Tracking Your Time in 3 Easy Steps

As simple as it sounds, time tracking is one of the most difficult tasks for a lot of freelancers, either because they don’t know the right way to do it or because they don’t see the value in it. But time tracking is a vital part of this business and it’s a lot easier than you think. 

Ah, Mom, Do I Have To?

Yes. You have to. Why?

1. To help you learn to give accurate estimates on other similar projects (that aren’t so low you make no money or so high you scare them away)
2. To help you manage your time and agree to reasonable deadlines when working on multiple projects
3. To ensure your business actually makes money (because the starving artist thing is so 1980s)

You see, as freelance professionals, we’re paid for our experience and the value we bring to a project—in addition to the actual work product. Whether we’re writers, designers or developers, we’re first and foremost consultants (experts). Our actual work product, be it an article or a website, isn’t only the result of the actual physical act of creating it on the computer. It’s the cumulative result of our knowledge and experience. Unlike people who sell widgets and doo-dads by the unit, we have to quantify the contribution we make to our clients’ projects in hours. The more knowledge and experience we have, the more we charge per unit (per hour). The more hours we work, the more of our knowledge and experience is being put to use on their project, the more the client should pay. [I mean, if you got an oversized box of 50 widgets for $50 and I got the same size box filled with 500 widgets for $50, you wouldn’t think that was fair, would you?]

Now, I know some of you work on a per-project basis. I do that when I can, too. But it’s not always an option. Even when it is, you need to track your hours the way people who sell products track production expenses. If the price of bolts, screws and washers goes up too much, they may find that they’ve lost too much, if not all, of the profit. The same is true of your hours. If you had to turn down or put off another project because of a client who underpaid you (because you underquoted them), you lost money. If you track your hours, you won’t make that mistake again next time.

A word of caution about a common trap. Some freelancers think they can just estimate their time after the fact. It’s a rare freelancer indeed who can do that with the necessary level of accuracy. Did you really account for every phone call, bathroom break or sudden urge to hop on Twitter? When you’ve been doing this for a while, you can probably slack off now and again or be a little more lenient. But when you’re first starting out or if you’ve never tracked your time before, you should take the time to do it right. It’s going to be an adjustment and it will take a little time until you get used to it, but the more accurate your tracking, the better off you are in the long run. 

Step 1: Gather Your Tools

The first thing you’ll need is a way to track your time. There are a lot of ways to do it, so just choose the option that feels most comfortable to you. I use a program called Time Tracker for Mac, which I highly recommend.  Google Gadgets also has several stopwatch-style time-tracking programs or you can download one online. Some invoicing programs (online or software) have time trackers built in. If all else fails, you can use a stopwatch to keep your time and a spreadsheet to record your data (obviously, a clock works just as well, but I find the stopwatch-style tracking is a lot more convenient).

Step 2: Deciding What to Track

What specific data you track is dependent on a number of factors, including your specific role (writer, designer, etc.), the types of questions you’re likely to be asked, and your fee structure. At this point, it’s important to recognize the difference between billable time and non-billable time. Setting your rates is another blog altogether, but for now, just know that tracking non-billable time (i.e., administrative tasks like billing) could also be important. Track that time separately. You’ll also want to separately track tasks for which you charge different rates (research vs. writing, for example). 

Your tracking method can be as simple or as complex as you’d like, but the more data you collect, the better off you’ll be. I track each customer separately, as some clients simply allow you to work more quickly than others. I separately track each type of project (by name, i.e., “Cosmetic Surgery brochure”). I charge the same rate for research as for writing, so I include research time with writing time. I track administrative tasks separately by week (with no differentiation between what project it’s for or which client&mdash:I’m just trying to determine how much time I spend doing it overall). You may want to track certain clients’ admin separately if you believe you may be spending a little too much time supporting them administratively. You may need to solve that problem to ensure you don’t lose money.

