Letters: Readers respond to an article about quitting the rat race, with some saying their generation was handed an untenable position and others saying the struggle is nothing new
Not really, but yes. Fib. Lie. Put down what you think is appropriate. Don’t exaggerate, don’t over bill, just adjust for what fits.
For me, I refuse to track my time down to the minute. I realized that if I put in 5 minutes for sending an email, I would get credit for 0.08 of an hour, but, 5 minutes is actually 0.083333… of an hour. So I started putting in 6 minutes instead (0.10 of an hour). Rather than be irrationally docked the 20 seconds or so, I’m getting a whole ass extra 0.02h (or rather 0.1666… of an hour).
I’ll do 6 minutes, or anything in 15 minute increments. If it took 7 minutes, that’s 15m. If it took 20, that’s 30m on the record. If I’m looking for a ticket, or closing a ticket (after my time is entered), or even if I go to take a shit while working on a ticket, that goes in the time entry. I might be in the bathroom, but my brain is working on the problem. I’m not exactly taking a break from working the issue, I’m just trying to brain storm while I’m away from my keyboard.
Every second from the time I start looking for a ticket to work, to the time I’ve closed it, should be on the books. I didn’t work from 9:35 to 9:56 on anything, I spent 9:30 to 9:35 finding, and opening the ticket prior to my time entry being started. I spent 9:56 to 10:00 closing the ticket and mentally preparing myself for the next task. Minute by minute tracking is unreasonable, and bluntly, you shouldn’t do it. You’ll lose more time from what I call “grey time” (doing all the things you need to do in order to account for your time), than you account for actually doing your job. Reading email, looking at documents and keeping up to date on technology issues… All of that is grey time.
I’ve put in time for internal meetings, "ticket review"s, even “reading email”. None of which has every been questioned. You need that time to simply keep yourself organized. Don’t hesitate to mark it down and bill it to your own employer. I know they don’t want you to do that, it “artificially inflates” your worked time, but bluntly, if they’re going to require that you account for so much of your day that you can’t have grey time anywhere in there, you’re doing yourself a disservice by not adding some kind of entry to account for it.
The only thing I strictly do not do, is mark down my time for lunch and breaks. That’s not acceptable to me. Everything else, sure. But I’m going to pad it to account for my grey time. When I spend too much time doing stuff that I consider grey time, I’ll put in an internal entry for it, and bill my employer. I try to keep these to a minimum, but it’s an easy entry when you get called into a meeting or something.
Once you start seeing all the losses from grey time adding up, you’ll be able to account for 6-7 hours of your day easily. Plus 30 minutes for lunch, and 2x15 minute breaks, and you’re missing an hour of your day at most.
My advice: fib.
Not really, but yes. Fib. Lie. Put down what you think is appropriate. Don’t exaggerate, don’t over bill, just adjust for what fits.
For me, I refuse to track my time down to the minute. I realized that if I put in 5 minutes for sending an email, I would get credit for 0.08 of an hour, but, 5 minutes is actually 0.083333… of an hour. So I started putting in 6 minutes instead (0.10 of an hour). Rather than be irrationally docked the 20 seconds or so, I’m getting a whole ass extra 0.02h (or rather 0.1666… of an hour).
I’ll do 6 minutes, or anything in 15 minute increments. If it took 7 minutes, that’s 15m. If it took 20, that’s 30m on the record. If I’m looking for a ticket, or closing a ticket (after my time is entered), or even if I go to take a shit while working on a ticket, that goes in the time entry. I might be in the bathroom, but my brain is working on the problem. I’m not exactly taking a break from working the issue, I’m just trying to brain storm while I’m away from my keyboard.
Every second from the time I start looking for a ticket to work, to the time I’ve closed it, should be on the books. I didn’t work from 9:35 to 9:56 on anything, I spent 9:30 to 9:35 finding, and opening the ticket prior to my time entry being started. I spent 9:56 to 10:00 closing the ticket and mentally preparing myself for the next task. Minute by minute tracking is unreasonable, and bluntly, you shouldn’t do it. You’ll lose more time from what I call “grey time” (doing all the things you need to do in order to account for your time), than you account for actually doing your job. Reading email, looking at documents and keeping up to date on technology issues… All of that is grey time.
I’ve put in time for internal meetings, "ticket review"s, even “reading email”. None of which has every been questioned. You need that time to simply keep yourself organized. Don’t hesitate to mark it down and bill it to your own employer. I know they don’t want you to do that, it “artificially inflates” your worked time, but bluntly, if they’re going to require that you account for so much of your day that you can’t have grey time anywhere in there, you’re doing yourself a disservice by not adding some kind of entry to account for it.
The only thing I strictly do not do, is mark down my time for lunch and breaks. That’s not acceptable to me. Everything else, sure. But I’m going to pad it to account for my grey time. When I spend too much time doing stuff that I consider grey time, I’ll put in an internal entry for it, and bill my employer. I try to keep these to a minimum, but it’s an easy entry when you get called into a meeting or something.
Once you start seeing all the losses from grey time adding up, you’ll be able to account for 6-7 hours of your day easily. Plus 30 minutes for lunch, and 2x15 minute breaks, and you’re missing an hour of your day at most.
Grey time. Log it.