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>>Starting today the writers in my group are required to
>>fill out a web-based form showing how much time they spend
>>on each document during the day.
>
>Time-tracking is important but I have always found that filling timesheet
>is the least effective (not to mention least imaginative) approach to
>time-tracking. Of course, that makes it very popular.
We also fill out a form showing how much time each day we spend on each
project. We document ERP software, and the form is the one used for project
planning. Only our boss can record the projects/tasks (so I can't record
time for recording time, though believe me it's crossed my mind!).
I record my hours in the morning for the day before (except on bad days,
like this morning when I realized I hadn't done it for the entire week).
I'd say on average it takes me no more than five minutes. Some times, when
I've done a lot of different things during the day, it can take me longer.
I'm not sure how my boss uses the data, but I know she notices when we're
not filling it out. It's become second nature to me by now.