How do you keep time?
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For those of you that contract and keep billable hours, or even if you are salaried but keep an eye on your production metrics, how do you do it? I have 10 minutes before I can pick up work again because I prefer to use the clock to keep time. Stopwatches and those online work managers and such make me feel pressured, but I'll only start work on the hour or the half hour, and I don't even like doing the latter, if I'm being honest. It keeps things simple for me.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
I wrote my own. Using my application, I can create customers and projects and then log hours onto those projects. After that I can send invoices with a single click (per invoice). I also have an overview that shows me how many hours I should've worked this year and how many I actually worked, as well as where I'm missing those hours. The overview also shows my vacation days. It's far from perfect and it's been years in the making, but it does exactly what I want how I want it. I even used it for my (very simple) bookkeeping before I had a bookkeeper.
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I wrote my own. Using my application, I can create customers and projects and then log hours onto those projects. After that I can send invoices with a single click (per invoice). I also have an overview that shows me how many hours I should've worked this year and how many I actually worked, as well as where I'm missing those hours. The overview also shows my vacation days. It's far from perfect and it's been years in the making, but it does exactly what I want how I want it. I even used it for my (very simple) bookkeeping before I had a bookkeeper.
Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript
If I could work on a stopwatch type system I'd totally write a VS Code and Visual Studio extension to log hours and dump the logs to the project folder as text and/or CSV with totals.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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I'd tell the client what I was going to do for the week; and how long it would take. If we're in agreement and I deliver, that's what I bill (or less if it was found to be simpler). We always agreed, and I always delivered, and reported and billed accordingly. (No accounting for bathroom breaks, etc. and 99% of correspondence by email). Scheduling 101: Never plan a task that takes more than 4 days.
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
Gerry Schmitz wrote:
Scheduling 101: Never plan a task that takes more than 4 days.
And even with those, be careful because there will be always "off-plan" events.
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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For those of you that contract and keep billable hours, or even if you are salaried but keep an eye on your production metrics, how do you do it? I have 10 minutes before I can pick up work again because I prefer to use the clock to keep time. Stopwatches and those online work managers and such make me feel pressured, but I'll only start work on the hour or the half hour, and I don't even like doing the latter, if I'm being honest. It keeps things simple for me.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
In the time I was working in industry automation I had to track down time slots to 15 minutes when I was working on more than one project on the same time (company policy), my max of simultaneous things was 11 active projects at once. I started using a very simple excell table and that was my system for years. One excel file for working week. Rows blocks per working day. 4 colums of different widths (A, C, D as wide as needed, but as thin as possible; B the rest of the width to fill the an A4 just in case I have to print something) Column A: Top of the block, date. Rest below... billable projectnr. Column B: Fast notes tracking what I was doing in the time slot and place for important infos, errors, OpenPoints for next days... Column C: Start and end time rounding to quater of hour Column D: the hours in decimal with .25 as smallest unit, bottom of the block the total worked hours (addition of above times). I found it extrem useful because I could go back and see when, what and for how long I had been working for in a concrete moment. Searching for an expecific event could be a bit more difficult but I would always find it anyways. I decided to go with this approach, because the time I needed to write things down for a big while, would have been the time I needed to program something on my own. The advantage for me was, that it was really flexible and very fast to adapt to new situations.
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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In the time I was working in industry automation I had to track down time slots to 15 minutes when I was working on more than one project on the same time (company policy), my max of simultaneous things was 11 active projects at once. I started using a very simple excell table and that was my system for years. One excel file for working week. Rows blocks per working day. 4 colums of different widths (A, C, D as wide as needed, but as thin as possible; B the rest of the width to fill the an A4 just in case I have to print something) Column A: Top of the block, date. Rest below... billable projectnr. Column B: Fast notes tracking what I was doing in the time slot and place for important infos, errors, OpenPoints for next days... Column C: Start and end time rounding to quater of hour Column D: the hours in decimal with .25 as smallest unit, bottom of the block the total worked hours (addition of above times). I found it extrem useful because I could go back and see when, what and for how long I had been working for in a concrete moment. Searching for an expecific event could be a bit more difficult but I would always find it anyways. I decided to go with this approach, because the time I needed to write things down for a big while, would have been the time I needed to program something on my own. The advantage for me was, that it was really flexible and very fast to adapt to new situations.
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
Nelek wrote:
In the time I was working in industry automation I had to track down time slots to 15 minutes when I was working on more than one project on the same time (company policy), my max of simultaneous things was 11 active projects at once.
TBH, I would have quit. That's not a judgment or anything - different strokes for different folks. I just couldn't imagine having to work that way.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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Gerry Schmitz wrote:
Scheduling 101: Never plan a task that takes more than 4 days.
And even with those, be careful because there will be always "off-plan" events.
