4 ms·

I've been there. Maybe not 5 hours a week but certainly 10. I was in a small company that got acquired, and the organizational bloat really killed my productivi

I've been there. Maybe not 5 hours a week but certainly 10. I was in a small company that got acquired, and the organizational bloat really killed my productivity. Having to deal with paperwork for payroll and pointless meetings was a distraction from the actual work. I think this contributed to a creeping burnout, which led to me actually working 10 to 25 (tops) hours per week for maybe a year or two. Eventually I was put on a performance improvement plan and I decided to quit to take some time off. After ~5 months off I started working as a contractor (for one employer) which has made me realize getting 35 hours of actual work done in a week is a Herculean task for me. I only run my time tracker when I'm actually working, and in a week I might have 2 to 4 hours of meetings, and through pushing myself, can get 15 to 30 hours of work done. It's pretty rough, I'm not going to lie, and I don't understand how so many people can regularly work more than 40 hours a week (but I was also on medication for ADHD as a child and currently not treating it, so I understand I may operate differently than most people) Basically to get 35 hours per week of work done, I have no life now other than trying to work. Fortunately it's not the end of the world if I only get 25 hours, though it's not great for my savings.

andrew_lvov 5y ago
Could I ask you how old are you ?
- pcthrowaway 5y ago
  mid 30s
karmajunkie 5y ago
when i was contracting i had this same epiphany. the trick is to double your rate and halve your hours. then you don’t feel guilty about not being uber productive and ironically the clients listen to you more because they’re paying more for it. edit: also wanted to say that billable hours are NOT the same as working hours, pretty much for all the reasons outlined elsewhere in this post. so don’t beat yourself up about it. just work the system.
shinryuu 5y ago
Rather than charging per hour start charging per day. Your client will get the output of a day's worth of work that will include your necessary breaks. That should make it easier for you.
CRConrad 5y ago
> I only run my time tracker when I'm actually working, and in a week I might have 2 to 4 hours of meetings Are the meetings mandatory for getting your work done? If not, skip them. (If you're tempted to reply "I can't", they're mandatory.) If they are, they're work, so run your timer. Same goes for a lot of other stuff you're probably doing and not timing.
- pcthrowaway 5y ago
  Maybe I wasn't clear, but I'm definitely billing for the meeting time. They're absolutely mandatory as that's generally when we talk about requirements and challenges
  - CRConrad 5y ago
    Ah, good. Yeah, the sentence about time tracking was a bit ambiguous; "meetings" and "work" could apparently be read as opposites... At least it seems I did.

andrew_lvov 5y ago

Could I ask you how old are you ?

pcthrowaway 5y ago
mid 30s

karmajunkie 5y ago

when i was contracting i had this same epiphany. the trick is to double your rate and halve your hours. then you don’t feel guilty about not being uber productive and ironically the clients listen to you more because they’re paying more for it. edit: also wanted to say that billable hours are NOT the same as working hours, pretty much for all the reasons outlined elsewhere in this post. so don’t beat yourself up about it. just work the system.

shinryuu 5y ago

Rather than charging per hour start charging per day. Your client will get the output of a day's worth of work that will include your necessary breaks. That should make it easier for you.

CRConrad 5y ago

> I only run my time tracker when I'm actually working, and in a week I might have 2 to 4 hours of meetings Are the meetings mandatory for getting your work done? If not, skip them. (If you're tempted to reply "I can't", they're mandatory.) If they are, they're work, so run your timer. Same goes for a lot of other stuff you're probably doing and not timing.

pcthrowaway 5y ago
Maybe I wasn't clear, but I'm definitely billing for the meeting time. They're absolutely mandatory as that's generally when we talk about requirements and challenges
- CRConrad 5y ago
  Ah, good. Yeah, the sentence about time tracking was a bit ambiguous; "meetings" and "work" could apparently be read as opposites... At least it seems I did.