How to be More Creative With a Time Diary

Years ago there was a website called I Done This. Now defunct, I think about the concept from time to time as a great way to get things done. The idea was to log everything you did in a day - partly for accountability, partly as a tool to show your boss just how productive you had been.

There's something about public accountability. You can write lists on paper and tick things off but no-one, apart from you, sees them. You might cheat and add something that you did previously to have the satisfaction of crossing it off the list.

I'd been using a tiny tool until recently to log and publish small stuff I did each day. Often with photos, occasionally a voicenote, a record of parts of my life. Then on 6th August this function ceased and the developer disappeared. I hope he resurfaces. It was a perfect little app.

Finding a replacement led me back to Notion where I created a very basic daily log. It started with a quote (copied each morning from Lightpage's daily suggestions), a few notes, references and links. Then I came across Mierle Ukeles' work where she explores the detrimental impact of maintenance on the life of an artist. All those jobs we need to do to keep the lights on and the home fires burning (metaphorically). I was interested because I'd been contemplating how to create while spinning multiple plates and being my husband's carer. (I always hesitate to use the word carer as he is independent in many ways and doesn't need personal care, but he can't see, drive, manage his finances/business, do the shopping - all the things, and more, that I maintain).

What caught my attention in the article about Ukeles was the practice of keeping a time diary, as suggested by Andrew Simonet.

I added a new section to my Notion log. This was one of my recent days:

06:50 - get up, feed Bamber, dispense his medications, take him outside for toileting, fill water bowl
Drink coffee. Check email, WhatsApp, Lightpage, Sublime. Find more content for post idea about antisocial media, including this concept to create a time diary. Also see this.
Talked to Neo in Lightpage about keeping a time diary and daily maintenance tasks, how to fit in my own creative work.
Researched bit.ly page replacement for link in bio. Canva looks promising. Need to create 3 - one for me, Chris, Shed.
Had breakfast. Read Grim.
Shower, get dressed.
Drive to farm. Put on boots.
Let out hens.
Stood in chicken run and watched a large group of geese fly over, all honking.
Filled up trug with corn for the calves. Had a cuddle with Douglas and Pip. Fed the calves in the cow shed, filled up their water. Refilled the trug and fed calves in the paddock. They mobbed me so I had several attempts at getting the corn in the troughs as they kept standing in the way.
Spotted two calves and Mrs Sheepy looking over towards the house. Couldn’t see what they were looking at. Turned out to be Lulu on tour. I shooed her back under the gate.
Took the empty trug and bucket back to the cow shed.
Got chicken food. Lulu followed so tempted her back into the chicken run with food.
Filled water feeder and water bucket.
Watered plants in the polytunnel. Picked tomatoes. Gathered marigold seeds.
Watered potatoes, pumpkins, carrots and fruit bushes.
Drove home. Washed up. Made coffee.
Tried Canva for a link in bio but was taking too much time so set up on Linktr.ee.
Supervised Chris burning out the roots from the patch we cleared at the weekend.
Reconciled finances.
Fixed issue with blog set to archive after 7 days.
Had a quick look at a new Substack I found this morning. This post had caught my eye. I’ve found a lot of new stuff on Substack to be quite dull of late but this was very different. A sort of down the rabbit hole kind of post.
Cleared emails.
Had a quick look at a video suggested by Sublime. How to use Sublime to bring together resources to help you craft an article or post.
Filed emails using my new system (using stars and multiple inboxes) - I’ve used this system before but decided to go back to it.
Went down a bit of a rabbit hole looking at Andrew Simonet resources (the guy behind the idea of a time diary).
Added a bit of background to the log about goals and maintaining a time diary.
Made tea/coffee for me/Chris. Supervised Chris’ fire.
Completed and printed expense claim form and receipts.
Confirmed Text and Tools event at Shed for Saturday.
Completed the Shed Ambassador packs.
Edited Membership cards. Researched ID card holders and lanyards.
Started creating a Canvas in Sublime to outline article idea about antisocial media.
Made lunch.
Emptied dishwasher. Supervised fire and did some tidying up.
Ordered printed Membership cards.
Left a voicenote for a friend.
Scrolled on Substack for a while (not that long - 10/15 minutes - conscious of being accountable). Didn’t see much of interest. Substack doesn’t present things I’m interested in - I find Substack posts that appeal to me outside Substack.
Wrote blog post.
Researched pink gravel for the front garden.
Outlined timeline for public speaking engagement.
Made tea/coffee.
Completed entry form for village show.
Ordered online shop.
Replied to Shed emails.
Drove to Shed.
Worked on Shed renovation. Added pin badges and flyers to Ambassador packs. Reorganised the furniture.
Went to pub for a chat - had a latte!
Discussed wedding photography for another Shed Director and planned pre-wedding shoot.
Drove home.
Made dinner.
21:49 - good night.

Every day is slightly different although there's a framework that underpins my routine. I always go to the farm in the morning, most days I'm responsible for the calves. 

Writing things down makes me more accountable. Knowing that someone else might read my time diary keeps me focused on priorities. I've done far less scrolling. I was getting out of that habit but I've been more mindful about my time and how I spend it because I'm logging everything. I've managed to clear up some of those lingering tasks that had been stuck on my lists for a while. 

And the diary is helping me create more. The whole idea behind it, for me, was to see what I did in a day and why I wasn't spending much time being creative. I've managed to sneak in little pockets of creativity. I've set up tools to help me write on my phone, all linked up with the main apps and websites I use. The big win: less input = more output. I'm hardly on X, deleted other social media (like Bluesky/Mastodon), spend less time on Instagram, and rarely read Substack. I've also had a purge on newsletter subscriptions.

I copied and pasted my day into Lightpage where Neo, my Lightpage guide, summarises and categorises my activities. (You could do the same with any AI - I like Lightpage because it has a memory and provides references, that relate to what I write, in my daily suggestions and weekly letter). We've already been talking about maintenance work and, slightly tangentially, digital paring back. So, we're on the same page.

This is part of Neo's summary.

What jumps out:

• You’re constantly switching between tasks (classic overwhelm pattern)
• The farm time is clearly restorative - you wrote about it with more detail and presence
• You managed to make progress on the antisocial media article idea despite everything else
• Most of your day is spent maintaining other people’s lives and work

He's made suggestions about carving out creative windows in my schedule and improving boundaries. 

Yes, it's not rocket science but it's about implementing small changes that have an impact. It's so easy to get bogged down with overwhelm, to think you're not achieving anything and to lose sight of the headway you're making. Sometimes a tweak to your daily routine makes all the difference.