Why Time Audits Matter

Optimizing time management for yourself and the executives you support is an EA superpower. Note the steps and tools to conduct a strategic time audit from processes and procedures expert Julie Perrine.

Recorded at EA Ignite Spring 2025 and produced by the American Society of Administrative Professionals - ASAP. Learn more and submit a listener question at asaporg.com/podcast.

Leah Warwick: Hi, everyone. I'm Leah Warwick, and you're listening to "The Admin Edge." In an earlier episode on career progression, we noted the importance of time audits to show strategic impact as an EA. In this episode, trainer and founder of All Things Admin, Julie Perrine, sat down with ASAP Advisory Board Member Mia Lane at EA Ignite to talk about why time audits are crucial, and how you can start tracking your time at work to be most efficient and effective.

00:00:41                     

Mia Lane: Hello, I'm Mia Lane, Manager of Executive and Administration at UKG and Board Chair of EA Ignite. My guest today is Julie Perrine, Founder of All Things Admin and a trainer at this event, EA Ignite. Welcome to the podcast, Julie.

Julie Perrine: Thank you. Delighted to be here.

Mia Lane: Great. Let's jump right in. Why do you think time audits often feel intimidating for EAs, and how can we start viewing them as powerful tools for growth and success?

Julie Perrine: Well, I think the first thing we have to address are the challenges that most people associate with being asked to track their time. Number one: I don't like being micromanaged.

Mia Lane: Me neither.

Julie Perrine: Number two: They're trying to eliminate my job. And number three: I don't have time to track my time. We've got all these things that we're trying to do. Seriously, you want me to track my time on top of this?

So I think those are kind of the three big things that I hear the most about this whole topic, but I'd like to reframe it a little bit and help assistants realize their most valuable asset is their time. If you don't know exactly where every minute of your day is going -- and that sounds like being in the minutia and micromanaging, but it really isn't. 

00:01:59

It's data and information. It's insight that helps you gain awareness, and the more awareness that you gain on where you're actually putting every minute of your day, the more strategic and innovative you can be about how you put better systems and procedures in place, where you can eliminate some bottlenecks, where you can be more useful and valuable in helping your entire team work more effectively. 

Mia Lane: Because you have more time.

Julie Perrine: And so, for me, I'd say the biggest thing is what you track and measure grows, and so when you can remove the negativity around what this exercise feels like when you're asked to do it -- or, better yet, don't wait to be asked; do it before you're asked, because then you are the one gathering the data, analyzing it, making positive changes, and that's a whole lot more fun to be presenting positive changes that you've made based on datapoints you've collected versus having somebody tell you, you need to do it.

00:02:56

Start to kind of reframe it as: Okay, how am I spending my most valuable asset, and how can I do it smarter and better in this day and age of making sure that every minute we have is counting toward helping the bottom line of our companies? 

Mia Lane: Great. Okay, can you walk us through the benefits and basic steps of performing a time audit, particularly for someone like me, who is new to this process?

Julie Perrine: Yes. For those of you who have connected with me in the past, you know I like five simple steps. I have a five simple step process that I've created for time audits. I'll be honest and upfront with you. Time audits have not always been my favorite thing either, but I never ask assistants to do something that I haven't done or that I am not doing. And in preparing for the sessions I am presenting here at EA Ignite, I have literally had a fire lit under me in such a fantastic way around time audits because I've found some tools that have made it so much simpler and so much easier.

00:03:54

Actually, I'll say this word, and you're going to think I'm overstating it, but I think it's fun. Here's the process and then I'll share my favorite tool. 

Mia Lane: Okay, I'm looking forward to hearing about this fancy tool.

Julie Perrine: So my five simple steps for a time-audit process are: Step one is prepare. That is, think about what you need to be tracking and what you're trying to figure out. Do you feel like you're getting a lot of distractions, interruptions? Are you more efficient when you work at home versus at the office? What is it you're kind of coming into this whole experience with that tells you, "I probably need to track my time a little bit and see specifically where I can get more out of my day." And then think about the tools you want to use to do it. Some people are more paper-focused. Some people are more digital-focused. Some people kind of need a hybrid. Finding some tools or apps or templates or a combination of the two that you can use to do this will help expedite and make the process a little less time intensive or eliminates a lot of that hassle factor.

