Let's run the numbers
8,760.
That’s the amount of hours you have in a given year. Doesn't matter how rich, broke, successful, or unsuccessful you are, we all get 8,760 hours.
So let’s say you work 50 hours a week. You’re going balls to the wall, every single week of the year. You don’t even take vacations or holidays.
That’s about 29% of your year, or roughly 2,600 hours.
Now let’s say you sleep a perfect 8 hours a night.
That’s another 33% of the year, around 2,900 hours.
Here's where it gets interesting and the reason I’m telling you all this.
What’s left on the chart?
38%
That’s roughly 3,300 hours a year that are completely yours.
And that’s true even in this “extreme” scenario where you work 50 hours a week, never take a real vacation, and sleep perfectly every night. You still have a massive chunk of time sitting there.
So if it feels like you have no time, the problem usually isn’t time itself. The problem is that you’re not seeing where it’s going.
The real question
So where is your 38% actually going?
This is where most people get stuck. They feel busy, they assume they’re productive, and they live off little stories like: “I don’t have time” “this week was crazy” “I’ve just been slammed.”
But have you ever actually looked?
Think about it this way: if you wanted to get in the best shape of your life, what would a good trainer have you do first? They wouldn’t start by screaming at you to run harder. They’d say, “track everything you eat for a month.” Because you can’t improve what you refuse to measure.
Time works the same way.
That 38% is supposedly “yours,” but most people are flying blind. They’ve got opinions about it, they’ve got excuses about it, but they don’t have data on it.
You can’t fix what you won’t look at.
The challenge
Here’s what you can do about it.
For the next seven days, I want you to track everything you do in 30-minute increments.
Yes, everything. Work, commute, meals, dishes, deep work, scrolling, netflix, gym, walking, dogs, family. All of it.
(You’ll get even insights if you do this for 30-days, but start with just seven)
I know how this sounds. It’s intense. You’re basically choosing to become a psycho for a week. But I promise if you do it, it will be one of the most eye-opening things you’ll do all year.
I’ve done this five or six times throughout my career, and every single time it exposes something I didn’t want to see. Not in a shameful way. In a “wait… THAT’S where it’s going?” way.
I’ve also given this exercise to hundreds of clients who say the same thing.
Where do you track all this?
Use anything: Notes app, paper, or duplicate the Google Sheet I use here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oUBqKB3KqDujlIs_AQA6c20cLFM_smzAtggwrA9ad5g/edit?usp=sharing
Three Rules
Before you do this, I want to give you three rules so you don’t accidentally ruin the whole point.
Rule one: do not alter your week.
This is the biggest mistake people make. They treat the audit like a performance review and try to “win” the week by looking good on paper. Don’t. If you normally game for four hours, log four hours. If you scroll for two hours before bed, log it. The goal is not a perfect week, it’s your real week. You can’t plug leaks you refuse to write down.
Rule two: look for patterns.
Don’t obsess over one weird day. Zoom out. Patterns are where the leaks live.
When I tracked a month, I realized I wasn’t the “five days a week” gym guy I thought I was. I averaged two. Same with reading. In my head I was a daily reader, but in reality it was twice a week. The audit doesn’t just show your time, it shows where you’re exaggerating.
But here’s the bigger one. Every time I do this, I catch at least one “productive” pattern that’s really just avoidance.
I did this audit again in my late 20s and realized I’d spend 10 to 20 hours “researching” a video (I’m not exaggerating). And 90% of what I wrote wasn’t making it into videos, OR was making my filming process 10X harder because I had too much stuff I was trying to say.
That one pattern realization bought me hundreds of hours back over the years and allowed me to create some of my best work. **
Rule three: stay curious, not critical.
You’re going to see stuff you don’t love, and that’s normal. But if you use this audit as ammunition to beat yourself up, it stops working.
Treat everything like data, like a scientist running an experiment, emotionally detached from the outcome. Guilt is terrible fuel. It burns hot for a day, then you crash and you’re back at zero with extra shame on top.
Remember: this is about catching patterns you didn’t consciously choose so you can choose differently.
Permission Slip
Here’s the truth about your 38%.
Some of it should go to deep work. The stuff that’s productive and moves your life forward and makes you proud of yourself when you lay down at night.
And some of it should go to being a human. Resting. Screwing around. Doing absolutely nothing “productive” on purpose.
This audit is not about turning your free time into a second job. It’s not about squeezing every drop out of your life like you’re trying to optimize a robot. It’s about making sure you’re spending your time on purpose instead of spending it by accident.
Because a lot of the time, the leak isn’t “fun.” The leak is the weird stuff that sneaks in. The scrolling that doesn’t even feel good. The half-working, half-distracting limbo. The things that look like rest on paper but somehow leave you more drained than before.
The audit shows you the difference.
Your 38% is already there. It’s been there your whole life. The only question is whether you’re going to keep guessing where it goes, or finally look.
See you saturday,
CK
P.S. Before you do the audit, take a guess. What do you think you’re spending your 38% on? Hit reply and tell me. Then do the audit and see if you were right. I’d bet money you’ll be surprised.