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What is it like to audit your habits?
Recently, I have been hooked on a financial literacy podcast called Financial Audit*. In this show, the host Caleb Hammer brings in guests in various states of financial crisis, explains to them how serious their situation is, and writes up a plan for them. I do recommend the show especially for my demographic who has the most time to change bad habits. Now if you plan on watching this show, I should mention it is a little screamy and clickbait-y for the algorithm and entertainment, but the people behind the show genuinely want to help their guests through a little bit of tough love. The guests often have pretty warped views of money and finance and it truly speaks to the need for mandatory financial literacy classes in the education system but that is a post for another day.
As someone who has since learned and grown from an initial over-spending problem from when I got my first job, I watch the show now to identify the gaps in my own understanding at this critical time between college life and independent young adulthood. I listen to the excuses the guests make for impulse buys, debts they take out, and department store cards they open. I listen to the Hammer’s careful explanations of the benefits of planning for retirement to not be a burden on future children an relatives, saving for emergencies so future you will thank you, and prioritizing paying off debts over impulse spending so they don’t continue to grow.
And I realized, this is the advice I receive when I complain about not having enough hours in the day. I use very similar excuses when I don’t want to give up my nightly scrolling, morning scrolling, lunch watching, and miscellaneous phone use throughout the day, “taquitos" or “sweet treats" as the host would call them. So this week’s post will have to do with auditing my habits the same way the host of Financial Audit audit’s his guests' finances.
So this is a transcript of what it would look like if I were on the show. Except this time, instead of Financial Audit with Caleb Hammer, it’s Habit Audit with Crayleb Screwdriver.
Documentation: Screen Time*
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Transcript
SPENDING
ME: | Hello, my name is Tomisin Fijabi. I’m 22 and I’m from UIC. This is Habit Audit. |
CRAYLEB: | Okay let’s just get into your spending… (incredulous) What? |
ME: | Yeah… |
CRAYLEB: | What am I looking at here? |
ME: | I know, I know. It’s bad. |
CRAYLEB: | You’re spending a weekly average of 88 hours on your phone. Daily average of 12 hours. |
ME: | 8… 88? That’s like a full time job. |
CRAYLEB: | That’s like TWO full time jobs! |
ME: | Oh my god that’s too much. |
CRAYLEB: | Oh my god, yes that is too much. What do you think you’re doing? |
ME: | YouTube. It’s a lot of YouTube for sure. |
CRAYLEB: | It’s YouTube, it’s Reddit, It’s Netflix… |
ME: | Netflix? I haven’t been on Netflix recently. |
CRAYLEB: | 30 hours in the second week of October. |
ME: | …Oh now I remember. It was Good Girls on Netflix. I binged it and couldn’t focus on anything else till I finished it. It’s like a cliffhanger show. Every episode ends on a cliffhanger so you have to keep going or somehow stop in the middle of the episode. |
CRAYLEB: | You have to? |
ME: | I wanted to. It was just so easy to… But, oh my god 88 hours? That’s more than I sleep. |
CRAYLEB: | Yeah I’m looking at these time stamps and you’re spending like 4 hours off of your phone? Between midnight and 5am? |
ME: | Well sometimes I play YouTube to fall asleep. |
CRAYLEB: | Sometimes? |
ME: | Not every time. Most times I am awake. |
CRAYLEB: | So we’re borrowing out of our sleep fund to make these BS time purchases? |
ME: | Yeah, I really don’t know how it adds up. It doesn’t feel like that much. I feel like I don’t have that much time. |
CRAYLEB: | Well why are you making these purchases? Why don’t you think you have time? |
ME: | Well, I think I spend so much time watching all these things because I feel like I won’t have time to do it later. But I do it now, AND I do it later which is math that does not make sense. |
CRAYLEB: | No, no it doesn’t. Let’s look at your weekly bills and expenses. How many classes, hours, work, studying? |
DEBT
ME: | 12 hours of school, 20 hours of work, and I don’t study as much as I should, but I have budgeted 30 hours of studying but– |
CRAYLEB: | But you’re not studying, you don’t have time to study because you’re working 2 full-time jobs at YouTube Incorporated. |
ME: | Yeah… |
CRAYLEB: | Clubs? Commitments to friends and family? Volunteering? |
ME: | About 10 hours. |
