Ask HN: How do you track your work hours? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How do you track your work hours?

#31

Post by jexp » Sun, Mar 26, 2023, 5:08 PM UTC

I used to do Lego Time Tracking when I was still consulting, as none of the other approaches worked for me (ADHD).

It even made it on LifeHacker back then: https://lifehacker.com/track-your-time-with-lego-bricks-3997...

The article is only on the internet archive these days https://web.archive.org/web/20081206084136/http://jexp.de/bl...

Re: Ask HN: How do you track your work hours?

#32

Post by neeldhara » Sun, Mar 26, 2023, 8:17 PM UTC

vstollen wrote: post #14

neeldhara wrote: post #10

I used to use the apps atimelogger ( http://www.atimelogger.com/ ) and atracker ( http://www.wonderapps.se/ATracker/home.html ) for a year and two years, respectively. I tracked work and certain non-work activities (e.g, sleep and such), and it was very effective. The reports helped with awareness around relative time spent over different projects and such. While all the tracking was manual, and I tried to do it eith…

Wow, Timing looks really nice! It's a bummer that no time tracking App really seems to focus on cross platform support. I've been looking for a time tracking app myself and couldn't find one to support my situation. I have: - A Linux desktop - A MacBook - An Android Phone - Offline activities I want to track

Have you tried one of the web-based ones? Like Toggl or Rescue Time? Or manual with a custom setup may be the way to go - e.g, my current time tracking is a bunch of markdown files with YAML front matter keeping track of the specifics, and Obsidian (a cross-platform note-taking app) provides the "UI" for viewing the data from these files in a meaningful way. The cost of setting this up is non-trivial: but worth it if you are in it long term IMO :)

Re: Ask HN: How do you track your work hours?

#33

Post by markus_zhang » Sun, Mar 26, 2023, 10:02 PM UTC

Reference to the JC story pasted below. My thought after reading the story: man JC is hardcore, I wish I had half of his productivity. I'll probably persuade my wife to give me a full day to go to a motel (JC also does this frequently) to do the same test and see how my productivity lines up against his.

http://bookofhook.blogspot.com/2013/03/smart-guy-productivit...

Re: Ask HN: How do you track your work hours?

#34

Post by 2rsf » Mon, Mar 27, 2023, 11:32 AM UTC

admissionsguy wrote: post #26

Tracking time was too much hassle for me. If it takes less than 4 hours, I bill half a day, otherwise I bill a full day.

> whenever I do something that is not work related like randomly reading article/reddit/hn/youtube

Same. Stopping and starting a clock for every little thing is too much of a hassle.

Do you stop it if you are googling a work related question? when going to have a coffee or the toilets? if you are trying to relax so you will be more productive later? I never had complaints about rounding up hours.

Re: Ask HN: How do you track your work hours?

#35

Post by jenett » Mon, Mar 27, 2023, 7:11 PM UTC

If you're on the iOS/macOS side, I like Timelogger - https://timeloggerapp.com/

Re: Ask HN: How do you track your work hours?

#36

Post by LouisSayers » Tue, Mar 28, 2023, 2:36 AM UTC

I use a Google Spreadsheet with columns (Day, Start, Finish, Description, Time, Subtotal).

Each day I adjust the Subtotal for the previous day and put in an entry for the new day.

When I start working I put in an entry into Start, Finish e.g. 3:33pm 3:33pm, and then adjust the Finish time when I stop.

I have a sheet for the month, and when a new month comes around I add up my totals for the previous month, check that the SUM(Subtotal) is the same as the SUM(time col), and then calculate average hours worked per day / week.

I then duplicate the sheet for the next month.

Have been doing this since last year and it works great.

Edit:

I made a template for anyone interested - here you go https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XDp-sYcrsd3Ey-Fo1p5H...

Re: Ask HN: How do you track your work hours?

#37

Post by JoeMayoBot » Tue, Mar 28, 2023, 2:42 AM UTC

I use an Excel spreadsheet as the central document for each customer. No stopwatch, I'm aware of how much I work and make an entry before stopping work or switching to a different customer. I used to be more granular on recording to the closest 15 minute increment, but that's tedious and allowing myself to be distracted isn't worth it, so I ensure the customer gets an even hour worth of work. I write down the date, hours, and short description of the work during that timeframe. If the customer has their own time management system, I record the day's entries into that at the end of the day. I record spreadsheet info into my QuickBooks invoices when it's time to bill. Then I create a new spreadsheet when starting a new invoicing period named with the date of the next invoice, e.g. CustomerName-20230327.xlsx.

Re: Ask HN: How do you track your work hours?

#38

Post by hboon » Tue, Mar 28, 2023, 1:04 PM UTC

I write into my worklog which is a Markdown file with entries like:

Project X 08:43 PM - 10:00 PM

Re: Ask HN: How do you track your work hours?

#39

Post by foobarbaz33 » Tue, Mar 28, 2023, 5:16 PM UTC

LouisSayers wrote: post #36

I use a Google Spreadsheet with columns (Day, Start, Finish, Description, Time, Subtotal). Each day I adjust the Subtotal for the previous day and put in an entry for the new day. When I start working I put in an entry into Start, Finish e.g. 3:33pm 3:33pm, and then adjust the Finish time when I stop. I have a sheet for the month, and when a new month comes around I add up my totals for the previous month, check that…

I've been doing something similar but with Excel.

Spreadsheets might be old news but they get the job done for so many things.

Re: Ask HN: How do you track your work hours?

#40

Post by vstollen » Thu, Mar 30, 2023, 2:50 PM UTC

neeldhara wrote: post #32

vstollen wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, Timing looks really nice! It's a bummer that no time tracking App really seems to focus on cross platform support. I've been looking for a time tracking app myself and couldn't find one to support my situation. I have: - A Linux desktop - A MacBook - An Android Phone - Offline activities I want to track

Have you tried one of the web-based ones? Like Toggl or Rescue Time? Or manual with a custom setup may be the way to go - e.g, my current time tracking is a bunch of markdown files with YAML front matter keeping track of the specifics, and Obsidian (a cross-platform note-taking app) provides the "UI" for viewing the data from these files in a meaningful way. The cost of setting this up is non-trivial: but worth it if…

I've tried rescue time, but wanted a solution with as little friction to actual tracking as possible.

So, ideally I'd like to have a one or two click tracking solution which rescue time did not really provide.