00:04:56

Step two then is to actually start tracking your time. The best way to get some good data is to do it for a series of several days. I say a minimum of three days. Ideally, I like a solid week, maybe even a couple of weeks. But you can begin starting to analyze what you're finding after that first week, and start to then implement some of those things you think you can tweak or adjust in the second week, and then you can already start to see where you're gaining efficiencies or doing things more streamlined or effectively. 

Once you've started tracking your time then, whether that's digitally or on paper or some combination of the two, this is a great use case for helping assistants get comfortable with AI tools, because you don't have to necessarily take all of this data and figure it out by yourself. Brainstorm with Gemini or ChatGPT or Copilot, or whatever the tools are at your fingertips that you're using, or that you want to test -- maybe test all three of them -- and start to analyze those results.

00:05:53

So what you're looking for at this stage of the game is: What are some of the broad groups or categories of work that I am doing? You probably went into the process with a little bit of an idea, like: I have three executives, or we have three major initiatives, or maybe it's both of those things you're tracking simultaneously, and you can do that. So looking at categories, projects and executives, primarily.

But then looking at, okay, within this broad category of this executive, what are the types of work that I'm doing for him or her specifically? Or within the projects that you're supporting, what are the types of things I'm doing? Are they more support level? Are they more strategic and planning level? Maybe you're stepping into more of a leadership role and so you're actually leading the project. What are the subcategories that kind of tie into those major categories?

00:06:44

And then step four is to identify the patterns, or look at the data and follow the trends. Where are there some time-wasters or bottlenecks that are occurring in my work? I know a lot of assistants have told me over the years, and I've surveyed this on some of the sessions I've done on organization and time management, interruptions and distractions are a huge time-waster for assistants. 

So any time we can find better ways or strategies of either time blocking or creating focused periods of time throughout the day or the week, and then implementing these actually for our teams as well, because it's not just us who's having these challenges. It's everybody on our teams. So when you start to look at what you're worth -- not what you're worth, but what you're being paid per hour, what your executives are being paid per hour, and you multiple that out across the amount of time that is wasted with meetings that didn't have good agendas and so they were rambling sessions and everybody comes unprepared, or things that are just happening naturally in the day-to-day interactions around your desk.

00:07:51

Those are things that you can then begin to put a spotlight on and identify some strategies for: How do we overcome this or solve this? Because you're going to then be saving money across the board in the amount of time being saved for each and every person that that impacts in a positive way. 

And then the fifth step is to take action. In my world of "The Innovative Admin," one of the books I wrote on that topic, I look at this as this is where we go from being idea generators to actually stepping into a more leading role, where we're actually implementing and taking action on the good ideas that we have, because we sit at the hub. We see all the things happening. We know all of the moving parts. We know the people. We know the processes. So we have that unique perspective into what's happening in our environments, and it allows us then to be able to make suggestions or to make observations and share: Here's a better procedure or process for doing this. 

00:08:48

These are where we can then look at: Okay, what do we need to reduce? What can we automate? What can we delegate? Or what can we systematize better so that it works more effectively for everyone who's involved? 

That's kind of the overall process that I've gone through. Each step takes a little bit of time. This isn't something you rush through. I just finished a 30-day time audit myself. 

Mia Lane: 30 days?

Julie Perrine: 30 days straight, from April 1^st through April 30^th I tracked every single day, thanks to my new favorite, little tool.

Mia Lane: Okay, awesome. So once an EA has the results, how should they analyze their time audit to uncover the real opportunities for impact?

Julie Perrine: There's a few ways you can do this. I mentioned this little tool here. This is created by a company that originally, I think, their name is Timeular. They know go by the name EARLY. If you go to EARLY app or Timeular, do a web search, this little, eight-sided cube is a fantastic little tool for helping you track your time. What you do is you assign a category to each side, and when you're ready to start tracking, you put it on the table, and whatever side is up will start tracking your time. Timeuler

00:10:03

So what I have found is, using this tool -- first of all, as I switch from project to project, and if I'm interrupted, a minimum of a minute is captured when you flip a side. So right now I'm doing a podcast for ASAP, and I have "ASAP" up. But if I switch to something person, I go like that and it immediately stops tracking for ASAP, and it starts tracking for personal. So this is where then now, using this app, I can go in and at the end of the day, I can see my pie chart for the whole day of exactly how many minutes went to each of the things I have assigned, to each side of this. So if I'm doing email, I switch it to email. If I'm doing something for a client, I switch it to this client. If I'm doing something for ASAP, I switch it to this side. 