Step 3: Tracking Your Time

Each time you begin a project, start your clock. Stop your clock each time you take a break, answer the phone, or when you’re finished. It’s important to get into the habit of doing this each and every time.  Before you move on to another project, record the time you spend on the current project. (My time tracker eliminates this step, as I can set up my projects under different clients and keep them as long as I want.) At the end of a given period, you might have something like this.

If it helps you stay organized, you can add space for project details, invoice numbers, etc. But even something this simple can give you confidence when quoting hours or prices. And the more data you have, the more accurate it will become. As I’m sure you’ve guessed, it also helps to analyze why it took a certain amount of time, especially if you have data that doesn’t seem to match other projects. Did you have to do more research than usual on that project? Was your client disorganized or unfamiliar with being involved with a creative? Did you have to report to more/fewer people than usual? Were you working for a new client whose company you were less familiar with? Understanding the why will lead to more accurate quoting, as well. 

From this data, we can see that it takes John a little over three hours to write a brochure, so he should quote three to four hours as a general rule. It took quite a bit longer for Mega Corp’s brochure, but Mega Corp probably has more stakeholders to consult (possibly including lawyers, who tend to get nitpicky if what you write could get their client sued). We can see that it takes John around an hour to write a single page of webcopy (probably depending upon how much information has to be communicated). So for a five-page site, he should quote four to six hours, but he might want to add a few hours if he’s asked by a company similar to Mega Corp.

What Do We Know Now?

Now that you know how to track your time, when the next client asks you how long it takes to write a press release, you can refer to similar past projects and quote with confidence. If you haven’t had enough time to really talk with the client and fully assess their needs, I’d always advise a disclaimer about research, excessive rewrites or other unknown quantities adding hours. And truthfully, even if they like the quote you gave them, I wouldn’t begin work until you’re sure you really have all the information.

One last point. It’s important to understand that often, that call you get is a legitimate client feeling out several freelancers. She just needs a baseline to further narrow her search and refusing or being unable to give a quote on the fly could take you out of the running. But you should never feel pressured to give a firm quote on the phone or with little or no information. When you get that uncomfortable feeling in the pit of your stomach that a client is being less the genuine, listen to your instincts.

Your Flux Capacitor is Showing

Ah, the good ol’ Flux Capacitor, that opus creation of Dr. Emmett Brown, enabling an ordinary DeLorean to travel through time in a flash of fire and light. Only one problem — it doesn’t exist. They made it up.

When your writing is intended to sell or explain a product or service, that kind of creativity can backfire. Your audience knows who’s in charge – and it isn’t you. They’ll change the channel or hit the “delete” or “back” button the instant they decide they have no interest in what you’re trying to say. And this is where flux capacitors can get you into trouble.

When you’re trying to connect with your audience (and ultimately, get them to buy from you), every word or phrase has to be carefully crafted and considered. You have to decide what you’re trying to make them take away and then say it in no uncertain terms. It doesn’t matter how clever a turn of phrase is if it makes your reader stop reading. By now, you have to be wondering what flux capacitors have to do with copywriting. Think of it in terms of someone who’s never seen Back to the Future. “What’s a flux capacitor? Sure, it sounds like a real word, but what does it have to do with me? Am I stupid? Behind the times? Or is this email newsletter just not intended for me?” *Delete*

What’s That Buzzing Noise?

Sometimes, flux capacitors come in the form of buzzwords. The problem with buzzwords is that half the time they’re so overused they lose all real meaning and the other half, they’re not words your audience would have any reason to know (industry-specific terms, for instance).

For example, a lot of my business clients really like the phrase “outside the box.” It’s one I’m frequently asked to work into their project. But, it’s hard to work that into the copy when nothing they’re doing really is “outside the box.” If you say it’s “outside the box” and it’s not, you’ve lost all credibility. And to be sure, others have used it so often when it’s not true, some readers dismiss that phrase altogether, so it may even be a bad idea when your concept really is “outside the box.”

