I can’t be bothered to remember most things. Actually, I just flat out forget almost everything that I don’t fail-proof. So when trying to figure out how to track my billable hours to clients, I was always forgetting to write down what I had been working on, or attach hours to a client. So, I wrote a simple script that pops up every hour between 9 am and 6 pm that asks me what I’ve been working on. It then appends that entry to a .csv file and saves it. I don’t have to remember to do anything.
Every hour, I write down what Action, how many Hours, which Client, and any Tags or Descriptions for the work I’ve done. If I haven’t done any work, I just hit cancel and it goes away. Then, at the end of the month, I Have an easily sortable file with all my hours, billable or not. (I recommend you tag non-billable hours as such if still assigned to a client).
Here are two screenshots, one of the reminder and one of the file it creates.
You can download the Mac only script here. (sorry PC)
DailyLog Generator
You’ll also have to schedule it somehow. I use CronniX for my scheduling needs.
http://www.abstracture.de/projects-en/cronnix
And here’s a screenshot of my settings.
Hope this helps anyone out there, let me know if it does…
ps. Due to my serious lack of GeekFu, I am not able to offer any help with this script. It is provided As-Is. Feel free to improve upon it if you like, or ask for others to help you. Please let me know if you make it any better.
Cheers!
Justin Kistner
October 3rd, 2006
You know I need help with this stuff. Nice find, man!
I have to admit, I get a small joy that it doesn’t work on PCs. ;)
Web Worker Daily » Blog Archive Time Tracking Solutions … A Roundup «
October 19th, 2006
[...] One popular solution was the popular project tool Basecamp and its open-source clone activeCollab. Stunt Software’s On The Job was recommended for Mac users, and made our recent list of great Mac productivity apps. Another Mac user even offered his own custom time tracking script after reading the post and getting inspired! [...]
Collection of Time Tracking Tools : Jason Ruyle
October 23rd, 2006
[...] Mac Tracking Tool (custom script) [...]
Steve H.
November 28th, 2007
I can’t tell you how long I’ve looked for something simple like this — I used to use an AIX-based tool to do the same thing only using 30 minute intervals. It’s easy, I can edit the file for more thorough notes and I can mail myself the file at some specified time (like Friday’s EOB)! Many thanks. Would you be willing to share the source? I’d like to record the time of day as well as the date; keep more of a running diary.
jason
November 29th, 2007
@Steve H.
Unfortunately, I had a digital house fire a while back, and no longer have the source code for it. I remember that it wasn’t incredibly difficult to make with action script, as I’m a complete idiot when it comes to scripting, yet I was still able to figure it out.
I’ve also since gotten a day job, and don’t track my freelance hours as closely as I used to.
Best of luck…
Jason