Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea, and modest expectations

I stumbled across this article about time tracking by Joey Roberts on www.trackthetime.com and it struck fear into my heart. I have been freelancing full-time for nearly a year now and there are clearly areas I need to improve. A freelancer will live and die on their ability to be self disciplined and improve. Which is why I make a habit of goal setting for myself every year, quarter and month. Included in my yearly goals for 2009 is becoming more accurate at tracking my time (billable and non billable). Naturally, I already do this, but I know that I can do it better. Maintaining transparency with my clients about how I spend my time while working on their projects is extremely important.

If you’re a freelancer in your chosen profession and you don’t track your time, you can count on one thing: you won’t be a freelancer for long.

I have used several third party web based apps to try and improve my time tracking, but haven’t settled on anything I like. For the most part, my current method is pretty base, but it is accurate (custom built spread sheet that is logged into my calendar) and easy to maintain. It makes me wish I knew more development languages because I would love to build my own app that is catered to my needs as a freelancer. Any one have anything they use/like and/or recommend?

You can read the full article here.

Sorry, Comments are currently 404'd