It’s fair to say that for most developers timesheets are a necessary evil. I get why companies want their employees to fill them out. It shouldn’t be a chore though. I have worked for a number of companies and some wanted timesheets being submitted and some didn’t so I’ve seen both sides of the coin.

With context switching between different projects/tasks sometimes keeping track of what you are doing to submit to timesheets is painful. Many years ago I used to use my notepad. Keeping track of start and finish times of the day and then calculate the hours for each task. I look back at it now and think it was madness!

After a couple of roles which didn’t require timesheets and then moving to one which did I continued to keep notes of my time. This was either in my notebook or on post-it notes. This was not ideal.

Enter the pandemic!

Working from home full time I needed a way to a) keep track of my time and b) not need the use of paper which is a waste of resources.

I knew I needed a digital way of tracking my time and after doing a bit of research I came across Clockify (https://clockify.me/).

Disclaimer: I am not associated with Clockify or sponsored by Clockify. They didn’t know I was going to write this post.

It wasn’t however a golden bullet. It took a while for me to get into the swing of starting the timer when I started work, chose a different task when I changed tasks etc. however over time it made life so much easier.

After creating a few new projects/tasks, depending on your requirements, it’s really easy to get going. My workflow involves having it open as a pinned tab in my Chrome instance and start/stop the timer, change of task etc. by just going to the tab, clicking a button and returning to my work. It takes seconds to switch and easy to edit if you forget (which I still do from time to time).

The improved usage of the data isn’t while you’re working but when it comes to entering your timesheet at the end of the week. You don’t have to try and think about what you’ve done that week. Load up your companies timesheet system and add the values it sums up for you. Job done. It takes me seconds during the week to accumulate the data and less than 2 mins to fill in my timesheet at the end. Simples.

Why am I writing this post? I want you dear reader to think and use your time wisely.

What are your thoughts on timesheets? Love them? Hate them?