When 36-year-old Emilia Rossi audited her time, she was so surprised by what she found she sold her TV.

The Melbourne-based lifestyle blogger wanted to do more with her days, and an audit seemed like a good place to start.

"I sat down, and on a scrap piece of paper I jotted down from Monday to Sunday activities I was doing that had the least amount of value," Emilia says.

"I found the [hours my partner and I] were spending watching TV every week was in the double digits."

Emilia Rossi threw out her TV when she realised how much she was watching. ( Supplied )

Emilia's TV viewing habits make her a fairly average Aussie. Research shows we watch about 18 hours of TV every week.

Now free from the clutches of the small screen, Emilia spends more time exercising and upskilling, whether it's listening to audio books or attending networking events.

Over the next four weeks, ABC Life is running Take Back Your Life, a project aimed at helping you reclaim one of the most important parts of your days — your time.

We all feel short on time — whether it's time to ourselves, to see friends, or to read the book that everyone's raving about.

To fix that, we're encouraging you to track your time with us for a single day.

It'll give you a clearer sense of where it's going, and where you could make some changes.

But before you put a time audit into the too-hard basket, know that even a simple one can help.

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The benefits of time auditing

Laura Vanderkam, author of Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done, likens finding more time to weight loss.

"If you want to lose weight, you need to write down what you eat. Same thing with time," she says.

"If you want to spend time better, you need to figure out where it's going."

Taking a snapshot of your time could do the job — like looking at one weekday and a Saturday or Sunday.

"Maybe something you thought was a problem really isn't," Ms Vanderkam says.

"Maybe something you never even considered is taking a lot more time than you thought."

You can't know for sure until you keep track. Our one-day time tracking tool can help. Simply print it out and mark up how you spend your time. It takes a day, and by the end of it, you'll have a better sense of where you can make some changes.

If you're comfortable sharing your audit, take a snap of your sheet and email it to life@abc.net.au. We won't share your results, but this will give us a collective sense of how we all spend our time.

Alternatively, you can do a deeper dive on your phone using these apps.

Example shows how to fill out your ABC Life time audit tool (download a blank copy using the link above — it also includes night-time hours). ( ABC Life )

Social media, 'effortless fun' and other time sucks

Ms Vanderkam says social media is our newest and biggest enemy.

"Social media is a particularly insidious time suck, as it tends to happen in small chunks of time that people don't even notice," she says.

Social media use catches up with us as we often use it in bursts throughout the day. ( Unsplash )

The average Aussie spends six hours every week on social media, and it's said to be much higher for young women, who can spend more than 13 hours using it each week.

Other less obvious time sucks can add up over a day.

"People re-read the same emails six times in a row, or sit in meetings … which covers a topic that isn't related to them at all," Ms Vanderkam says.

Being tired also impacts your ability to pursue other activities.

"People might have ideas of hobbies they'd like to try, people they'd like to see, adventures they'd like to have. But then they get home from work and they're too tired to make a plan," Ms Vanderkam says.

"So they turn to 'effortless fun' like TV, social media and pottering around the house, rather than 'effortful fun' like throwing a dinner party or going for a walk somewhere after work.

"This is one of the upsides of time tracking. You might be telling yourself you have no time to exercise, but the time log will reveal in black and white that yes, you do."

This week we’re asking you to take our time audit. Send any questions (and snap a photo of your results!) to life@abc.net.au.

Emilia got rid of her TV — you can too! ( Unsplash )

Four types of time

Rebecca Cassells, co-author of the 2011 Australian report Race Against Time, says the most common reason people say they feel time-poor is because they're balancing work and family.

"Women feel more pressed for time, more of the time. And this is particularly evident among women who are working and have young children," she says.

Ms Cassells recommends assessing how we spend our time each day by breaking tasks into four major groups:

Necessary time , which includes activities like sleeping and eating

, which includes activities like sleeping and eating Contracted time , which covers paid work and regular education

, which covers paid work and regular education Committed time , which includes activities that have a commitment to someone else, such as caring for children, and

, which includes activities that have a commitment to someone else, such as caring for children, and Free time, which is what's leftover and we can generally assign to recreation and leisure activities.

"Breaking these areas down further into what type of activities you are doing within each major group — as well as how long you're spending on each task and how you're feeling — can also tell us a lot about our daily time use, and whether we need to change things," she says.

Actioning your time audit results

Ms Vanderkam says people often report a desire to spend more time exercising, reading, volunteering and with friends.

That's supported by the Race Against Time report, which found "meeting with friends, making the odd gym class, helping at the community centre or simply taking time to relax with a good book" were high on people's list of what they would rather be doing.

"The constant battle to juggle busy jobs, family needs and home lives can leave little time for more than a rushed coffee with a friend before running to the next meeting or picking up the kids from school," the authors wrote.

Completing a time audit is a great first step, but it's important to follow it up with action.

Emilia identified TV as her biggest time suck, and took action by ridding it from her life.

But don't worry, your actions don't have to be that big.

"Ask [yourself] what you like about your schedule. Then ask what you want to do more of, and ask what you want to spend less time doing [and] ask how you can make those changes," she says.

"Do that enough, and you'll wind up building a life that looks a lot closer to the life you want."

Ready to get started? We've developed a tool just for you that will help you take a snapshot of your time over one day.