[thelist] Filling up timesheets - good or bad?

[Ruth Arnold]

Being self-employed, I find timesheets invaluable. It enables you to invoice
correctly and is a good audit trail for working out how long jobs actually
took to do, rather than how long you thought they took.

I can understand employees taking offence at the notion of monitoring what
happened and when, but I wouldn't be without mine. I've tried to set up an
electronic version on my PC from time to time, but have always found that
nothing quite beats a pen and paper sat between the monitor and keyboard for
making sure that you keep up-to-date with this dreary task.

It's also helpful when establishing your hourly rate as it brings home just
how many of your working hours aren't actually billable.

ruth arnold
spacehoppa.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel J. Cody" <djc at starkmedia.com>
To: <thelist at lists.evolt.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2001 2:28 PM
Subject: Re: [thelist] Filling up timesheets - good or bad?


> FWIW, I've always had to fill out a timesheet ever since my job in
> college.. Both jobs after that have been salarary too..
>
> Once you get people in the habit of doing it, its not that big a deal i
> guess..I find also that I'm doing a million things within an hour at any
> givin point, and at times its difficult to remember what i was doing
> yesterday at 10am, but it can help you say, "Jeez, I spend 3 hours a day
> checking out theonion.com?" :)
>
> I guess its just one of those things.. The best way to deal with it is
> to make the timesheet application itself as easy to use and intuitive as
> possible so its not such a pain in the arse.
>
> .djc.