⚡ Productivity
Time Management Prompt: Weekly Time Audit to a Real Plan
Audit a tracked week against your priorities: totals that add up, the gap for each goal, your biggest time leaks, trade-offs you approve, and a next-week plan.
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Prompt
Act as a time management coach who works from a client's tracked week, not from guesses, and turns it into a next week plan where every hour is accounted for. Inputs: - One tracked week of waking hours by category, with hours per category: [TimeLog] - Waking hours per day: [WakingHours] - Top three priorities and the weekly hours each one needs: [Priorities] - Fixed commitments that cannot move (work hours, commute, caregiving, classes): [FixedCommitments] - When my energy is high and low during the day: [EnergyPattern] - Limits I want to keep (maximum work hours, evenings off, family time): [Constraints] Generate: 1. A time audit table: every TimeLog category, hours, and share of total waking hours (WakingHours times 7). Add an "untracked" line so the total matches exactly. Show the sums. 2. Priority gap: for each item in Priorities, hours needed minus hours spent, and the total hours to find. 3. Time leaks: the three categories with the most hours that do not serve Priorities, with what a realistic cut looks like (not zero). 4. Trade-off options: where each freed hour comes from and where it goes, kept inside Constraints. Total hours freed must cover the gap; show the math. 5. Next week plan: the same categories with new hours, adding up to the same weekly total, and which days and time of day each priority block goes in, using EnergyPattern. 6. Three rules that protect the plan (for example, when email gets checked), each tied to a leak from step 3. 7. A ten minute Sunday check-in: what to compare, and what to change if a priority falls short two weeks in a row. Rules: - Use only my numbers. Do not assume how long things "should" take. - Never cut sleep, meals, or FixedCommitments to close a gap.
Instructions
Run this in ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini after tracking one real week (a notes app, a spreadsheet, or a time tracker export works). Replace every [bracket] with your own hours and recheck the totals. The plan is a starting point; adjust it after one week of trying it.
Generated Output
This image was generated using the prompt above.

Examples
Example Input
TimeLog (last week, hours): Meetings 13. Focused design work 15. Email and Slack 10. Admin and documentation 4. Commute 6. Certification study 1.5. Exercise 1. Phone scrolling 10.5. Chores and errands 7. Meals 10.5. Family and friends 9. Getting ready 7. TV and streaming 8. WakingHours: 16 a day. Priorities: 1. Focused design work, 20 hours a week (I am behind on a product redesign). 2. Study for my UX certification exam, 6 hours a week. 3. Exercise, 3 hours a week. FixedCommitments: Work Monday to Friday 9 to 5:30 plus commute. Dinner with family every evening. EnergyPattern: Sharpest from 8 to 11 am. Low after lunch. Okay for light work after 8 pm. Constraints: Work no more than 43 hours a week. Saturdays stay family time. No studying after 10 pm.
Example Output
1. TIME AUDIT (112 waking hours: 16 x 7) | Category | Hours | Share | | Focused design work | 15 | 13.4% | | Meetings | 13 | 11.6% | | Phone scrolling | 10.5 | 9.4% | | Meals | 10.5 | 9.4% | | Email and Slack | 10 | 8.9% | | Family and friends | 9 | 8.0% | | TV and streaming | 8 | 7.1% | | Chores and errands | 7 | 6.3% | | Getting ready | 7 | 6.3% | | Commute | 6 | 5.4% | | Admin and documentation | 4 | 3.6% | | Certification study | 1.5 | 1.3% | | Exercise | 1 | 0.9% | | Untracked | 9.5 | 8.5% | Tracked: 102.5. Untracked: 112 - 102.5 = 9.5. Total: 112. Work total: 13 + 15 + 10 + 4 = 42 hours. 2. PRIORITY GAP Design work: 20 - 15 = 5 Certification study: 6 - 1.5 = 4.5 Exercise: 3 - 1 = 2 Hours to find: 5 + 4.5 + 2 = 11.5 3. TIME LEAKS Phone scrolling 10.5: cut to 5.5 (frees 5). Email and Slack 10: batch three times a day, cut to 7 (frees 3). TV and streaming 8: cut to 5 (frees 3). Also: meetings 13 to 11.5 by shortening or declining 1.5 hours of recurring meetings (frees 1.5). 4. TRADE-OFFS Freed at work: email 3 + meetings 1.5 = 4.5. Design needs 5, so 0.5 more comes from personal time. Freed personal: phone 5 + TV 3 = 8. Study 4.5 + exercise 2 + 0.5 to design = 7. Left over: 1 hour of buffer. Total freed: 4.5 + 8 = 12.5, covering the 11.5 gap. New work total: 11.5 + 20 + 7 + 4 = 42.5, under your 43 hour limit. 5. NEXT WEEK PLAN Design work 20, Meetings 11.5, Email and Slack 7, Admin 4, Commute 6, Study 6, Exercise 3, Phone 5.5, Chores 7, Meals 10.5, Family 9, Getting ready 7, TV 5, Untracked 10.5. Check: 20 + 11.5 + 7 + 4 + 6 + 6 + 3 + 5.5 + 7 + 10.5 + 9 + 7 + 5 = 101.5; 101.5 + 10.5 = 112. Where it goes: - Design: 9 to 11 am Monday to Friday (10 hours) in your sharpest window, plus 3 to 5 pm Monday to Friday (10 hours), after the post-lunch dip. - Study: 8 to 9:30 pm Monday to Thursday (6 hours), done before 10 pm. - Exercise: 7 to 8 am Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (3 hours). - Saturday stays family time; nothing is scheduled on it. 6. RULES - Email and Slack at 11:30, 2:00, and 4:30 only (leak: email and Slack). - Phone charges outside the bedroom; no scrolling before your 9 am design block (leak: phone). - One episode on weeknights, then study or rest (leak: TV). 7. SUNDAY CHECK-IN (10 minutes) Compare planned and actual hours for design, study, and exercise. If one falls short two weeks in a row, move its block to a morning slot or cut another leak by one hour.