August 28, 2007

Making Time Tracking a Little Less Painful

by Brian Donahue

Oh, Timesheets.  How unfaithful I have been to you over the years.  Shall we take a look back at our tumultuous relationship?

In the beginning, I tried to keep you with me throughout the day and update you as I worked...  But I would end up pushing you off to the background, behind sexier applications, and at the end of the day you'd come nagging, asking me where I've been.  "I've got to finish this up and get home," I'd say, "I'll spend some time with you tomorrow."

The end of the week would come and you'd be livid.  "How am I supposed to get you paid if you won't even give me the time of day (that you are working on specific tasks)?"  Flustered, I'd scramble through notes, emails, recently saved files, source control commits, and  my own hazy memory, and somehow come up with a half-decent story about how my week went.  You'd sigh, and shake your head, and off to accounting you'd go.

After years of this, I began to feel very guilty about my weakness.  I knew I was no good at tracking my time, and I decided as a display of good will, I'd submit myself to surveillance.  I purchased TimesnapperBroken Link: http://www.timesnapper.com/.  Life seemed good.  I would never have to tell you I didn't know where I was or who I was with.  If I was sashaying with C#, tickling T-SQL, or flirting with Firefox, it would be recorded.  But it couldn't last.  You see, it turned out to be no fun at all to replay your life a week or two (or three or four) after the fact and try to translate it into hours and tasks.  And I still ended up looking at chat records, emails, and source control commits.  There was less chance I'd miss something.  But I still felt something was missing. 

I have another confession.  Over the last year, I've spent some time with SlimtimerBroken Link: http://www.slimtimer.com/.  She was so young and lean and well... you seemed so outdated and...  bloated.  But I didn't like how she made me tell her the exact time (down to the second!) that I started and finished a task.  Sometimes things just aren't so linear.  She seemed very rigid that way, and I broke it off.

But recently, I found myself thinking about her again.  I peeked in on her from time to time, and would track a task or two for old time's sake.  In our conversations, I realized I had been a little too harsh on her.  She told me I didn't have to use her timer features, if they didn't suit me.  I was surprised.  "But your name is Slimtimer!"  She looked at me seductively and asked, "What's in a name?"

And then she whispered something to me that made my hair stand on end.  "Besides... I have an API.  If you're clever, you can use me any way you want."

How could I resist?

To be continued...