Time Planner:Measure your leisure

Who said that only work tasks and health habits should be controlled and logged? There are much more areas in our life, that might be not that obvious at the first sight, but they still are there and they are important. Time Planner app will help to reveal those things for ourselves, and to remember what we planned for our free time. And as we know, sometimes our brains are so overloaded that in the moment when free time finally comes, our mind goes idle, and we just waste those precious minutes (with useless web surfing, phone calls, clicker games) that we might have spent with joy. We have to win back this time for the things we love!

There are just a few steps to revitalize ourselves as all-round man (or woman):

1. Remember the things you like and what are important for you, create for them special categories.
2. Estimate when you're going to devote some time for each of your hobbies.
3. Make sure you start doing what you like when you've planned, even if you're so busy that you have only 5 minutes.
4. Track the time you spent for each of the activities that inspire.
5. Analyze the statistics to see how versatile you are.

Create categories and tasks

Alright, let's take a few minutes to remember the things that makes us a happy person and to create categories for them. If nothing worthy comes to your mind right after, ask yourself:

• What did I like to do when I was a child (a student / a young specialist)?
• What would I do if I would not have to take care of my education / bills / kids / etc.?

Don't treat those things as stupid or childish, as it doesn't matter what they are as long as they charge you up. Write them down anyway:

1. Tap on big "+" button in Control tab and choose "Category".
2. Enter the name and choose the parent category, if it's a subcategory. In our case it's "Leisure".
3. Also pick its icon, icon color etc. and tap on "Save".

• If you choose "Root" as a parent category, it's going to be a main category.
  

Right after that you can add some tasks, listing materials, places or other stuff you need for this activity. For instance, it's a good idea to create the list of books you want to read.

1. Press "+" button button in Control tab and choose "Task".
2. Type the name of a task, and adjust it the way you need. Remember to pin it to the corresponding category.
3. Use priority marks and levels of offset so the task list is easy to navigate. Touch and hold the task, and move it slightly to the right so it changes its offset - it becomes a subtask then.

Schedule the time for things that light you up

Scientists claim it doesn't take that much to become a happier person. Other than healthy habits and good relationships, it takes spending time for our hobby regularly. So if we have them embedded in our daily schedule, it increases the chances we'll actually do something inspirational.

1. Go to "Part of day" in Schedule tab (use the buttons right to today's date) and long press on the left part of the schedule where you see sun/moon icons.
2. Adjust the new scheduled activity the way you need and tap on "Save".

• You can use "Timeline mode" mode as well, as described in another article.
  

Log everything about it

Sometimes it's a good idea to have no expectations regarding something but just to enjoy the process and the result. It's very true about our hobbies - it's not the thing where race of productivity is on the first place. But still, it's nice to have something pleasant as the result, like beautiful pictures (if photography is what we love), or a cozy pullover (if knitting is what makes us a zen person), or a huge fish (if we're fond of fishing). So here's how we can have our results logged:

1. Tap on big "+" button on bottom left in Logging tab, and choose "Logged activity".
2. Pin this new logged activity to the category needed, choose "value" as its type (there is "value" scheduled activity type as well), enter the value (let's say you've caught a 8.6 kg carp, lucky!), and make sure the rest of items are the way you want them.
   

Rely on memories and stats

After some nice time spent doing things we love we get inspiration and memories. But we can get some practical statistics information as well! And as we can log both time and quantity (and values), we can get various statistics about the very same activity. For instance, we've decided to devote 20 minutes 3 times a week for reading, plus to read 12 books in 2017. So now December comes, and we'd like to check how well we do with our plans for reading.

1. In "Ratio time" section of Statistics tab, press big wrench button on the left, to open the settings drawer so you can adjust the stats you'd like to look through. Note you need to press "Apply".
2. Put the drawer back and review the bar chart of scheduled and logged time.
3. Then open the drawer again and adjust in another way so you can see the quantity. Note that you can long press on a bar to see some extra info about it.
   

So as for our example, we see that we don't read that fast as we've expected (maybe we need to think about speed reading training), and we have to read not one but two books this month to have our year commitment fulfilled.

So what?

Happy people live their life the way they want to, while they don't need to hurt others or to prove anything to anyone. It would be great to live in a happy world full of happy people, wouldn't it? And we can make one step to it, making ourselves happier! And happier you can make your family, your friends and even your cat happier ) So don't think your hobby is just a waste of time, and don't postpone the things you love to your retirement, or to any other "then" time. As they don't only charge you up, but eventually make the world a better place!

Please let us know how the app helps you to make the time for the activities that make you happy!