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
That what the extra (implied) day is for: "4/5 day work weeks". :-D
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
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Nelek wrote:
In the time I was working in industry automation I had to track down time slots to 15 minutes when I was working on more than one project on the same time (company policy), my max of simultaneous things was 11 active projects at once.
TBH, I would have quit. That's not a judgment or anything - different strokes for different folks. I just couldn't imagine having to work that way.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
Most of those were the same customer. I was there as resident. I started as robot programmer in a project. I had to take over the PLC project because my co worker went away. As the tracing system done for that project was good, I was asked to implement it in more machines in the factory bought from another vendors. Then I got my biggest project with them and in my time in that company. I was the field group chief, the project manager, the only robot programmer, the main PLC programmer, the trainer of the new guys and the consultant of the customer's engineers (regarding automation). So I had 9 diferent machine projects, 1 consultant project, 1 on demand project (for all the things that came "on the fly"). All in the same place from the same customer, budifferent bills. Was a bit annoying at the beginning, but I eventually got used to it and then it was way easier. At the end I quit too, but not for that, the work clima got screwed and the rest of the conditions were not so good to compensate the loss.
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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I had a lawyer friend that used 6min intervals to break the hours into easy to use decimals.
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For those of you that contract and keep billable hours, or even if you are salaried but keep an eye on your production metrics, how do you do it? I have 10 minutes before I can pick up work again because I prefer to use the clock to keep time. Stopwatches and those online work managers and such make me feel pressured, but I'll only start work on the hour or the half hour, and I don't even like doing the latter, if I'm being honest. It keeps things simple for me.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
With a metronome?
I’ve given up trying to be calm. However, I am open to feeling slightly less agitated. I’m begging you for the benefit of everyone, don’t be STUPID.
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Pen and paper - I would write down when I switched jobs/projects and at the end of the day add in the finish times if there were interruptions. I always found timekeepers a PITA and a job unto themselves (says the guy who wrote a timekeeper for an engineering firm)
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity - RAH I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
I will second that. I use pen and paper too. Note down the time when I start working for a client, then work until I start needing a break, and keep on until a full number of half-hours have passed. Then take a break. Repeat until the day has passed :-). And the final number of hours of the day go into a Wordpad document per client. The hours are then summed up at the end of each month on the invoices. Keeps it simple.
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I'd make a DB. They are great for organizing things! Don't use Excel, or you go to Programmer Hell. Forever!
Our Forgotten Astronomy | Object Oriented Programming with C++ | Wordle solver
I use the =RAND() function in Excel
Nothing succeeds like a budgie without teeth. To err is human, to arr is pirate.
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For those of you that contract and keep billable hours, or even if you are salaried but keep an eye on your production metrics, how do you do it? I have 10 minutes before I can pick up work again because I prefer to use the clock to keep time. Stopwatches and those online work managers and such make me feel pressured, but I'll only start work on the hour or the half hour, and I don't even like doing the latter, if I'm being honest. It keeps things simple for me.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
I used to have a little popup program that would prompt me every 30 minutes about what I was busy with and then write it into a text (CSV) file. It had options to select a project from a list, but I ignored that. Eventually, I stopped using it as it irritated me too much when I was busy and it took the keyboard focus. I went back to paper notes for when I start, stop, etc. I can use our timesheet logging system live as well, but that is way too much effort, I'd rather update that afterwards occasionally and at month's end. (I tend to hyper-focus when I'm busy with a really interesting task and any interruptions play havoc with my mind :|)
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For those of you that contract and keep billable hours, or even if you are salaried but keep an eye on your production metrics, how do you do it? I have 10 minutes before I can pick up work again because I prefer to use the clock to keep time. Stopwatches and those online work managers and such make me feel pressured, but I'll only start work on the hour or the half hour, and I don't even like doing the latter, if I'm being honest. It keeps things simple for me.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
I use Toggl track. It's inexpensive, and you can build projects with time or budgets. It has reminders to start billing if you want to use them, I don't since it hounds me too often when I'm not doing anything billable. Like anything else, you have to get in the habit of using it, but it allows editing and manual entries, as well as a reminder that you have a timer running for an unusual amount of time. It allows multiple clients and multiple billing projects, at different rates, within a client. It helps with phone calls and other 'squirrels' that come along. I'll delete the 5 minute calls but you just never know when you take a call if it's going to be 5 minutes or 90 minutes.
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That's basically what I do. I work to round hours, and give myself breaks as necessary.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
I generally work to "round days", and apportion hours at the end of the week. eg if I go shopping on a particular day, I knock a couple of hours off. If multiple jobs are on, I try to only concentrate on one a day, otherwise apportion hours approximately. Keep track of the mess on Excel. No complaints in the last 25 years.