This is pretty common when people try to integrate their favorite marketing- or business-related buzzwords into their advertising copy. In general, if any word you’re using sounds too much like “marketing speak” or fits in any way shape or form into a well-crafted human resources goal matrix, you should reconsider (unless those are the audiences you’re targeting). And if your 12-year-old has no idea what you mean by…

our solution will create synergy within your customer-centric paradigms, increasing core competency and accountability management  with incremental learning metrics and outside-the-box approaches to…” (you get the picture)

…neither will most of your target audience. They may not be 12, but they don’t have all day to work out your flowchart of modifiers and adjuncts, either. (And is it just me, or does that not actually mean anything?)

Alien Nation

Sometimes you can lose readers by using language they just don’t know. They may be perfectly legitimate words. They aren’t hateful or biased words. They’re just words that most people don’t use in their daily vocabulary. Maybe it’s a word you found when you looked up “teamwork” in the thesaurus and found “synergy” and thought that would make you sound really smart. Maybe it’s a word you use frequently because of your familiarity with a particular industry (e.g., ROI, parse, ratline).

For example, I have one client who really likes the word “cadre.” He uses it frequently in communications with long-time colleagues. There’s nothing wrong with that word in general. It has a very specific meaning with connotations you can’t often find with similar words or phrases like “crew” or “work force.” A majority of his long-time contacts have a similar background, so they all know what he means.

However, it has a distinctly military connotation overall. Indeed, as a Vietnam veteran, that’s likely where he added that phrase to his daily vocabulary. Unfortunately, it probably means very little to most people in his more general target audience. Had we used that word on his website, he probably would’ve lost a large portion of his audience as they either a) went to a more customer-friendly website for the information they needed or b) rushed off to Dictionary.com to look it up and realized they must be on the wrong website if a military term is being tossed around. Think of all the lost potential sales!

Don’t Dumb it Down, Just Simplify

The best advice here is to keep it simple and use the same words you’d use if you were explaining your job or company to an outsider (because you are). Don’t get fancy with your thesaurus and the vocabulary words from your advanced aviation class. Just talk to people in a language they understand. There’s no need to dumb it down. People just don’t have time to painstakingly read every single thing trying to find the relevant information (and there are other devices to help with that, but we’ll discuss that in another blog). Simplifying won’t make you relevant if you’re not, but it will give you a shot at the people who really need you.

Writing in Red Ink

I won’t lie. When I became a freelance writer, I had delusions of grandeur. I imagined myself sitting on the beach with my laptop and a Mai-Tai. I’d spend a few hours writing major television campaigns for thousands of dollars then move to the next vacation spot and the next well-paying client. By now, my fellow seasoned freelancers have probably snorted* your beverages of choice all over your keyboards (sorry).

The reality of freelancing is much different. Now you’re a business. You’re not just the talent, anymore; you’re the marketer, the salesperson, the bookkeeper, the receptionist and the janitor (among other things). Being a freelancer is hard work. Running a business is hard work – which brings me to the purpose of this blog…

In an ideal world, you’d hire experts to do everything for you. All businesspeople would have a writer and writers would have bookkeepers and business advisors and receptionists (etc.). But we don’t live in an ideal world and sometimes you need a little help to DIY. In this blog, I’ll post about:

• Writing (for pros, laypeople and everyone in between)
• Working effectively with creative professionals (since they seemed to have skipped that class in most MBA programs)
• Business tips for creative professionals
• Handy (or just plain fun) technology and gadgets for freelancers, independents and small businesses

This blog is for creative freelancers and independent and small business professionals (or anyone else who’s interested in the information). The primary goal is to give you useful, practical, executable advice to help you make your business grow (and hopefully, to entertain you).

If you have any specific topics you’d like to see me address (or just want to drop me a line), send me an email at heather@writinginredink.com.

*Editor’s Note: I have to say, when I started working on my blog, I never imagined I’d use the word “snorted” in my first post.