Chris Tingom – Page 6 – Time Tracking Software Reviews

Tracking time is my obsession

When I ask people about their time tracking habits, most of them just say they are terrible at tracking their time. According to an informal survey I conducted, about 35% of you don’t even bother to track your time. And a whopping 40% track your time after-the-fact. Only 25% of you track your time as you work using a stopwatch or a timer.

I’m going to explain to you why I am compulsive about tracking time, and why I think it makes me more productive. All of us at Tornado Design track our time every day.

I track my time using a (software based) stopwatch as I work. It works great for me since I’m usually at my computer during the day.

I deal with lots of different projects and clients during the day and if I tried to remember what I was doing there is no way I could accurately remember. I’d be guessing, at best. And at worst I would forget half of the things and it wouldn’t be billed.

Since I track both my billable and unbillable time, I am able to accurately gauge my total utilization (the percentage of my time that is billable). This helps when determining hourly rates.

The most important aspect of tracking my time is knowing the timer is running. It’s a constant reminder that I am supposed to be productive and stay on-task. When the timer is running, I know I need to be working efficiently.

It’s akin to having a manager sitting behind you constantly critiquing your productivity. I take that pressure and apply it to my work.

On the flip side, when I’m doing unbillable tasks I can easily see that I’m not earning income and it reminds me to get back to the billable work.

I track time because it makes me more productive because I am constantly reminded by a ticking stopwatch.

Photo by bogenfreund on Flickr.

A photographers billing workflow

I stumbled across Peter Belanger’s web site and while reading his blog noticed he provided a writeup about how he goes about billing his clients.

It’s a curious look at the workflow of a photographer. He lists the tools he uses which are:

Blinkbid (contacts, estimates, invoices)
iCal (calendar)
Evernote (to track expenses)
Scanner Pro (iPhone app to add receipt images)
QuickBooks (accounting)

Here’s the post where he explains his workflow.

The Day-Ruining Invoice

Designer Jessica Hische comes out with the Day-Ruining Invoice notepad. What a great idea, and a fantastic way to vent. Available for $25 and on top of that it is letterpress.

Do you bill clients for your inspirational moments away from the desk?

Steve Zelle, an identity designer, chimes in about why he thinks billing by the hour is a bad idea.

You really can’t force creativity to happen. There are ways to encourage it and a process is there to help direct it, but in the end it has to just happen. So while a project may only take an hour at a desk, I can assure you more time was spent thinking about it.

The post has a number of interesting comments as well — so don’t miss them.

Selling Projects in Blocks

Link: Selling Projects in Blocks

Summary: Sell your time by the day (as blocks of time) and use the increased flexibility to have a life. Using this method, clients can know project length (in days, or months) and approximate cost. Since you’re only selling 4 days a month, you’ll hopefully have one day a week to work on the other stuff on your plate.

While I really like this idea, it does not work for us at Tornado because we have so many clients and so many projects and we handle ongoing work for most of them. It could work for you, though. Especially if you have only a few clients / projects per month.

Perpetual Calendar

The Perpetual Calendar is really cool, it requires a bit of modification every day, but what an interesting design.

If that strikes your fancy, check out this list of 49 other calendar designs.

Hat Tip: Kent Downer.

Desktop Background: Stop Wasting Time

I stumbled across this awesome desktop background… thought you all might enjoy.

The rest of the Kitsune Noir web site has some great design inspiration.

Wasting Time

When a client doesn’t seem to care how much time he is wasting, it usually means he’s not planning to pay the bill.

Multi Sand Timer

My friend Greg just sent me this cool hourglass timer set, for only $9.95 you get three timers which all run at different intervals.

Ketchup Week is December 26-31

A few years ago I had this crazy idea that the week between Christmas and New Years would be perfect for catching up on some side projects.

This all began when I realized that a significant number of people either take the week off, or assume you do. So it frees up a considerable amount of time, and thus others expectations.

And that’s how Ketchup Week began. I’d love to find a sponsor for it — perhaps Heinz or another ketchup maker — but for now the emphasis is on personal productivity.

Catching up on your work doesn’t necessarily mean you are working — it might mean you are catching up on relaxing.

So make this Ketchup Week your best!

Daily painted calendar

Saw this today over on another blog under the category “best of calendar design.”

