time planning wiki

[André Fincato]

Hi!

I accidentally, and to my delight, found the following on the github wiki — https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/wiki/Time%20planning <https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/wiki/Time%20planning>

As I’ve been thinking on how to track time in different ways, this looks a very good starting point.

Could you Simon give more detaile / ad-hoc background or infos about the overall setup? How you use it and why? From reading the article I wish you would explaining a little more why you opted for what you are using. In particular when it comes to budgeting daily and weekly — which I find extremely interesting.

My use case would be:

- tracking my working hours daily as a freelancer, so I can easily declare them in my yearly Income Tax Return
- roughly organise on a weekly basis my workload across projects
- forecasting future projects that I know either will start at a later date (because of clients) or that I want to start in the future

After a lot of back and forth I switched to org-mode again this last month, and have been tempted to use its clocking and reporting features — which I might — but I am also interested in using hledger budgeting and forecasting options to keep more loose time-planning as a reference (which sadly seem to have no space in any computer calendar app).

I’d be happy to hear your comments and suggestions! Especially if you are emacs and/or org-mode users!


af

[Simon Michael]

Hi André,

glad you found it interesting. For now, let me see if I can add a few more bullet points.

How do I use it ?

- I try to log time whenever I'm at my computer.
- And not to get sucked into computer activity before deciding what to log.
- Time at computer is mostly what I log. I'm not tracking non-computer activities.
- Ideally, I log when starting a task. I pull down the time console with alt-space, and make a preliminary entry in the log, as a reminder.
- Sometimes I'll write the account (task category), sometimes just a note of the current time (commented with ;), sometimes both.
- I try to work or at least log in multiples of 15 minutes, which makes for easy logging.
- When finishing, or taking a break, or switching tasks, and definitely when leaving the computer, I update the log, adding one or more dots depending on time spent.
- If I didn't note the account previously, I'll write that too.
- If I didn't note the start time, I'll look at the computer wake log (tlogwatch output, "display on" time). Or if that didn't work, guess it.
- If the time spent wasn't close to a quarter-hour boundary, but I want to log the time accurately, occasionally I'll write the number of minutes explicitly (which timedot allows).
- If the same category already has some dots logged, this means adding a second line for it, since you can't mix dots and numbers.
- Often I'll do a bit more work later to round that up to a quarter hour and get rid of the number entry.
- In addition to the tools described, I am experimenting with a mac app called Effortless. It provides quick goal setting, reminder beeps and an always-visible display of current task and remaining time (well, it would be always-visible if I always had a giant screen). After completing a goal/session I log it as usual.

- I have trouble managing and keeping track of account names. I keep inventing more categories and using them inconsistently over time, and searching backwards through the log to find old entries to copy, or running command-line reports to list possible account names.
- My time accounts are always overdue for cleanup. This would make the budget reports more useful.

- I don't yet do a lot of budgeting. I have a few simple unchanging daily/weekly/monthly goals defined.
- I do check the daily budget report, during or at end of day, to see how I spent the day with respect to goals, or the previous day.
- Less often, I'll check the weekly or monthly budget reports.
- Billable accounts in the monthly report matter as I use those numbers in client invoices. It directly affects and limits (alas! time-based billing!) my income.

- Sometimes my process feels baroque and inefficient, but I try to limit time spent tweaking it. It's ok to have a consistent habit that gets the job done, even if it's not optimal.

Perhaps I'll get into the why's another time. Like you, I'm interested in how others do this.

Post by André Fincato
Hi!
I accidentally, and to my delight, found the following on the github wiki — https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/wiki/Time%20planning <https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/wiki/Time%20planning>
As I’ve been thinking on how to track time in different ways, this looks a very good starting point.
Could you Simon give more detaile / ad-hoc background or infos about the overall setup? How you use it and why? From reading the article I wish you would explaining a little more why you opted for what you are using. In particular when it comes to budgeting daily and weekly — which I find extremely interesting.
- tracking my working hours daily as a freelancer, so I can easily declare them in my yearly Income Tax Return
- roughly organise on a weekly basis my workload across projects
- forecasting future projects that I know either will start at a later date (because of clients) or that I want to start in the future
After a lot of back and forth I switched to org-mode again this last month, and have been tempted to use its clocking and reporting features — which I might — but I am also interested in using hledger budgeting and forecasting options to keep more loose time-planning as a reference (which sadly seem to have no space in any computer calendar app).
I’d be happy to hear your comments and suggestions! Especially if you are emacs and/or org-mode users!
af
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You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hledger" group.
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[Zoran Zaric]

I use the timeclock format to track my time on projects for my employer.

