Counting the week before you add to it
Every other lever in the frame waits on this one, because every other decision depends on a number most people guess instead of counting.
Use last week, not a good week
When people picture their free time, they picture the best version of a week: no late meetings, no sick child, no evening lost to a broken washing machine. That week doesn't come around often. Last week, with all its interruptions, is a far better sample. If last week was unusually bad, use the one before it as well and take the smaller number.
Mark the blocks that are already spoken for
Draw seven columns on a sheet of paper, or print the box register from the front page. Shade in, honestly, everything that was already committed:
- sleep, including the time it takes you to fall asleep;
- the main job, plus travel both ways and the half hour after work when you're not good for much;
- meals, shopping, cleaning and laundry;
- care for children, parents or anyone else who relies on you;
- the things that keep you well: exercise, friends, church, the long phone call on Sunday.
The last group matters. If it isn't shaded in now, the side project will eat it later.
Count only blocks of 45 minutes or more
Twenty spare minutes between two errands are real, but very little paid work fits into them. Starting, finding your place and finishing take time of their own. Circle only the unshaded blocks that last 45 minutes or longer, and write the total for each day at the bottom of the column.
A signalman only pulls a lever when the line is clear. A block of time is only clear if nothing else is already scheduled to run through it.
Subtract a margin
Take the weekly total and remove a quarter of it. That margin covers the weeks that go wrong, which they will. What's left is the honest number. It is often surprisingly small, sometimes just three or four hours a week, and that's useful to know before you choose a task in lever 2.
What to do with the number
Write it on the first line of your register. When you look at a possible side task, ask whether it can be done in blocks that size, on the days you actually have them. A task that needs a full Saturday is the wrong route for someone whose free time comes in three weekday evenings.
If the number turns out to be close to zero, that is a result too. It may mean the week needs changing before anything is added to it, and lever 7, rest, is the place to start.