00:10:49

So analyzing becomes a lot easier when you're using some digitization and some tools to help you do it. When I said it's fun -- 

Mia Lane: Work smarter, not harder.

Julie Perrine: This is like a game for me now, sitting at my desk. And two things happened in the month of April, while I was tracking my time very religiously, using this tool. Number one, I started to pay more attention to where I could be more focused for longer periods of time, because suddenly you realize, "Oh, man, I keep changing this thing every two minutes." Well, no wonder you're not getting anything done. You can't sit and focus on anything for a period of time when you're constantly being interrupted.

So now it becomes a little bit of a game. Okay, I'm working on this client project right here. How long can I stay focused on working on just this project, without an interruption, before I move to the next thing? I've been able to get more done in less time when I stop hopping from item to item throughout my day. 

00:11:46

So that is analysis that I have gained from tracking my time for a 30-day period. Whether you're doing that on pen and paper and you start to analyze the results, or you're using a digital tool, like Timeular or the EARLY app, this is where you start to get into the nitty-gritty of: Okay, how could I do this better, faster, more efficient? So the frequent switching of things, jumping around, some of the manual, repetitive tasks that you're doing, if you can group them or bunch of them together, you can be more effective in getting things done more efficiently. 

Things like excessive meetings -- when you start to realize, we've got all these meetings on all these different topics, but part of the reason is we aren't planning well for them in the first place. If we could move to a more agenda-based system within our organization, we could cut meetings times by a third or in half. These are where you start to identify some of those time-wasters and the bottlenecks that then allow you to create or make some suggestions for solutions that can help resolve them or make them more efficient for everybody. 

00:12:50                     

Mia Lane: Good. So how can EAs use the insights from their time audits to demonstrate greater strategic value to their executives and stakeholders?

Julie Perrine: So as you start to pay attention to these things for yourself, you're going to also start gaining an awareness of how individuals you work with or support are also spending their time. So you have to discreet and you have to be professional about it, but if you can get everybody doing this, even just for a couple of days -- make it a team thing. Make it fun somehow. The insights that I believe a lot of our executives need to gain also is pure gold here, because the value that they don't realize a meeting that either starts late or a meeting that doesn't have a good agenda is costing them in time and productivity is massive in a lot of these organizations.

00:13:49

So presenting your results and what you have been able to improve -- or as you're starting to observe things about the teams and the executives that you support and bringing your suggestions to the table: "Listen, I've done this myself. Here's what I have learned from me. Here's what I've implemented. I've already started saving time on this. I've already made this more efficient. I've already implemented this procedure. I can see, as I have started to observe some of the meetings or teams I'm supporting, that I think we could gain some efficiencies here and here and here, and here's how." So that you're not just coming and saying, "I think this entire team is wasting too much time on X." 

Mia Lane: No, you have the data behind it.

Julie Perrine: I also say, lead with the facts. Facts are persuasive. Feelings are subjective.

Mia Lane: Exactly.

Julie Perrine: So when you've got data and context for what you're presenting, it's a business conversation at that point, and that is going to get heard and recognized much more quickly than just: "Well, I feel like everybody is wasting so much time around here." When maybe they are, but if you don't have the data points to support it, then it just becomes conjecture.

00:14:55                     

Mia Lane: If an EA listening today could take just one step this week to better manage their time and priorities, what would you recommend, Julie?

Julie Perrine: I would recommend that they start tracking their time, even if it's only for half a day, or maybe even just a couple of hours. Print out a spreadsheet or if you're a pen and paper person, sometimes it's easier to just jot things down on a notepad. It doesn't have to be fancy. I don't care how you do it, as long as you're tracking what you do.