Bubble Calendar

For only $20 you can own this bubble calendar. Finally, a legitimate way to pop bubble wrap every day.

Grandfather Grandfather Clock

Brian Shaler pointed me to this sweet video which he dubbed the Grandfather Grandfather Clock.

Here’s how Brian describes it: “You put your grandfather IN the grandfather clock!”

Methodologies in Time Tracking

The way I see it there’s 3 basic methodologies in which people track their time.

1. Track time with a stopwatch

This is the most accurate method available to track your time, because you don’t need to rely on your memory. Okay, so maybe it would be more effective to have an executive assistant standing next to you with a clip board and a stopwatch, but not everybody can afford that! Using a stopwatch is the next best thing because you are tracking time as you work.

2. Track time after the fact with manual time entry (from memory or notes)

I suspect a significant number of people are still tracking time manually — after the fact — when they could switch to a stopwatch with better results. Based on my experience it’s nearly impossible to remember everything you did, and how long it took.

3. Use software that “knows” what you are working on, and then filter and sort the time later

A number of tools have been released that track your computer usage and then give you reports about what you were working on Two that come to mind are RescueTime and Lapsus.

How do you track your time? If you are tracking your time using one of these methods, you’re way ahead of the next guy. A large number of people don’t see the value in tracking time — so keep being awesome!

Scroll Bar Clock

A web based clock made from scroll bars.

Bike Wheel Clock

This clock is made from a bicycle wheel. Very clever idea, and nice execution! It was sold on Etsy and was a one-of-a-kind. Fortunately, the designer has other clocks available.

Cool clock!

A sweet looking clock that displays the current day and time in written form.

It doesn’t have to suck: paper based time tracking

Remember the days of paper based time tracking? Good thing those days are gone because adding up all of those timesheets takes lots of time!

Just in case you ever need to track time on paper, here are links to a few PDFs I’ve seen that you can print and use. They are all well designed so it makes it easier.

Pelago Paper Timesheet — A simple Letter sized timesheet designed for accurate tracking through a single day.

Simple Timetracking Sheet — A simple sheet designed for tracking multiple projects in a day.

The Printable CEO™ III: Emergent Task Timing — A clever PDF you can print and use to track your time.

Blue Flavor Version of Printable CEO — A variation with downloadable PDFs.

LEGO Powered Time Tracking — A clever LEGO hack.

Let me know if you know of any others you think I should link up.

How Different Groups Spend Their Day

The New York Times has a sweet information graphic that provides an interactive look at how most people spend their time.

Making Time Tracking a Habit

Something I hear often from designers and developers is that they can never find the motivation to track their time — or they never remember to in the first place.

An underlying reason is that they simply don’t need to track their time in their job. A number of developers I know bill by the project and so there is no urgency to track time.

Convincing these people to track their time is nearly impossible, so I won’t try. I’ve put together a list of reasons why you might consider tracking your time if you happen to be one of these people.

For those who do need to track time, but dislike the process I suggest trying the following:

Consider tracking time with a stopwatch based time tracking system. Not only will a stopwatch remind you that you’re on task, but it should keep you from becoming distracted because you’ll know the timer is running. The next time YouTube or Facebook call to you, you’ll realize you need to stop the timer.
If a stopwatch isn’t your thing, you can always manually log your time after-the-fact. But you should know that your memory will never be perfect. If you forget about 15 minutes of possible billable time per day the lost earnings could cost you dearly.
Track your billable time, and your unbillable time. The reason you want to track your unbillable time is so you can gauge your billable efficiency over time. You’ll know whether you’re 50% billable, or 75%. Knowing that could mean the difference between success and failure.
Compare notes with coworkers or friends. Tracking time is best enjoyed as a team sport. Share your results with colleagues in your office, or outside.
Don’t just log time to projects. Write detailed notes about what you did during that time period. You’ll find that the notes help with billing but at the end of the week you will have an at-a-glance report of what you did.

I realize that time tracking isn’t for everybody, but if you need to do it as part of your job, I hope these tips help. Feel free to email with any questions you may have about time tracking. I’ve been tracking my time for over 3 years now, and I love it!

Update: There are a few time tracking apps that will automatically pop up and prompt you to let them know what you are working on. You can set a frequent interval, such as every 15 minutes. This forces you to enter your time constantly through the day.