Comments on: Simple Job Tracking For Freelance Writers (or, Maybe Paper is Better)

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 18:12:30 +0000

Not only is this great for tracking your jobs, but it can be applied to nearly everything as a handy way to keep track of how your time is spend (and look for ways to become more efficient with it).
Richard´s last blog ..How To MIG Weld: A Guide To MIG Welding Techniques

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 11:44:43 +0000

Here’s one more time tracking tool for the task:

http://www.timemanagementrocks.com/

By: On the Money

On the Money — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 20:58:50 +0000

…. Ha! Teach me not to read the very end of the post!!! Thanks … am downloading now!!!

By: On the Money

On the Money — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 20:57:45 +0000

Upload and post a template for us???

8-)

By: Corey Frisbee

Corey Frisbee — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:46:33 +0000

Thanks for the info!

By: John Soares

John Soares — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 14:00:34 +0000

I do all of this in a 8″x10″ notebook, and it has all my projects for the last 10 years.

In addition to the info you have in your spreadsheet, I also add the name of the person I worked with, when I requested payment, and when payment arrived.

The payment request and received dates are especially important. I primarily work for college textbook publishers; they always pay, but sometimes I have to prod them to do it. I wait eight weeks after the initial request before sending a reminder.

By: Roberta Rosenberg

Roberta Rosenberg — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 23:17:22 +0000

I use a client code and project number and a file folder for each job. 213-01, 244-06 for example. Pretty low tech but it works.

And forget billing? Not a chance :)

By: Graham Strong

Graham Strong — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:35:44 +0000

Another Russian pencil for you.

I love these low tech ideas. I use a similar job organizing system, with a folder on my computer for every project. Still relying on my memory to ascertain whether or not I’ve billed someone, etc. — but I’m already finding that my brain works shorter and shorter days…

I’ll give this a try and see how it works. Thanks Tom!

~Graham

By: Tom Chandler

Tom Chandler — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:28:21 +0000

Vadim: Those look like nice time tracking solutions, but my simple paper-based process is simply a fast, easy way to identify and track jobs.

I tracked my time on projects for several years to get a sense for how long projects really required (and yes, there were some surprises, especially among the jobs I thought I was doing on a “fast and dirty” basis), but thankfully, not any more.

By: Vadim P.

Vadim P. — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:44:07 +0000

I like automatic solutions more.

Ones I know of are:
- Klok: http://klok.mcgraphix.com/klok/index.htm
- Hamster applet: http://tombuntu.com/index.php/2008/08/08/hamster-time-tracking-for-gnome/
- RestueTime: http://www.rescuetime.com/

… but thankfully, since I don’t need to do such a thing, I don’t use any.