If you prefer to do something digitally, you do not have to have this little tool. You can just get the app by itself. This is an add-on. So for people who are more neurodivergent, like I am, I love this physical, tactile tool that I can use with it, but it's a paid thing that you have to paid for in addition. 

Mia Lane: So it's a monthly subscription?

Julie Perrine: For this part, it is. Actually, I think you can try the app as a trial first, and then the app has a paid subscription with it as well. But you don't have to get this little device. You can still use the app. You can use it on your phone. You can use it on your desktop. You can have it sync with your calendar and with the things that are actually on your schedule so that, in case you forget to track your time on something, you can look and see.

00:16:03

You can also set it up so that it will be able to tell you what your browser window was on for all of the periods of time throughout the day. So as you kind of go back at the end of the day, if you forgot to track or write something down specifically, you can kind of say, "Oh, yes, I was working on that and I was working on this." But what I have found is using an app, or using the pen and paper, even just doing it for a half a day or a whole day to get started, it raises your awareness of where every minute of your day is going, and things you may not have even paid any attention to before, suddenly you realize, "Ooh, I've had a few too many chats with my coworkers today." Or, "I was texting an awful lot with this person, and it was fun and it was building relationships, but I was not getting work done while I was doing this." 

00:16:48

So as you raise that awareness level in yourself, just tracking for a short period of time, that starts to then multiply out across. But if you can, explore some of the apps. Explore some of the tools that are out there. Find one that works for you and see if you can get a full week captured. And then press pause, do some analysis, see what you learn, and take those insights and start turning them into things that are actionable in improving and making things more efficient for how you do what you do, and then how that expands out for your team and your executives also. 

Mia Lane: Okay. So now one more time: What is the name of the app and the gadget that you have been using?

Julie Perrine: So it was originally called Timeular and you can still find it online, T-I-M-E-U-L-A-R. They have just rebranded to EARLY, E-A-R-L-Y. So if you go to EARLY app or Timeular and do a search on time tracking or time audits, you'll be able to find it if you do a search for it. But it is -- it's fabulous. It has a lot of digital options. It has this physical option you can add to it, and it is one of my new favorite power tools for time and productivity management.

00:17:59                     

Mia Lane: Awesome. Thank you for giving us that additional information. We have a listener question, submitted by one of our community members. They write: "Admins tend to have way too many projects. What's the best way to say no, or that their plate is full?"

Julie Perrine: You've got to be able to tell them what your plate is full of. So I can tell you exactly how every minute of my day has been spent for the last 30 days, and I can tell you that the insight I gained helped me understand that one of the things that I thought was taking me longer than it was, I was actually budgeting too much time for. One of the things that I thought, "Oh, I can do that in a couple hours a week" was actually taking me six hours a week.

00:18:45

So it helps you gain an awareness of time like no other. In fact, time blindness is one of the concepts that I have come across that I have new appreciation for, because I believe a lot of us have some of those roadblocks or just a blindness to understanding how our time is actually being spent. So when you start to track it, you gain an awareness. This is part of what I think is a challenge for working with different personality types and communication styles on your teams. They don't even realize, either, some of the ways that they're spending their time. So if you can use a time audit to raise your awareness and then raise the awareness of others, it just helps you be able to have that conversation more productively about: "Okay, this is exactly what I'm spending my time on currently? How does this align with the priorities that we've outlined for our team or for our organization? Here's an area where I feel like this is not a good use of my time. How can we either find another person to delegate some of these responsibilities to?" 

00:19:46

There's a start/stop/continue exercise that I like to do. What do we need to stop doing? What do we need to start doing? And what can we continue doing because it's working? This gives you datapoints for having those conversations very strategically and very proactively. 

Mia Lane: Thanks again for joining us on "The Admin Edge," Julie. Where can our listeners find you online?

Julie Perrine: There are actually two places you can find me online: On the ASAP blog, I have some articles and resources I have been sharing there, and I'm also online at julieperrine.com.

[music playing]

Leah Warwick: Thank you for listening to "The Admin Edge," produced by the American Society of Administrative Professionals, original music and audio editing by Warwick Productions, with audio and video production by 5Tool Productions. If you liked this podcast, please leave us a nice review, five stars, and subscribe. If you'd like to submit a listener question, you may do so on our website at ASAPorg.com/podcast.