At the end of a day or week I convert the timeclock entries to standard journal entries and add a posting for my daily due worktime and a open posting for my overtime.

example timeclock file

i 2018/06/26 08:00 ACME Corp:Meetings
o 2018/06/26 08:15
i 2018/06/26 08:15 ACME Corp:Sprint 214:Story 23
o 2018/06/26 12:00
i 2018/06/26 13:00 Foobar Inc:Issue 666
o 2018/06/26 17:00

This would result in the following journal entry:

2018/06/26 * Workday
Equity:Work:Employer:ACME Corp:Meetings 0,25 h
Equity:Work:Employer:ACME Corp:Sprint 214:Story 23 3,75 h
Equity:Work:Employer:Foobar Inc:Issue 666 4 h
Equity:Work:Workday -8 h
Assets:Receivables:Employer:Overtime

I’m still not sure about the accounts for worked time on projects.

I hope this adds anything to the discussion.

Thanks,
Zoran

p.s.: The only thing I don’t like about the timeclock format is its verbosity in having to end every entry. I’d really like if line 2 wasn’t necessary. Perhaps a way to solve this and not lose tracking of parallel entries could be adding a feature to drop the second line and have the next entry start with „oi 2018/06/26 08:15“. You could read it as „out and in“.

Any thoughts?

Post by Simon Michael
Hi André,
glad you found it interesting. For now, let me see if I can add a few more bullet points.
How do I use it ?
- I try to log time whenever I'm at my computer.
- And not to get sucked into computer activity before deciding what to log.
- Time at computer is mostly what I log. I'm not tracking non-computer activities.
- Ideally, I log when starting a task. I pull down the time console with alt-space, and make a preliminary entry in the log, as a reminder.
- Sometimes I'll write the account (task category), sometimes just a note of the current time (commented with ;), sometimes both.
- I try to work or at least log in multiples of 15 minutes, which makes for easy logging.
- When finishing, or taking a break, or switching tasks, and definitely when leaving the computer, I update the log, adding one or more dots depending on time spent.
- If I didn't note the account previously, I'll write that too.
- If I didn't note the start time, I'll look at the computer wake log (tlogwatch output, "display on" time). Or if that didn't work, guess it.
- If the time spent wasn't close to a quarter-hour boundary, but I want to log the time accurately, occasionally I'll write the number of minutes explicitly (which timedot allows).
- If the same category already has some dots logged, this means adding a second line for it, since you can't mix dots and numbers.
- Often I'll do a bit more work later to round that up to a quarter hour and get rid of the number entry.
- In addition to the tools described, I am experimenting with a mac app called Effortless. It provides quick goal setting, reminder beeps and an always-visible display of current task and remaining time (well, it would be always-visible if I always had a giant screen). After completing a goal/session I log it as usual.
- I have trouble managing and keeping track of account names. I keep inventing more categories and using them inconsistently over time, and searching backwards through the log to find old entries to copy, or running command-line reports to list possible account names.
- My time accounts are always overdue for cleanup. This would make the budget reports more useful.
- I don't yet do a lot of budgeting. I have a few simple unchanging daily/weekly/monthly goals defined.
- I do check the daily budget report, during or at end of day, to see how I spent the day with respect to goals, or the previous day.
- Less often, I'll check the weekly or monthly budget reports.
- Billable accounts in the monthly report matter as I use those numbers in client invoices. It directly affects and limits (alas! time-based billing!) my income.
- Sometimes my process feels baroque and inefficient, but I try to limit time spent tweaking it. It's ok to have a consistent habit that gets the job done, even if it's not optimal.
Perhaps I'll get into the why's another time. Like you, I'm interested in how others do this.

Post by André Fincato
Hi!
I accidentally, and to my delight, found the following on the github wiki — https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/wiki/Time%20planning
As I’ve been thinking on how to track time in different ways, this looks a very good starting point.
Could you Simon give more detaile / ad-hoc background or infos about the overall setup? How you use it and why? From reading the article I wish you would explaining a little more why you opted for what you are using. In particular when it comes to budgeting daily and weekly — which I find extremely interesting.
- tracking my working hours daily as a freelancer, so I can easily declare them in my yearly Income Tax Return
- roughly organise on a weekly basis my workload across projects
- forecasting future projects that I know either will start at a later date (because of clients) or that I want to start in the future
After a lot of back and forth I switched to org-mode again this last month, and have been tempted to use its clocking and reporting features — which I might — but I am also interested in using hledger budgeting and forecasting options to keep more loose time-planning as a reference (which sadly seem to have no space in any computer calendar app).
I’d be happy to hear your comments and suggestions! Especially if you are emacs and/or org-mode users!
af
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[Simon Michael]

Post by Zoran Zaric
I use the timeclock format to track my time on projects for my employer.
At the end of a day or week I convert the timeclock entries to standard journal entries and add a posting for my daily due worktime and a open posting for my overtime.
example timeclock file
i 2018/06/26 08:00 ACME Corp:Meetings
o 2018/06/26 08:15
i 2018/06/26 08:15 ACME Corp:Sprint 214:Story 23
o 2018/06/26 12:00
i 2018/06/26 13:00 Foobar Inc:Issue 666
o 2018/06/26 17:00
2018/06/26 * Workday
Equity:Work:Employer:ACME Corp:Meetings 0,25 h
Equity:Work:Employer:ACME Corp:Sprint 214:Story 23 3,75 h
Equity:Work:Employer:Foobar Inc:Issue 666 4 h
Equity:Work:Workday -8 h
Assets:Receivables:Employer:Overtime
I’m still not sure about the accounts for worked time on projects.
I hope this adds anything to the discussion.

