I tracked every single task for 30 days. 

I think I've got a couple more 30 day challenges in me. Then we're on to something new...

Something to bear in mind about the 40 hour work week is that people who go to a 9-5 job 5 days a week aren't necessarily working nonstop the entire 40 hours that they're clocked in. I think you have room to give yourself at least a little bit of grace about meeting that number.

As a really small content creator I'm really glad to finally see how much effort you put on a single video. 9 hours writing + 19 hours filming + 26 hours editing. 54 hours! I will bear in mind this number next time I complain about the outcome of my videos 😅

10:00 Favorite part of the video, the frame looks so good with b-roll on the left, handwriting-like text to the right and statistics in the middle getting updated dynamically. Aesthetic on point.

It’s awesome to be able to see that big picture of how you’re spending your time. One thing that I was curious about is how hour balance would compare to Nat’s balance, specially how you’re splitting house chores, child care and personal time between the two of you. I think that’s something couple usually can work on better, it would be great to see a video on that.

This is such an eye opening video! As a Mum to two teenage daughters I can attest that while you are in the early childhood years, the days can seem repetitive and yet it seems in the blink of an eye they grow up too fast. Congratulations on your hard work to get yourself to a position where you can enjoy this time with your family.

these are special moments with Frankie that you’ll never get back, so I’m glad you spent more time with him than work! think of it as you being on paternity leave 😊 thanks so much for this video! really eye opening and encourages me to be more mindful of where I’m spending time!

As someone who already tracked 36.518 hours and basically every single minute of the last 4 years with toggl, I really loved the video Matt! Here are my key learnings: 1) Single Tasking. The app only allows you to track one thing at a time. This also helps you with personal rules, e.g. there is no phone allowed when I'm eating lunch/dinner. 2) Task switching: The app shows you how often you switch between tasks. I try to have one tracking-entry per task per day to avoid getting distracted by other things/tasks all the time. 3) Feeling ok with unproductive things. Example: I have a dog and I want to spend a minimum of 60 minutes with him outside. If I'm tracking the time and I haven't reached my daily goal yet, I'm doing 100% the right thing at the moment. Even if there are important work related tasks or deadlines at the same time, I don't feel overwhelmed or stressed anymore. I'm exactly where I need to be at this moment. 4) Deadlines: I had a busy period in my startup that required a lot of attention from my side. So I set a goal of 10 hour focused work every single day. Guess what: If you don't want to starve and go to the toilet, the latest point to start working is 12pm - no matter what. People are "stealing" time from the next day by working through the night. But that doesn't make you more productive in the longterm. This feeling of limited time we have in our lives is actually pretty motivating. Now I'm using weekly time goals for my projects. There's this special moment every week when you realize: If I don't start right now, it's impossible to reach by the end of the week. And you can't ignore it otherwise you're directly lying to yourself. Time is a magical thing.

Have been following your work for years Matt, would be an honor to have you on my podcast, I promise it will be one of the best interviews you've done.

I started doing this about 2 months before watching this video because I deal with severe ADHD and suck at time management and have tried so many different things to help with that, but I will say this one actually works GREATLY! So happy you made a video on this. YES YES AND YES!!

Thank you for emphasising how amazing it actually is that you can afford to spend more time with your family than with your work. Got your priorities straight. ❤ I think a lot of us millennials look back at our childhoods and while we appreciate our dads working a lot to keep up our lifestyle, a lot of us realise that we would've gladly sacrificed some of it to have them around.

Great video. I just have one bugbear: ‘helping out with Frankie’, ‘helping Nat around the house’. We all need to be mindful about the language we use. You are looking after your son and doing chores around your house because they need to be done. Language like this can come across as misogynistic and I know that’s not you nor your intention. It’s society’s way of framing women as homemakers and caregivers and language like this just fuels the status quo. Love your videos Mat, your ideas are unique and engaging. I just wanted to share the above because I hope it’ll help.

Matt! I used toggl years ago! Been loving your stuff for years! I am a youth pastor and I've been using your videos to motivate me and organize me! I switched to minimalist wardrobe I schedule every 30 minutes of my day I do 100 pushups a day (that came from buzzfeed but still). I also journal and use todoist for my daily tasks But i will never embrace the flinch of cold showers lol.

I like this one Matt! I’ve learned something similar over the years as a teacher and often use a countdown timer to keep track of when my planned amount of time has actually elapsed. Congrats on the new baby.

Hi Matt. Just wanted to say how much I appreciate you. You have inspired me to make content and work on myself and got me to where I am in life right now. Really thankful for the videos you have made in the past and will make in the future.

I am so happy to see this video today morning. Thanks for suggesting the right toll for tracking. I was trying to track my time gor the past 3 years on and off using various tools and gave up hope of ever doing it right. Seeing your video made me so happy, like someone is guiding me. You made my day. Sending you a truck load of blessings for your future. May god give you the best. Thanks for sharing and helping people see the reality as opposed to other content creators.

Loved your video Matt! I think adding screen time to the list of categories would be super useful (at least to me), especially since screen time compounds so easily across devices (work, communicating, play) I know for myself, a specific category to entertainment screen time would help me manage my time better.

