Build a low-friction log with start time, end time, activity, and a few useful tags. Choose a paper, spreadsheet, calendar, or app format that is simple enough to keep during a normal day.

Practice recording what you are doing close to when it happens, without turning tracking into its own big task. Use sensible detail levels, note task switches, and repair missed entries from evidence like your calendar or messages.

Mark interruptions by source, length, and what they displaced. Trace the hidden restart cost that comes after a call, message, request, or distraction breaks your attention.

Apply the previous explanations in a guided problem.

Spot time that often disappears from plans: waiting for people, systems, travel, decisions, materials, or your own energy to return. Label recovery time honestly so rest, decompression, and refocusing are visible instead of treated as failure.

Compare your intended schedule with your logged day to find overruns, missing transition time, unplanned work, and tasks that routinely take longer than expected. Use the gap as evidence for better estimates, not as a reason to blame yourself.

Apply the previous explanations in a guided problem.

Check your understanding with a short quiz.

Review this chapter with practice based on your mistakes.