Anyone else like to grumble about the time tracker/work diary?

[nancykz]

Just sippin' my morning coffee and complaining about the work diary. I'm top rated, 100% of clients would rehire me and all of my ratings are five-star. 

And yet if you look at my most recent work diary it shows that I had 2:10 "activity" level. Yes, because RESEARCH is a part of good content writing and something for which I should not just be paid but also applauded. Since many people just slap things together and I do a deep dive.

The client was thrilled with my work and immediately extended my contract and didn't ask a single question about the low activity but man does it get my goat. 

Anyway... thanks for letting me vent. Anyone else annoyed by this archaic metric?

Oh! And let me not forget the fact that you can't track on a chromebook which is my go to!

Done grumbling (for now)... share a pic of your dog.

[kanshu1]

I thought it was just me coming up with the best of solution before falling asleep. 🙂

Its so nice to read different views on using time tracker. I personally dont like to use them. As I get too stressed thinking about the screenshots and keypd movement that I loose focus of the work that I am doing. 

[aziz_92]

This is why I don't work with time traker, never have, and never will. If a client can't trust me then we shouldn't be working together anyways.

[astepanov83]

One can look at the time tracker app from a different angle. Definitely, for some clients it's a means to control a freelancer. Luckily, I've never met such a client in almost 6 years working here. Tracker is a great way of counting how much I've worked and how much I need to be paid.

When I wake up, I turn my laptop and resume my working virtual machine with time tracker on. I can work for several hours and then take a break. The app will automatically stop counting work time while still running. I can go for a walk with my family, or do home duties, or just watch a movie. Then I may feel desire to work and I simply switch to my working virtual machine.

I work 50-80 hours a week. It would be a huge pain in the neck to remember how much I worked. I'm free from remembering this. When I think on a task, which is often, I try to add manual time as soon as possible, so I don't forget about it.

I on contrary don't work with fixed-price contracts. I have several contracts where I develop big pieces of software. Tasks come and go. I do them and get easily paid without meddling with milestones.

I would be very glad to hear how others, especially developers, work on big projects under fixed-price contracts.

[mwiggenhorn]

In my field, everyone always tracks their time.  I have worked in law firms where it was manual and I've worked in firms that had an electronic system.  Lawyers track their time and paralegals track their time, usually in 1/10 of an hour and rebill it to the clients. 

I love the tracker as it takes care of it for me and I never miss any time, which was always a problem with manual tracking. I can always go back and delete segments if I forget to turn the tracker off.  I am also a part time employee for an attorney and I use a time tracker for his work, as well.

[wendy_writes]

I'm with Bruce.  Manual hours only and pre-established trust on both sides.

[gilbert-phyllis]

Not a developer. I accept both hourly and fixed-price contracts on UW. Off the platform, I do almost exclusively fixed-price. I don't use UW's time tracker but I have my own. It's the only way to keep track of how long things take, so I can put together accurate quotes. Every weekend, I run a time sheet and then, for any UW hourly contracts I worked on that week, log the hours manually. 

[bruce_dodds]

I appreciated everyone's POV on this. Perhaps I should be less dogmatic.

[schardo]

This is why I don't do hourly projects. I could probably make more money if I did, but I take a million breaks a day. I rarely work a full hour at a time, ever. I just charge what I think the project is worth based on the topic, and how much of a pain in the you-know-whats it's going to be. 

That time tracker stresses me out in all kinds of ways. Maybe one day I'll get over it. 

[lysis10]

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Sarah C wrote:

This is why I don't do hourly projects. I could probably make more money if I did, but I take a million breaks a day. I rarely work a full hour at a time, ever. I just charge what I think the project is worth based on the topic, and how much of a pain in the you-know-whats it's going to be. 

That time tracker stresses me out in all kinds of ways. Maybe one day I'll get over it. 

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That's one reason I prefer hourly. The main reason is payment protection and I get paid for the hours I work without getting stiffed or worrying about scope creep, but I also like hourly because 4 hours is 4 hours of work. I have a bad habit of turning 3 hours of work into an all day thing if it's escrow.

[11f7a755]

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Jennifer M wrote:

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Sarah C wrote:

This is why I don't do hourly projects. I could probably make more money if I did, but I take a million breaks a day. I rarely work a full hour at a time, ever. I just charge what I think the project is worth based on the topic, and how much of a pain in the you-know-whats it's going to be. 

That time tracker stresses me out in all kinds of ways. Maybe one day I'll get over it. 

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That's one reason I prefer hourly. The main reason is payment protection and I get paid for the hours I work without getting stiffed or worrying about scope creep, but I also like hourly because 4 hours is 4 hours of work. I have a bad habit of turning 3 hours of work into an all day thing if it's escrow.

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99% of the time - which incidentally is my JSS score- I don't apply for hourly contract. 

A. I do not want "compromising" screenshots to be recorded.

B. I have my own rhythm and flow of getting the job done. If I turn on the music on YouTube while working on project and it gets recorded, then it may give client another excuse to refuse payment. Again I never used Desktop App before and I know you can edit out the screenshot, still I find it to be intrusive and then you have to do tedious logging. 

Because if you don't then you may not be proctected for hourly bid. So I just think it is simpler for me to do fixed contract. At any rate, landing clients is proving tad difficult regardless.