The
virtues of tracking office hours
“Now how do you know that?” my father in law asked me. We were digesting our
Christmas turkey and I had just mentioned that I worked eight hours more in
2010 than in 2009. “I can tell you to within five minutes how much I’ve worked
every day since May 2005,” I replied.
In the one office job I ever had, I was paid to be there and was always
“working”, whether I was at my desk, propping up the water cooler or twiddling
my thumbs in useless meetings.
At
home I am usually busy all day, but washing dishes, changing the sheets and
mowing the lawn does not generate invoices. I had no clear idea whether I was
freelancing three hours a day or seven.
Now, whenever I start work I key in the time, rounded off to the nearest
five minutes, in an excel spreadsheet that lives in the corner of my screen. I
do not log off for bathroom breaks or trips upstairs for coffee or to grab the
mail, but I log off for absolutely everything else – no cheating. I separately
record each day’s hours, keep weekday and weekend hours separate and do monthly
and annual totals.
This January I started giving myself a five-hour bonus per month (10
minutes/day) that very, very conservatively reflects the time I spend pondering
writing problems while logged out.
Aside from keeping me honest, logging my hours lets me do neat tricks. For
example, I divide the total hours per year into my gross income to calculate my
hourly wage. My changing wage each year reflects my productivity. Tracking time
started me seriously thinking about the value of doing more and less profitable
projects.
When I wanted a laptop I calculated how many hours I needed to use it outside
the house to pay for it. I built a business case and made the purchase. When,
in 2010, I was fed up with the stunningly relentless freezes, delays and
document shuffling with my PC, I tracked the wasted time for a few weeks: I
calculated that just the increased productivity associated with using a
computer that always worked and could display two or three documents side by side
would pay for a new $1,600 iMac with a 27-inch screen in less than a year. I
bought it.
I also track my hours when I am on so-called vacation. Last September I logged
28 hours clearing off my e-desk in sunny Nova Scotia. I was not amused.
I think I have a new problem …
Copyright
© Carroll McCormick 2012
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