I track my time even though I don't have clients. I find it helps me say "ok this next block is for this task" and it helps me keep focus.
I stopped tracking my time. Now I can't focus
11–20 of 61 posts
Re: I stopped tracking my time. Now I can't focus
#12Was there a point to this article?
I sure couldn't find it: to me it read like "I time tracked, now I don't" with no actual insight or conclusion into why either might be preferable.
Re: I stopped tracking my time. Now I can't focus
#13Was there a point to this article? I sure couldn't find it: to me it read like "I time tracked, now I don't" with no actual insight or conclusion into why either might be preferable.
"Was there a point to this article?"
To tell us that he cannot focus.
Re: I stopped tracking my time. Now I can't focus
#14I spent a few months doing some coarse time tracking at work - basically I'd retroactively add and edit events on my calendar to reflect what I had actually done during the workday, down to 15 minute increments. I binned them into IC work, meetings, interruptions, and non-work stuff. While I did get some insights about where my time was going, it mostly just made me really anxious and input-oriented about my productivity and made feel guilty if I didn't end up working a full 8 hours on a given day. Stopping the time tracking was good for my mental health.
Re: I stopped tracking my time. Now I can't focus
#15Hey man, the best way to go about this — is to gamify your schedule and make your self do the items you desire to do. Whatever you plan for your day 8-9am every day, can be “read only” until you journal eod. Trust me, I’m adhd. Good luck!
Would you mind explaining what this looks like practice? Fellow ADHDer here!
Re: I stopped tracking my time. Now I can't focus
#16Was there a point to this article? I sure couldn't find it: to me it read like "I time tracked, now I don't" with no actual insight or conclusion into why either might be preferable.
I believe this was the point they’re making.
> Turns out, the friction I felt around picking one thing may have actually been beneficial. Perhaps it was actually helping me stay focused. Even if it cost just a bit of extra time before I sat down and worked.
They regretted it.
Re: I stopped tracking my time. Now I can't focus
#17the solution might be checklisting in lieu of time tracking - rather than note what you spend each moment on, define tasks and subtasks, and work on one set of subtasks at a time. the checklist helps maintain focus because if you think of something random you can note it down for later rather than jump straight into it.
Re: I stopped tracking my time. Now I can't focus
#18I spent a few months doing some coarse time tracking at work - basically I'd retroactively add and edit events on my calendar to reflect what I had actually done during the workday, down to 15 minute increments. I binned them into IC work, meetings, interruptions, and non-work stuff. While I did get some insights about where my time was going, it mostly just made me really anxious and input-oriented about my producti…
> made me really anxious and input-oriented about my productivity
Yes, exactly! Even if I got a bunch done I'd still feel like I didn't accomplish anything if I had "wasted" too much time.
Re: I stopped tracking my time. Now I can't focus
#19Hey man, the best way to go about this — is to gamify your schedule and make your self do the items you desire to do. Whatever you plan for your day 8-9am every day, can be “read only” until you journal eod. Trust me, I’m adhd. Good luck!
Please share more about this, it sounds really interesting!
Re: I stopped tracking my time. Now I can't focus
#20I spent a few months doing some coarse time tracking at work - basically I'd retroactively add and edit events on my calendar to reflect what I had actually done during the workday, down to 15 minute increments. I binned them into IC work, meetings, interruptions, and non-work stuff. While I did get some insights about where my time was going, it mostly just made me really anxious and input-oriented about my producti…
I've tried it for a few months for 1-hour intervals and it wasn't as stressful, and was a useful exercise to understand how I'm using my time.
I feel like there's a few lessons here, depending on what your goal is: if you're mostly working, are those hours useful, and if you're not, do you care about it?