I’ve always loved your videos, but am really loving them now you’re a parent too! Awesome!

I genuinely enjoyed the ad break in this video - can’t remember ever thinking that! Very smooth incorporation!

Great video! I don’t think it’s a bad thing that you spent “only 20 hours” a week working. Time isn’t really an accurate measure for productivity. You probably got more done in those 20 hours than most people in your field do in 40 because you have the skills and experience to do so. In fact, spending more time with family and doing personal stuff is what life should be about. Work is supplementary to those aspects of life, not the other way around.

You are not alone Matt. I am also a business owner and I can't get myself to do as much as I want to do and it feels like a burn out. I love your channel!!

54 HOURS?!? Oh my - this makes me even more grateful for your videos, Matt 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

Hey Mat! I’ve also been using toggl for a few years now, tracking things like video games, time spent working, ect. Love your videos!!

Would love to see a breakdown of which of your 30 day trials you've stuck with. There might be some form of this already, but I'm not finding it.

This was really interesting, and I will definitely apply this to my life. Also, had to watch the Netflix documentary you did about minimalism. It was really good!

Brian Tracy has a good rule for this. He says that however long you think something will take to do or how much, it will cost 3x it. I've found this to be pretty accurate for most things.

So cool! Thank you for sharing and for your honesty!! This is how we all move forward

Inspiring video as i watch this in the new year. Very helpful to bring more awareness to what really matters in our lives.

I've been tracking my time on and off for about three years now, and recently started tracking my mood. It's not enough to know what you're doing, you need to know if that time spent/start time/end time also gives you joy :)

Great video, Matt! I am taking notes… 📝 ((I wonder how much time it will take me to eat a bowl of cereal. If anyone wants to share their baselines, let me know🤣 ))

This is another interesting experiment to try on ! I'm doing this on this month and will see/analyze my results. Thanks for sharing the perspective, Matt :)

matt you should be proud of the amount of time your able to spend with your family - these are the days - enjoy them

matt this video is amazing. will try this this new year!

Love it Matt! I'm going to try and track my activities in December and see where all my time is going.

The ultimate challenge for a productivity youtuber is having kids. It's easy to be productive without children but life and time management change a lot when you become a parent, mainly because now your free time depends on your partner or someone who can babysit.

Neurodivergent folk like ADHD (and myself) need to keep in mind that our brains work different. In fact it can be quiet beneficial for us to switch tasks or to do the big and stressful tasks after the short and nice ones (dopamine!).

I tried toggl for the same reasons! I defnitely understand you there when theres a friction on triggering the start button haha cool video, matt! Very informative. Cheers to more self experimentation and data driven growth ✊🏼

keep going man, that was a great video ❤

This is a great video reflecting the day to day task! Gonna use the tracker app to do the same and wish to be more productive than before! Thanks for making such cool affirmative videos! :) ❤

Brilliant video! That's exactly what I need to do!

It's so worth trying. I currently use a Pomodoro App on my laptop, but mainly for work tasks. Planning to give it a try for this idea. Thanks!!

I love Toggl and use it for everything. Helps me track my billables for work, too!

Love Toggl. I did this at work a few years ago along with screen recording during dialogue editing and boy howdy did I spend a lot of time tweaking my plugin chain. Motion studies but for Reaper and Izotope RX. It was fun... at 10x speed.

Your videos are amazing Matt, keep up the excellent work :)

It would very cool to see how you plan, script your videos. You are a big inspiration

Wow! Great Video. I love the style of your Videos. It always keeps me interested in the topic.

Your video recommended me after so long even though I have turned on all the notifications, awesome video, Matt!

Thank you❤

I love this as a challenge. The discipline to actually time each activity would be the hardest part for me.

Matt always find a unique way to advertise something~ hahaha Admire him so much!

I’ve been doing this for about two years now (deep work only). It gives me such insights into planning an productivity. I generally get +-6 hours in a good day.

We love a life that shows that work doesn’t (and often shouldn’t be) the main thing eating up all your time. There will be ebbs and flows throughout our lives and careers, and our health, family/relationships are so vital to being human.

Yess! Toggl! Love it! A perfect toy for scientict and apparently also productivity influencers :-) I am using it for years for statistics mostly and for regular reviews. I used to track time by Google Cal like you did, but switched to Toggl after a few months. I track not only work projects (including those related, like learning languages I need at work), siide hustles and creative projects, and for tracking how much time I spent in public transport (hello from Europe), walking and exercising, and taking care of my health. Data are very useful, I found out I am able to fully concentrate for 52 minutes, just like I read in one study (the 20 minutes break probably applies also - when I shorthen or lenghten it, the next 52 minutes I do much less than previously. An unexpected results - this taught me to finish my work for the day when I am out of capacity, and really stop working on weekends.

Love this experiment, I’m gonna try it and see what my data looks like

I think task switching is a habit I do wayy too much. Trying to distract yourself from hard suff is really common

I've been doing this since January 1st this year and I haven't skipped a minute! :)

I really loved the concept of this video! I am a solo business owner of two businesses and have been struggling with commentary about “wow you barely work”. It isn’t true, but they just don’t see it nor did they see the drive and hustle for years prior.

