Claude skill · 16 KB

The time audit

One number: hours a week going on work that is not your craft. Plus a file you keep editing as things come off your plate, so you can see whether any of it actually worked.

Most owners cannot tell you where last week went. Not because they were not paying attention, but because the work that eats the most time is the work nobody writes down. Nobody logs twenty minutes finding a file. It just happens eleven times.

This runs the audit properly. It interviews you area by area, nine of them, and maps everything that recurs in your week. Not what you think you spend time on. What you actually do, minutes per go, times a week, including the things that feel too small to mention. Especially those.

Then it splits the list in two. Your craft, meaning the work clients actually pay you for. And everything else.

Everything else becomes one number.

The part that matters

What you get back is not a report. It is a page where every figure is a field.

When you hand something off you tick it, the number drops, and a chart records the drop against where you started. Come back in eight weeks and you can see whether it worked, which is the question almost nobody who automates anything ever bothers to answer.

Two warnings worth reading first

The interview takes 45 minutes to an hour. Anything faster gives you a shallow list, and a shallow list is how you end up automating something that was never the problem.

It will also argue with you about what counts as your craft, because most people over-claim it. The question that settles it is whether a client has ever paid you specifically for that hour. Appearing in the number does not mean you have to stop doing something. It is counted, not cut.

What it costs

Nothing, and there is no call attached to it. It runs on your own machine and the file never leaves it. Run it, get your number, never speak to me. That is a completely fine outcome.

How to use it

Where to run it

Claude Code is the better home for it, because the file lands on your own disk where you will actually open it again and edit it. It also runs in the Claude app, where it hands the file back as a download instead. Both are covered below, and the interview is identical either way.

Option A: Claude Code

You need Claude Code. If you have not got it yet:

Install Node.js from nodejs.org, if node --version says nothing.
Run npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code in a terminal.

That is about sixty seconds, and it is the same tool I run my whole company on.

Then unzip the download into your Claude Code skills folder:

Mac or Linux: ~/.claude/skills/
Windows: C:\Users\<you>\.claude\skills\

You should end up with .claude/skills/time-audit/SKILL.md. If the .claude folder is not there yet, make it.

Open a terminal anywhere, type claude, then type /time-audit. If the command does not show up, restart Claude Code so it picks up the new skill.

Option B: the Claude app

Zip the time-audit folder on its own, the one containing SKILL.md. In Claude, go to Settings, then Capabilities, then Skills, and upload it. Start a new chat and ask for a time audit.

The only difference is the ending. Instead of writing the file to your disk it gives you the file to download, so save it somewhere you own. That file is the resource.

Either way

Give it the full 45 minutes and answer honestly. It tells you where the file is at the end.

Living with the file

Edit any number. If one is wrong, fix it, and the totals follow.
Tick Off my plate when something is genuinely handed off, whether that is to a person, a rule, or a tool.
Hit Save a snapshot every time, or the chart has nothing to compare against.
Hit Download updated copy to get a fresh file with your changes baked in. The browser copy is convenient but it is not durable.

One thing people get wrong: if a task went from four hours to one rather than to zero, edit it to one instead of ticking it off. A wrong number in here is worse than no number.