On a typical day, how many hours are you directly working on your biggest goal in life? Subtract sleeping, eating, errands and working at the 9-5. Subtract television, relaxing and talking on the phone. What number are you left with?
Run a timelog [1] and count up the minutes. In my experience, most people are horribly disillusioned with where their time goes. It’s easier to lie to yourself than to be productive. I’d rather trust my watch and a spreadsheet than a subjective evaluation.
Now for the big question: If most of your time is spent maintaining the life you have, how will you reach the lifestyle you want?
I’ve already talked about why time is a poor indicator of productivity [2]. However it’s the easiest to measure. All else being equal, the guy spending 8 hours a day on his #1 goal will have better odds of reaching it than the person who spends fifteen minutes.
Becoming a workaholic isn’t the point. The point is to delete all the middling important commitments that steal time away from the #1. Because, if your priorities don’t match how you spend your time, then you don’t really have priorities.