CRAYLEB: | Okay so the week minus sleep, work, and school is already 80 hours left in the week. And right now it’s going to what? |
ME: | BS time purchases. |
CRAYLEB: | Yup! It’s actually more. What, are we double dipping? |
ME: | I am. I listen to YouTube when I’m doing homework and working. |
CRAYLEB: | Okay, so we’re not doing that anymore. Because it’s slower, it takes more time to do both than if you were doing one. And when you choose to do one, you choose to do BS. |
ME: | Yes. |
CRAYLEB: | So you said you’re not studying so we’ll subtract 30 hours for that and 10.5 hours for eating. |
ME: | 10.5 hours to eat? |
CRAYLEB: | Yeah, 30 minutes, 3 times a day. It’s an upper limit. All of these are upper limits. Not sleep though, that is the only lower limit. And actually studying too, we really can’t skimp on that this close to the end. |
ME: | Yeah… |
CRAYLEB: | So now we have 29.5 hours left to fill. Almost a full time job. Why are we making all these BS time purchases? |
ME: | I don’t know! My mind just goes blank, my hands just open YouTube and suddenly I’m watching YouTube for 10 hours. |
CRAYLEB: | 10 HOURS? 10 hours you could have been putting into your homework fund? Or into your sleep fund? Or, even, better, into your studying debt? A debt that’s going to hit come finals week? What are we doing? What are we doing? What are we thinking? |
ME: | I’m not. I’ll be honest and say I’m not thinking. And I’m afraid ‘cause I’m about to be gifted with a lot of time. |
CRAYLEB: | “A lot of time?” You didn’t tell me about this. How much time we talking? |
ME: | All of it. I’m about to graduate and therefore finish my student employment contract, so I’ll have a lot of time minus the self improvement, and minus job hunting, and minus external commitments g of course. Dang, now that I think about it, maybe I don’t have that much time. |
CRAYLEB: | No you do, you do have time. Congratulations, by the way, finishing college is an accomplishment. But you do have time, I want you to know that. Because we know what happens when you think you don’t have time. All of that time goes to BS time purchases. So I’m going to make you a budget so that you can see exactly how much time you have left. |
ME: | Okay. Thank you. |
BUDGET
CRAYLEB: | Okay first thing: no more paying the minimums on sleep, you need to be maxing that out or you’ll pay the interest later. Your screen time should be like 2 to 3 hours*. |
ME: | 2 to 3 hours? You can’t even– That’s like 6 Bob’s Burgers episodes. |
CRAYLEB: | …Yeah? So watch the 6 and turn it off. |
ME: | Okay. |
CRAYLEB: | We’re going to split the remaining time into thirds. One-third investing in the future with job applications, one-third doing self improvement. That’s like mentorship, certifications, researching future goals, therapy. And one-third on hobbies and miscellaneous upkeep. That’s going to be half hobbies, and half things like meal prepping, transportation, chores, things like that. So broken down we have
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ME: | But what about when I don’t have the school and work anymore? That’s like 50 free hours. |
CRAYLEB: | Then you fill it with a part-time thing either work or volunteering and/or redistribute the time into the next priority, starting with job applications, planning for the future, then touching grass through hanging out with friends, hobbies, things that bring you joy, okay? |
ME: | Okay. |
CRAYLEB: | Are you going to do this? Are you going to make some changes? |
ME: | I am. This was an eye-opener. 88 hours a week is unacceptable. |
CRAYLEB: | Yes it is. Anyway, that’s your budget, I believe in you. Please join us next time on Habit Audit. |
END
So this was my exercise. I hope it helped to put some things in perspective for you like it did for me. Like I said, there are so many ways to understand the world. For me, I appreciate this perspective as it helps to understand things I don't understand through things I do understand.
Let's Gist
What do you consider your unpaid habit debts? Studying? Cancelling plans? Sleeping?
How do you categorize your responsibilities throughout the day?
What time management tools do you use to live within your time means?
I can’t wait to continue gisting with you next time on The GeneralGist.
Notes:
*
Financial Audit is available on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.
You can access your screen time on iOS devices by going to Settings > Screen Time
This recommendation of an upper limit of 2-3 hours of screen time, I found from an article by NIH titled Reduce Screen Time
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