Where does the time go? Ever thought of tracking it?

I’ve convinced my Director that we need to dedicate some of my time to be more concentrated soley on the LMS implementation and development. Now that the big projects for the year have either happened or are well under way, my time now is a little more free for flexibility.

The question came up though, once we do decide how much time to dedicate, what do we take away to release some time. So I was asked, “What does my day consist of?” Ever try to answer a question like that when you have a job that would give most butterflies a nervous breakdown. My work day consists of 3 minutes on this task, 2 on this one, 10 on this one, 3 on this one….etc, etc, etc. I don’t really remember ever in 8 years having a solid half day, let alone hour to work on something. It just never seems to be that way.

So today I found a simple online timer that I am using to track my tasks. I’m using Work Timer. It has the ability for me to create multiple projects and clock in and out for each of them. There is then an archive button that will record all the in’s and out’s for a day for the various projects. There is also a task’s lists and Today’s Projects functions as well. All items can have a cost per hour calculated for them as well.

Here’s an example of a piece of my day:
Intranet maintenance -> 0:29:10
Helping with excel, -> 0:24:05
Misc Brenda help -> 0:14:09
Answering phone call -> 0:06:44
AV Trouble Shooting -> 0:02:19
Answering Emails -> 0:02:01
Misc. Walk Ins -> 0:01:16

It’s a neat tool for a very nasty task – the dreaded time tracking.