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For those of you that contract and keep billable hours, or even if you are salaried but keep an eye on your production metrics, how do you do it? I have 10 minutes before I can pick up work again because I prefer to use the clock to keep time. Stopwatches and those online work managers and such make me feel pressured, but I'll only start work on the hour or the half hour, and I don't even like doing the latter, if I'm being honest. It keeps things simple for me.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
Manic Time (www.manictime.com)
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For those of you that contract and keep billable hours, or even if you are salaried but keep an eye on your production metrics, how do you do it? I have 10 minutes before I can pick up work again because I prefer to use the clock to keep time. Stopwatches and those online work managers and such make me feel pressured, but I'll only start work on the hour or the half hour, and I don't even like doing the latter, if I'm being honest. It keeps things simple for me.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
Most of the time I just mentally note when I started for the day, how long I took for lunch and use that to figure out when I should stop. I normally only work on one project at a time, so everything goes to that one except for occasional exceptions (that I generally enter on the time sheet immediately to make sure I don't forget them). When working on two projects at once I try to split my time by days or before/after lunch to keep things simple. My current job's 15 minute intervals isn't quite as good as my last ones 30m ones at filtering out all the various small random items that come up into the rounds to zero category but it works most of the time.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius
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For those of you that contract and keep billable hours, or even if you are salaried but keep an eye on your production metrics, how do you do it? I have 10 minutes before I can pick up work again because I prefer to use the clock to keep time. Stopwatches and those online work managers and such make me feel pressured, but I'll only start work on the hour or the half hour, and I don't even like doing the latter, if I'm being honest. It keeps things simple for me.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
Toggl[^] This is a fairly low effort and accurate way to do what you seek. You set up clients and projects linked to them, then start the timer and work away. Any time you get interrupted it's easy to stop the timer and start another and easy to choose the projects you are working on too when doing so. It remembers the most common latest tasks (your typed description of what you are doing) and autofills it after typing a couple keystrokes. From experience with it over many years, this really sounds like a good solution to what you are looking for in terms of accuracy/integrity based on your comments to other's replies. I use the free version.
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Toggl[^] This is a fairly low effort and accurate way to do what you seek. You set up clients and projects linked to them, then start the timer and work away. Any time you get interrupted it's easy to stop the timer and start another and easy to choose the projects you are working on too when doing so. It remembers the most common latest tasks (your typed description of what you are doing) and autofills it after typing a couple keystrokes. From experience with it over many years, this really sounds like a good solution to what you are looking for in terms of accuracy/integrity based on your comments to other's replies. I use the free version.
It would be except timers make me feel pressured and so they interfere with my ability to work at my most effective capacity. That's why I use a clock. I wasn't so much looking for a solution as I was satisfying curiosity, but of course if I do see something I could work with I'm open to trying it. :)
There's smoke in my iris But I painted a sunny day on the insides of my eyelids So I'm ready now (What you ready for?) I'm ready for life in this city And my wings have grown almost enough to lift me
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For those of you that contract and keep billable hours, or even if you are salaried but keep an eye on your production metrics, how do you do it? I have 10 minutes before I can pick up work again because I prefer to use the clock to keep time. Stopwatches and those online work managers and such make me feel pressured, but I'll only start work on the hour or the half hour, and I don't even like doing the latter, if I'm being honest. It keeps things simple for me.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
I keep a little 4x6 pad and jot down times. Later in the day transfer those notes to a simple database. (I am a programmer, right? UI in C#, database is SQLServer lite, did it myself years ago.) I tried going all automated/commerial/iPhone app but found that simple jotted note on paper was much quicker and less interrupting overall. Since I need to take care of admin stuff (email and what not) anyway the few minutes overhead of entering the hand notes into the database is inconsequential.
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For those of you that contract and keep billable hours, or even if you are salaried but keep an eye on your production metrics, how do you do it? I have 10 minutes before I can pick up work again because I prefer to use the clock to keep time. Stopwatches and those online work managers and such make me feel pressured, but I'll only start work on the hour or the half hour, and I don't even like doing the latter, if I'm being honest. It keeps things simple for me.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
I gave up long ago. I either give a client a price for a particular tranche of work and that's the price I get or I guestimate the hours at the end of the day (starting at 8am, no interrupts and finishing at 4pm is 8 hrs). After the fact, I re-calibrate price for the next tranche. Sometimes I win, sometimes I loose, but it makes for a much lower stress day - trick is to balance out in front. Alternative is contract or employment - but then you get paid for your day regardless and everything you touch is theirs. In my experience, consulting IT/Devops can charge a lot of money for solving problems but consulting coders never get rich coding unless you are building a popular product. If you are never going to get rich, why not just enjoy your day and work interesting projects with great clients who trust what you do and how you do it. If a client doesn't like your process, then they are not worthy of your time.
