How do you keep time?

[Nelek]

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.

[jschell]

lol - makes sense but still funny.

[MarkTJohnson]

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.

[Jan Holst Jensen2]

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.

[Wizard of Sleeves]

I use the =RAND() function in Excel

Nothing succeeds like a budgie without teeth. To err is human, to arr is pirate.

[Johann Nothnagel]

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 :|)

[MikeCO10]

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.

[JohnDG52]

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.

[Alex Dresko]

Manic Time (www.manictime.com)

[Dan Neely]

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

[Kent K]

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.

[honey the codewitch]

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

[WPerkins]

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.

[klinkenbecker]

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.

[Robert Cummings 2021]

I am on salary, so I only do it for myself. I started tracking time to help me learn how to estimate. I tried excel sheets, but that was a royal pia. I found Clockify https://app.clockify.me I just open it in a browser and enter what I am going to work on, and just have to go back and enter the next task. If you forget, you can adjust the time. You create and remove your own projects. Has a simple, but effective reporting. It is nice to run the report on Fri afternoon, so I can tell the boss how I spent their time that week. I use the free version, not sure what the paid version offers. The free version does have something about billable/non billable. But again I am not sure what that does. cheers

[Arthur Humphrey]

A lifetime ago I used Javelin. It was a spreadsheet that had an inherent understanding of date and time. A simple script let me select a project task then start, stop and pause a timer. At the end of the billing cycle for a client I ran another script that generated an invoice. This barely scratched the surface of what Javelin could do but it worked well for me. Some time during the early 80's my drive ate one of the 5.25 inch floppies and I was not able to find a replacement. I switched to using recipe cards. That was okay except for the transcription needed at the end of the billing cycle.

[ormonds]

I don't do it by computer - except to create and print a table showing the day broken down into hours with space alongside to write down what I am working on. I keep this alongside me. If I miss filling it out during the day (normal) I find it more accurate to fill it in at the end of the day than to guess at the end of the week. This requires, of course, a table of job identifiers - in my case job numbers and names.