Time-Tracking

[abracanabra]

My continuing efforts to figure out what I want to do, how long I think it will take, and how long it actually does (or what I do instead).


Goal/Activity | Estimated Time | Clock | Actual Time
Breakfast/grooming/check squirrels | didn't estimate--and didn't plan on squirrels | 7:45 - 9:00 | 1 hour 15 min
Squirrely things | didn't estimate | 9:00 - 9:30 | 30 minutes
Freewriting/Writing Log/Nano WriMo | 30 min | 9:44 - 10:28 | 44 min
Misc writing stuff | 1 hr | 10:30 - 11:00 | 30 minutes (but didn't finish)
Pick up project from work and code | 2 hrs 45 min (total) | 11:00 - 12:50 | 1 hr 50 min (pick up only)
(Bused to downtown, returned books to the library, biked to work, picked up CD, biked all the way home, stopping at Taco Bell en route to pick up lunch)
Ate lunch | didn't estimate | 12:50 - 1:45 | 55 minutes (and seriously, what's up with how long it takes me to eat a meal?)
Finish day job project | 2 hrs 45 min (total) | 1:50 - 3:40 | 1 hr 50 min (work only--total 3 hrs 40 min)
Plan and cook dinner, clean kitchen and dishes, and eat | didn't estimate | 3:40 - 7:08 | 3 hrs 28 min (agh!)
Paperwork | 30 min | 7:08 - 8:00 | 52 minutes
Knee exercises (stretches and icing only)| 1 hr | 8:00 - 9:31 | 1 hr 31 min
Paperwork | still 30 min| 9:40 - 10:40 | another hr
Documentation! | didn't estimate | 10:40 - 10:51 | 11 min

Conclusion: I need to cook/clean/eat faster. Also, i may need to cut down on the things I consider paperwork. (Right now that includes things like adding stuff I like from a catalog to my wish list, adding recipes to my recipe file, paying bills [not optional], recording medical expenses, recording books borrowed/returned--that sort of thing.)

Comments

[discoflamingo.livejournal.com]

You may want to look at a book by Watts Humphrey called "Personal Software Process", which has pretty much nothing to do with software and a hell of a lot to do with estimating the time it takes to do things and determining your own statistical biases towards estimation and execution. It was the baseline plan for the Six Sigma for Software Developers courses I had to take once upon a time - you've heard of Six Sigma before . . .

[cloudscudding.livejournal.com]

Heard of it? Hell, I've heard it. Had to listen to it all on speakers while Phil was learning it.

Thanks though, I'll look that book up.