Cloudbacon

Be Merry, Track Your Time

2012-02-08T20:44:24Z

Although somewhat of an anal sport, time tracking and time tracking software is often times taken for granted by most folks. Even freelancers, the people who live and die by their output, all judged on a per hour basis, sometimes neglect the need of quality time tracking. Hopefully this rant will make even the deepest salary ridden fool think twice when it comes to skimping on starting that timer.

Software is Dum

It really is true. I hadn't thought about it until now, but there is a possibility that you could time yourself with a stop watch (IN IRL!!) and record each section onto some spreadsheet. Just let that sit in. Uh, and I am 99 percent positive that some people still do it this way. Don't fret though, there are some quality alternatives.

Rescue Time: Sits in the background and tracks time spent on websites, documents, etc. Focus mode blocks you from distracting websites. Rescue time is great to guage how distracted you are during the course of a day.
Slim timer: Currently my staycation. Lean, simple timer that leans heavily on a robust and easy to understand tagging system.
Cashboard: Full featured web client that even takes payments. Much more than just time tracking.
Harvest: Elephant in the room. Harvest has been around for quite some time and has a product that is polished and a joy to use. In addition, they have a dedicated iPhone app.
Toggl: On the same lines as Cashboard. Large project with a responsive design that works well if you mentally split up everything by client, project, tag, workspace etc.
Freckle: A gorgeous and fun app written with the idea that all software should be cheerful and a joy to use. Freckle takes the top design award out of the bunch. In addition, it is written, designed and marketed by the genius power- duo: Amy and Thomas at Slash7.

That's it? Yeah well, this is just a little snippet of what is out there in terms of web based software. Get your feet wet, find something that fits your lifestyle and then jump to the next section.

User Error

Since all of the above software has some form of payment attached to its use, how does anyone get what they pay for? First ask yourself, are you using it? Aside from RescueTime, all of the options above have an elegant and simple way to export tasks into a csv format for billing. Keyword here being "export".

There is always (most of the time) the ability to type in a start and end date for a project. However, this is usually a crap-shoot, which means, if you haven't been keeping up, you are undervaluing yourself. All that billable work that is getting completed but, no one is getting paid. Because someone has timer, "baby" issues.

It's true. In almost every case, the software comes bundled with a timer that you can start once you begin working on a project, and stop when you are finished. This is a much more acurate rendition of the work. The freelancer is no longer stiffing himself that hour, and he has a much more accurate view of how long it takes him or her to complete a givien task. Now we are getting paid more AND we are 100% better when it comes to estimating? BRILLIANT!

Don't be scared to start that timer. For one, it isn't going to start its self, nor is it ever going to be exact unless you do.

Less Boring Shit != More Anal

Best headline ever, personally. Anyway, so now that we have a crazy easy and somewhat scary system put into place to time work, why on earth would we use it outside of the specific domain? To become a time tracking uber elite, (they are listed next to the grep uber-elite folks) time tracking must be an integral part of everything you do.

How much time did I spend on Hacker News yesterday? Well shit, let me fire up Slim Timer and run a report for you. General RSS and blog reading, blog formulation, Mr. Pregnant, ALL of it should be tracked. You are not a fun sponge if you track how much time you "faffe off" on Fbook and Youtube all day. Everytime the timer starts and it isn't timing a piece of creation, a small piece of us know that we need to get back on track.

The pain will subside, but promise yourself that you will track every activity that is important or that you want to do less of, or that you want to get paid more for doing...or whatever. Just start that timer and then proceed to do loads of awesome shit. We certainly could use more "awesome shit" VS useless Reddit posts about how to be an American and or a minimalist.

Inherit The World

2012-02-05T17:25:59Z

At times of change, the learners are the ones who inherit the world, while the knowers will be beautifully prepared for a world which no longer exists.
-- Allistair Smith

Rolling SOPA Blackouts

2012-01-18T14:05:39Z

As you, the informed Internet user may know, today, the 18th of January, is officially: "Blackout from SOPA day". Sites like Reddit, Wikipedia, and Boing Boing will take the day off, and presumably binge (not to be confused with "Bing" the insanely sub-popular search engine who, I guess could give a fuck due to their in-involvement) drink until they passout. Please take a little time out of your day to contact a senate robot and instruct them to hit the "red" button when this bill comes back around.

You can read the "official" text or you can enjoy a video by Alexis Ohanian if you are currently unable to comprehend words. Please, please, please, do something to protest this egregious piece of legislation! Be informed, make great decisions and do something to help keep free speech on teh interwebz. Also blacklist any and all of these companies for the next 60 years.

Summary of Potential Readers

2012-01-18T02:18:11Z

I recently wrote a fascinating post on the probability of people's reading skills. With any social inibility comes a good entrepreneur looking to capitalize. Enter some some 16 year old and a summary sheet. His idea? The ability to summarize text using "clever" algorithms.

Why would allowing people to easily ingest reams of information be a bad thing? Well it isn't until we become too reliant on the technology. And we as a people would, because it's easy and endorphins are fun...and make us giddy. We, as readers lose the ability to think critically because we don't need to, we have algorithms for that. From there we find reading comments difficult because we need to parse more than a few things together in order to devise the scope of the entire conversation. Reading...it's a bitch.

Yet, that's the whole point, it's hard. Writing is as well, just take the time to read a few blog posts around here. In addition, how old is Ben Grubb, who is apparently the "author" of the article? He looks he's about 2 years short of sprouting his first pubic hair. Man, how I wish I had that level of technology access when I was these kid's ages. Kudos to them, they will be absolutely ripping when they finally hit puberty.

Flinch For Your Life

2012-01-05T16:05:05Z

How many times during the day do you think that you flinch? Well, lets change that around a bit. How man times a day do you put yourself into a situation where you might flinch? We, as the inhabitants of the "US" love security. Nice houses, confy jobs where we sit behind a computer and appear to be doing quality, work. What has all of this confort given us? Better health? Nope, better retirement? Definitely not. What then?

Nothing actually. The equation is really quite simple (10-30 somethings) == (a bunch of video-game players). Even NPR...well ok, the really cool guys at Freakonomics Radio are making quips at the youth and their love of video games. Without experienceing situations that scare us how can we grow mentally and physically? Julien Smith's new book: Flinch answers this very question.

Julien is definitely onto something with the idea of shortcircuiting our cronic avoidance of fear. If, like our gag reflex, we could increase our abilities to withstand difficult situations, what would this world look like? What do you think? The book is free on amazon (kindle) and worth the 3 seconds it will take you to click on the buy now button. Seriously, go read it...if you can