Home » Understanding your own behaviours

Understanding your own behaviours

person holding ballpoint pen writing on notebook
Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

We have created an opportunity for you to engage in a guided self-reflection exercise in order to better understand your own behaviours. You can find that here.

To gain further insights you might keep a diary of your communication
habits and keep track of when work interrupts non-work (and vice
versa). Alternatively, you could you could use some self-tracking tools to give you a better understanding of your everyday behaviour using technology.

Track how you spend time on your devices

Screen time (on iPhone)
Device setting -> screen time
From there you can set downtime (i.e. times when only
certain apps will be available), app limits (i.e. how much
time you allow yourself on certain apps)

Actiondash app (on Android, search on Play Store)
Visualizes time spent on apps and number of phone
unlocks and compares hour by hour for the previous
7 days in the free version.

RescueTime
www.rescuetime.com
It can installed on any laptop/PC and on Android and
iPhones. It automatically classifies time spent on each
device as productive (e.g. Word, email) or as
procrastination (e.g. Facebook), but you can customise it.
To make the most of this tool, you could either decide to
use it with a specific goal in mind (e.g. find out how much
time I spend on email every day/week/month), or let it run
in the background for a few weeks or months and then
look back at the data to notice any interesting patterns.

Time your focused time

Pomodoro timer
There are many apps or plug-ins, like www.pomodoneapp.com. You can also use a kitchen timer. The aim is to break down each task into chunks of 25 minutes at a time, with a 5 minute break in between. Because the whole
technique centers around timing your focus periods and breaks, it helps to rely on a Pomodoro timer app to keep you on track and focused throughout the day.