Activity 2.1.4 Pieces of the Pie

Purpose
To practise charting information, organizing daily activities, and to discover where time is actually spent
Materials
Poster board or large white sheets of paper, coloured pencils
Time
1–2 hrs of preparation, plus two weeks to record information
Method

This is an interactive exercise to help participants see how time is being used in their daily lives. By using a pie chart to display how they spend their time, participants will see how much time they actually spend in different areas of their lives.

A warm pie
  1. Participants will draw a large circle on a sheet of white paper or poster board. The circle is then sectioned into six or eight pieces. See diagram on the next page.
  2. Ask participants to label each section with daily responsibilities and routine commitments, e.g., family, health, work, leisure, friends, education, etc. Make sure there are no more than eight and not less than six.
  3. Have participants choose six or eight coloured pencils and identify each section with a different colour. They can outline the pie piece with the identifying colour. The actual time spent on each activity will also be written using the same colour.
  4. Participants should now draw a one week calendar underneath the pie chart. Tell participants that they are to use this calendar every day for seven days and to write in the number of hours that were spent in each section. A daily log of the hours will be written with the corresponding colour.
  5. At the end of one week, the same coloured numbers in the calendar are added up and the total is written in the appropriate pie piece.
  6. Because of the colour coding, participants will readily see where most of their time is spent on a daily and weekly basis.
  7. Ask participants what they have discovered about the way their time is used. Were they surprised by anything?
  8. Do they see any problems with how they spend their time? Would they change anything? If yes, then why and how could it be changed? If a participant is not sure how to change something and agrees to share the problem with the group, facilitators can guide a discussion to solve the problem.
  9. Participants should ask themselves how much time they would ideally like to spend in each area.