Seeking community feedback on personal productivity tracking for solo work
Posted by Expert-Economics-723@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 8 comments
Been mostly using basic timers for years to track my billable hours as a freelance developer. It gets the job done for invoicing, but I've been thinking about something more comprehensive to truly understand my focus hours and how I'm allocating my time across different client projects.
I've seen Monitask mentioned here as a productivity tracking tool that could help with app and website tracking, which could provide better insights into my workflow. But I'm curious, for experienced devs especially those working solo or as freelancers, has using a more structured time tracking software like this actually helped improve personal accountability without feeling overly intrusive? Or does the overhead of managing the tool outweigh the benefits for individual use?
mauriciocap@reddit
Being "old but this old" I just set goals in my calendar, plan 4 SMART goals each day during breakfast and check in the evening what helped me and what I want to change tomorrow.
Expert-Economics-723@reddit (OP)
Solid approach for the big picture. I'm trying to get more granular data for client billing and to see where my time is actually sinking.
mauriciocap@reddit
Paradoxically there is a limit where collecting the data costs more confusion and distraction than you may gain from having it.
PoopsCodeAllTheTime@reddit
I just turn on the timer when I start, turn it off when I stop. That's it. Toggl has been good, nice free tier and the app works fine, all the buttons are there.
I used to self-host Kimai to generate fancy invoices and what not.... It was mostly a waste of time and overloaded complexity. Just use the timer, write down the stuff on some app that lets you export to PDF. That's it.
Expert-Economics-723@reddit (OP)
You've likedescribed my exact fear here, getting bogged down by overloaded complexity. My problem with manual timers is context switching. I'll get deep into a problem and completely forget to start/stop, which makes billing a mess later. That's the main reason I was curious about something more passive.
aqjo@reddit
I just started using clockify.me .
So far, it’s pretty low friction, and integrates with Todoist. And free.
Expert-Economics-723@reddit (OP)
Thanks, I'll check it out.
oceanfloororchard@reddit
Freelancer here. I have a time-tracking app on my phone to track hours on different projects (atracker). I also recently started using clickup to organize tasks/priorities/estimated finish dates where clients can also see them.
I think keeping overhead small is important unless you’re just really interested in measuring yourself (which is interesting and can teach you a lot - i once measured where i spent all of my time even outside of work. was very eye-opening)