I mainly worked on project based companies. There are few things I like with such companies:
* Projects last from few months to a year, a year and a half at most. They might be similar but not identical. You get to learn/experience a wide variety of things.
* Changing projects are like pressing reset button on your computer, you get fresh starts.
Beside changing the scene, resetting time to time has many benefits. You get rid of the accumulated errors from the development phase. You might know that feeling, you go home after few long nights in a row (nights connected to the mornings) have a nice shower, come back to the office next day and everything is as new as the first day.
One of the things I am struggling is about scheduling. When you need to manage a schedule for few months, it is easier. It is like you don’t need to see the girl again.
But you know, all good things have an end. Now, I work in a product based company. Although we have release schedules and it gives us a sensation of starting new it is not the same thing. Scheduling is not that girl you had your fun anymore, she remembers all the mistakes you do.
Scheduling and time tracking are closely related concepts. Once you have a schedule you will want to know where the hell you spend all your time and missed the deadline.
I started checking for time tracking utilities when I was working as a freelancer. It was mainly for billing purposes and I didn’t really care more than how many hours I worked on a certain task. After all freelancing is still project based. Current challenges require a lot more then that. So I came back to google.
There are plenty of tools available and I tried some of them. Most lack at the initial point. When you work on a certain issue you don’t really want to go through many UI elements. All you need is to start something, or pause your time and continue working.
…
I put these three dots nearly a week after I wrote the last sentence. My quest to a time tracking tool is just like this. I know I am very close to it, but it is like behind something which I can’t jump over. I have a feeling about it, but that’s it. I guess this makes it an interesting topic. I will come back to it again…
