Is what you’re living for worth dying for?

If not, then why are you living for it? This is a question that I try to ask myself at the start of every new year. It’s hard to be honest with myself about this question because it requires that I do some deep work. It’s even harder to answer honestly. But without fail, I always learn some things about my schedule and myself by answering this question—and I don’t always like what I learn.

It’s a good reminder, every once in a while, to step back and take inventory of what is taking over your life. I’m specifically talking about where the majority of your time went last year. Did you spend most of your time doing the things that you want people to talk about at your funeral? If not, why did you spend so much time doing those things last year?

Time is the most valuable resource we have—and unlike money, we can’t earn more of it. Every day, we make choices about where to invest our hours, but how often do we stop and ask: Am I spending time on what truly matters?

A time inventory is a simple yet powerful exercise. It’s about stepping back and analyzing how you spent your time over the past week, month, or year. Think of it like a financial audit—but for your life. Instead of dollars, you’re tracking hours. The goal? To see if your time aligns with your values and long-term goals.

If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably have a pretty good guess of where your time is going in big categories. I’ve been doing a time journal long enough that I can already tell which categories my time is going into before I even start keeping track. I could almost skip this step. But you’ll never get to the truth of what you’re living your life for if you don’t go through this simple step.

If you’re like me, you’ll probably be surprised by the percentages revealed in your time journal. We all know we spend time reading, watching TV, working out, and surfing the web—but the real surprise is how many hours we actually devote to each of those activities.

Now, it gets painful. Once you have a snapshot of where your time is going, it’s the point when you need to start asking some hard questions of yourself.

• What activities consumed most of your time last year?
• Which of those activities brought you closer to your goals—or further away?
• What can you eliminate, delegate, or reduce to make space for what matters?

When I get to this stage of the time inventory, things start to get uncomfortable very quickly. I don’t remember a single year when I didn’t see something in my time inventory that I didn’t like. Most years, I notice more than a few things about where my time is going that I hadn’t realized—and that I really don’t like.

Every year, my time inventory shows me that I’ve let things creep into my life that don’t need to be there. And some of the things that I know are part of my weekly schedule are way out of proportion.

I’ve found myself asking, “Do I want to spend the rest of my life putting this much time into this area?” This question is hard, and often painful, because the areas of my life that need changes are usually not bad in themselves; they’ve just received more of my attention than they deserve. I typically end this annual exercise by cutting back some good parts of my day so I can make more time for the best parts of my day.

I hope that at the end of my life, friends and family will be able to say I spent most of my time on what mattered most to me. This simple, though painful, exercise reminds me that if what I’m living for isn’t worth dying for, then why am I living for it? Our calendars reveal our priorities—and often our problems—more honestly than our words. Make sure your time reflects the life you truly want to live.