By Peter Bell

Tracking your time on Solo Projects

Posted At : April 20, 2009 2:32 PM | Posted By : Peter Bell
Related Categories: Time Management, Project Management, Agile Development
A lot of agile teams don't track actual time (in hours) at all. When you're working on your own and juggling multiple projects, however, it can make sense to gather "just enough" time tracking data. Here's why . . . Any input on whether/how you track time much appreciated . . .

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Check out Klok (http://klok.mcgraphix.com) I created it to help me track my time more effectively when working on solo projects.
# Posted By Rob McKeown | 4/20/09 3:47 PM
Well, Peter, you are certainly far more organized than me (no surprise there). I have been tracking my time for the past few years, and I prefer to use software over your more tactile index card method. I started out with a piece of software called TimePanic (http://www.timepanic.com/english/), and switched over to Harvest (http://www.getharvest.com/) several months ago.

What I like about both products is that I can start tracking my time with the click of a button, and end the task with a click as well, which is about all the work I'm willing to do ;-)

I also work on varied projects for varied clients, as well as a lot of internal work, and I track everything. I have all of my tasks categorized by client, project and work type. It has certainly helped to improve my quoting accuracy as well as my profitability.

With your physical system, how will you compile and report on the numbers? Will you input all of them into some software at some point?
# Posted By Bob Silverberg | 4/20/09 5:21 PM
Oh, one more thing: I also like Harvest as it has a nice iPhone interface which I can use to track my time when I don't have access to a computer.
# Posted By Bob Silverberg | 4/20/09 5:22 PM
Yeah. The purpose of the paper system is as a lo-fi way to prototype what I really need - what information, how to work with it, etc. It's using tools that I don't need to learn (pen and paper) and there is something really satisfying with physical cards. Once I have the system solid and I'm in the habit of using it, I'll probably use software instead so I can share with remote partners, have access to everything on the road and easily run reporting data.

Played with Harvest and used it for a while, but stopped. Need to figure out why and what I'll do to make sure I keep using this!
# Posted By Peter Bell | 4/20/09 5:53 PM
Hi Peter,

at Onlinebase we use Projecttracker (http://projecttracker.riaforge.org/index.cfm) by Joe Danziger. It's a CF-port pf several 37signals apps, and it works quite nicely. It could fit into your system by creating a project for everything and then breaking them down into to-do lists with items in them. When and how and deadlines are also available!

Good luck with your new effort - will you report on it's (non)effectiveness?
# Posted By Sebastiaan | 4/21/09 7:21 AM
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