Keeping Track of Time

swinnie · 10 Oct 2009 at 18:47

Hi Guys,

Just a quick question, I thought it would be best here, as it is focused on programming/designing etc.

How do you designers/developers keep track of how long you've worked on a project for? I've got a little flip pad that sits on my desk that I just jot down what time I started working, and what time I finished working (in stages), and I work this out when I bill the customer.

Is there an application that I could use to do this?

I'm sure I saw a thread about this some time ago, but my search skills fail me.

Thanks in advance.

dangerstat · 10 Oct 2009 at 18:52

I'm sure there's all sorts I just tend to make my calendar in Outlook with the times I schedule for development work, TBA faffing with a seperate application

suarve · 10 Oct 2009 at 19:18

I look at the clock

Always have a little alarm app running in the background that goes off every hour - to remind me to take a break

tsinc80697 · 10 Oct 2009 at 20:04

If you're on OSX try Billings. GREAT app for keeping track of time on projects and invoicing clients

swinnie · 10 Oct 2009 at 21:48

suarve said:
I look at the clock

Always have a little alarm app running in the background that goes off every hour - to remind me to take a break

Yeah, I always break every 1hr / 1hr 30 depending on what kind of project I'm on. If it's an "easy" project I lengthen the hours, if it's something that's more advanced, I'll break regularly to keep a good mindset - works wonders.

tsinc80697 said:
If you're on OSX try Billings. GREAT app for keeping track of time on projects and invoicing clients

Unfortunately I'm not on OS X - as much as I'd like to have a Mac, I don't.

Any Windows based apps? (Should've popped that in the OP, really.)

ArtificialFoxx · 11 Oct 2009 at 00:17

I use the timer on the G15 keyboard, then write down the time in excel

suarve · 11 Oct 2009 at 12:29

swinnie said:
Yeah, I always break every 1hr / 1hr 30 depending on what kind of project I'm on. If it's an "easy" project I lengthen the hours, if it's something that's more advanced, I'll break regularly to keep a good mindset - works wonders.

I break at set intervals no matter what I'm doing, puirely just to get away from the PC

mr.sly · 11 Oct 2009 at 14:41

The http://invoicemachine.com/home has a web based timer. Or if you use http://community.freshbooks.com/addons/ there's a Vista gadget you can download.

Tripnologist · 12 Oct 2009 at 15:04

We use paymo at the moment which is free if you have under three users. It has a convenient desktop widget which sits in your taskbar and can be used to enter time manually or have it keep track automatically. It also does reports and can do billing I believe.
http://www.paymo.biz/