I love this video! Will definitely download the app and try the experiment. (And after knowing how long you spend making a video, I will never complain again that it takes time to make videos...)

I feel ya, Matt. Will do the same! ❤

In the Netherlands, they have this mentality where if you can't get your work done within the 40h that you commit to, then chances are you're doing something wrong.

I have been thinking for a while about the Matt D'Avella signature as a RU-vidr. He is authentic and he does not hide his vulnerabilities. He is like one of those earthy green fragrances that seduce you not on the strength of their loud, prominent notes but on the strength of their demure, subtle vibes that linger for a long time. Thank you Matt!

Let's take a grateful moment to appreciate Matt and his Efforts for us 🌸

It really helped my case to be able to turn to my partner after this video and say "see - even Matt D'Avella takes a REALLY long time to make a video"! Thanks, Matt :)

His dedication 🎉

I LIVE on a stopwatch thing. Alarms too. My friends and roomates (back when I had them) would laugh at me for that. The time of my exaltation has come!!

wow thanks!

I did this for at least a year and stopped, but now I think I want to go back. It made me care more about staying on task so I didn't have something like 3 hours spent on folding laundry.

A slower season...what a positive description

that is what i do in school, always finish my homeworks the earliest

That was a great video and it felt really relevant to me.

Mr Efficiency! Great video, thanks for sharing it 😎✌️

Haven't watched the video yet but there's an idea Cinzia DuBois talks about in one of her videos about changing the mindset of 'time management' to 'focus/energy management' since we really can't manage time as we please, but our attention, focus and actions.

2:32 "I love deadlines. I love the wooshing noise they make as they go by." Douglas Adams, I love you. Why is everything that comes from this man pure gold

Quick question. A while ago you did a video about stopping the use of an alarm clock. Based on both these experiments you conducted, have you seen any discrepancies or similarities in the ways you use a stopwatch vs an alarm clock and if so do you think you can possibly benefit from the use of both? Just curious since they are both item that tell time just in the difference of time rising vs time descending. LOVE YOUR VIDEOS

MY MAN!!! I literally have an idea for a Championships for all sorts of useful everyday tasks so we can learn from the various metas that would develop!!

Watching your videos is now an habit

I time stuff I don’t like doing, so I can see how little time it takes, and pushes me to do it knowing how little time it takes

You will never regret those hours of family time 😊

10:30 you’ve said 18 hours instead of 8, good video Matt. I’ll download Toggl.

Don’t be so hard on yourself about the 40h per week, family time is something that if you don’t enjoy you will lose it. You’ll make your way little by little adapting as a parent with time. Also a good sleep makes you more efficient and o don’t think your are getting your best sleep this days ( even with your 9h per day tracking ) Great video, I was curious to see how long it takes to make your content. Good videos need a great amount of hours as you showed us.

I did that once! But only for a day. I totally want to try this again.

I’m glad i finished the video first. I was really shocked at first that you were complaining about working only 20 hours a week. When my dream is to only work 1-2 hours a day but currently working 12-14 hours a day to make ends meet. Like why the hustle culture? Why not be minimal and have a slow living lifestyle? I do love this video and really enjoyed it 😁

You’re the best

I've lost track of how many managers have asked me to track my time during the day only for me to lose productivity from all the extra effort it takes me to track and them to never do anything with the data nor make any helpful recommendations.

20 hours of deep work is 4hours every work day, that's also my capacity

Very insightful video! I've just downloaded Toggl on my phone to track how much time I spend with my boyfriend which is something that needs improvement. Quick question: when you do 2 things at once, how do you classify this time? For example, I sometimes call my mom on my way back home. Does it count as Family time or Commuting time?

I started to watch your channel to learn English ❤

Love the experiment! Also the squarespace rap at Eminem’s rythm 😂

Success depends on the actions or steps you take to achieve it. Building wealth involves developing good habits, such as regularly setting aside money for sound investments.

A 20 hour workweek seems absolutely perfect to me. Of course If you make enough money that way to live.

Amazing

Time audits are important

Whenever I have a new task that I need to get track of, I always ask myself: "Do I need to go back to this task/ project (Project in a sense of individual projects IRL that I finished, not the "project" catergory in Toggl) to see how long does it take to finish?" "How will I search this in the future?" These 2 questions help me when adding task, because most of the time I don't even look back at 90% of what I tracked: sleep, commute, eat lunch, etc. If I do need to track these tasks, I will do it with intention: Track sleep time to improve my sleep hygiene/ schedule/ routine, track commuting time to find the shortest road to places, etc.

Matt I would love a video of tips to live between two countries. I started one month ago and I’m a little bit lost.

Recommend reading "4000 Weeks", a fresh perspectives on time management

I’d try this if I were better at time management.

awsome video dude

First one here, excited to watch this!

Matt's videos are still very high quality, but no longer come close to how creative he is with Squarespace integrations 😂

Congrats I didn’t know you had a baby! 🎉