that stood out. Highly recommend tracking this.

• Miles Run: 206
  Not bad for someone who doesn’t love running. I tracked this more out of curiosity than as a primary fitness goal.

• Compliments/Praise Received: 66
  This one surprised me. I didn’t realize how many positive things people said to me until I started writing them down. We really do underestimate how we’re perceived.

• Times I Lied: 543
  I promise I’m not a sociopath. This includes tiny white lies like “I’m on my way” when I haven’t left yet or “I’ll respond later” knowing full well I won’t. Still, seeing this number… yeah, something to reflect on.

• Poops: 1065
  Honestly? Elite digestion. No further comment.

If I had to sum up this entire experiment in one sentence, it would be this:
I just wanted to pay better attention.

To my time.
To my habits.
To my priorities.
To my people.
To myself.

What started as a quirky, data-driven experiment ended up being one of the most meaningful exercises in self-awareness I’ve ever done. When I first set out to track every single minute of my life for a year, I honestly wasn’t sure I’d stick with it. I thought maybe I’d give up after a few weeks, or get bored, or overwhelmed. But what actually happened is I started to fall in love with the practice of noticing.

I stopped moving through my life on autopilot. I started asking better questions.

• Why do I feel so drained today?

• When do I feel the most energized?

• Where is my time going, really?

• Am I showing up for the people I care about?

• Am I showing up for myself?

This wasn’t about optimizing every second or becoming some hyper-productive robot. It wasn’t about squeezing the most out of my days so I could brag about how efficient I was. It was about becoming more intentional. More aligned. More aware of the kind of life I’m building. Minute by minute, hour by hour.

And along the way, I learned a lot of unexpected things. I learned that I actually spend more time gaming than I thought I did, but I also found peace with it because it brings me joy and connection. I learned that I don’t see my parents as much as I’d like to, despite living in the same house. I learned that relationships whether they be romantic, familial, platonic, require time, yes, but more importantly, they require attention. I learned that I lie a lot more than I realized (yikes), that I’ve listened to more podcasts than most people probably should, and that I poop over a thousand times a year (in case you were dying to know).

More than anything, I realized that time is the most honest mirror. It doesn’t lie. It doesn’t fluff anything. It just shows you, with brutal clarity, what you’ve chosen to value. Whether you meant to or not. Because we all value something, whether we track it or not. This project just put it in front of me, every single day.

There were weeks I felt lost. Months I felt behind. Days where the data made me proud, and days where it made me feel like I’d wasted time I could never get back. But all of it was real. All of it was me.

If you've ever caught yourself at the end of a day wondering, “Where did the time go?” maybe that’s a sign it’s worth finding out.

You don’t have to track every minute like I did. You don’t have to build spreadsheets or download fancy apps (unless you’re into that, in which case, welcome to the club). But you can start small. Track one habit. Reflect once a week. Write down how much time you spend doing what you love. Or don’t love. Or wish you did more of.

Because the truth is: we don’t get to control how much time we have, but we do get to control how present we are for it.

This experiment didn’t just teach me about time.
It taught me how to be here, in my life, fully and honestly.

And that, I think, was worth every single minute.