Interesting!

Post by Zoran Zaric
Thanks,
Zoran
p.s.: The only thing I don’t like about the timeclock format is its verbosity in having to end every entry. I’d really like if line 2 wasn’t necessary. Perhaps a way to solve this and not lose tracking of parallel entries could be adding a feature to drop the second line and have the next entry start with „oi 2018/06/26 08:15“. You could read it as „out and in“.
Any thoughts?

It is verbose. Do you enter it manually ?

Capital I could be another possibility.

Post by Zoran Zaric

Post by Simon Michael
Hi André,
glad you found it interesting. For now, let me see if I can add a few more bullet points.
How do I use it ?
- I try to log time whenever I'm at my computer.
- And not to get sucked into computer activity before deciding what to log.
- Time at computer is mostly what I log. I'm not tracking non-computer activities.
- Ideally, I log when starting a task. I pull down the time console with alt-space, and make a preliminary entry in the log, as a reminder.
- Sometimes I'll write the account (task category), sometimes just a note of the current time (commented with ;), sometimes both.
- I try to work or at least log in multiples of 15 minutes, which makes for easy logging.
- When finishing, or taking a break, or switching tasks, and definitely when leaving the computer, I update the log, adding one or more dots depending on time spent.
- If I didn't note the account previously, I'll write that too.
- If I didn't note the start time, I'll look at the computer wake log (tlogwatch output, "display on" time). Or if that didn't work, guess it.
- If the time spent wasn't close to a quarter-hour boundary, but I want to log the time accurately, occasionally I'll write the number of minutes explicitly (which timedot allows).
- If the same category already has some dots logged, this means adding a second line for it, since you can't mix dots and numbers.
- Often I'll do a bit more work later to round that up to a quarter hour and get rid of the number entry.
- In addition to the tools described, I am experimenting with a mac app called Effortless. It provides quick goal setting, reminder beeps and an always-visible display of current task and remaining time (well, it would be always-visible if I always had a giant screen). After completing a goal/session I log it as usual.
- I have trouble managing and keeping track of account names. I keep inventing more categories and using them inconsistently over time, and searching backwards through the log to find old entries to copy, or running command-line reports to list possible account names.
- My time accounts are always overdue for cleanup. This would make the budget reports more useful.
- I don't yet do a lot of budgeting. I have a few simple unchanging daily/weekly/monthly goals defined.
- I do check the daily budget report, during or at end of day, to see how I spent the day with respect to goals, or the previous day.
- Less often, I'll check the weekly or monthly budget reports.
- Billable accounts in the monthly report matter as I use those numbers in client invoices. It directly affects and limits (alas! time-based billing!) my income.
- Sometimes my process feels baroque and inefficient, but I try to limit time spent tweaking it. It's ok to have a consistent habit that gets the job done, even if it's not optimal.
Perhaps I'll get into the why's another time. Like you, I'm interested in how others do this.

Post by André Fincato
Hi!
I accidentally, and to my delight, found the following on the github wiki — https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/wiki/Time%20planning <https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/wiki/Time%20planning>
As I’ve been thinking on how to track time in different ways, this looks a very good starting point.
Could you Simon give more detaile / ad-hoc background or infos about the overall setup? How you use it and why? From reading the article I wish you would explaining a little more why you opted for what you are using. In particular when it comes to budgeting daily and weekly — which I find extremely interesting.
- tracking my working hours daily as a freelancer, so I can easily declare them in my yearly Income Tax Return
- roughly organise on a weekly basis my workload across projects
- forecasting future projects that I know either will start at a later date (because of clients) or that I want to start in the future
After a lot of back and forth I switched to org-mode again this last month, and have been tempted to use its clocking and reporting features — which I might — but I am also interested in using hledger budgeting and forecasting options to keep more loose time-planning as a reference (which sadly seem to have no space in any computer calendar app).
I’d be happy to hear your comments and suggestions! Especially if you are emacs and/or org-mode users!
af
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For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>.

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For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>.

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[Zoran Zaric]

Post by Simon Michael

Post by Zoran Zaric
p.s.: The only thing I don’t like about the timeclock format is its verbosity in having to end every entry. I’d really like if line 2 wasn’t necessary. Perhaps a way to solve this and not lose tracking of parallel entries could be adding a feature to drop the second line and have the next entry start with „oi 2018/06/26 08:15“. You could read it as „out and in“.
Any thoughts?

It is verbose. Do you enter it manually ?

Yes, I enter the timeclock entries manually.

Post by Simon Michael
Capital I could be another possibility.

Could absolutely live with capital I.