Watching the clock

At work there have been some orginazational shufflings, and a change in the attitudes people are taking toward reaching business goals. That's the fancy business-speak way of saying our team has a new manager. Our new manager, and the management above him, need to know what's going on with their groups below. To help them with this, we're now keeping track of our time.

I used to have to track my time at NPI so that we could bill clients appropriately, and while it wasn't the worst thing in the world, it was certainly a chore. I was happy to be rid of it when I changed jobs and started working in the XOC. Working on the tools team came with similar liberation. While I had to estimate my time, and produce things on deadlines, things were still loose. This time around, however, there are a couple of differences that I think make it much less painful. First, our method for entering time is a lot less complicated, and easier to get to. Just load a web page, and add a row to a data table. There aren't a lot of weird lookups or codes to memorize. (Not like my Siemens timecard! That thing is a direct line into the heart of an accounting system that is probably used by some small European nations to manage their GDP budgets.) I think a large helping factor is the fact that I'm a bit older, now. I'm a little less easily distracted (if you can belie
ve it), a little slower and more careful, a little more forethoughtful about what happens next. I'm doing a little less flailing, and a bit more skillful execution. Oh, and I have a PM telling me what to work on. :) I'll bet that helps a lot.

Painful or not, it's always an eye opener when you break down your day into 15 minute blocks and keep track of what you're ACTUALLY doing. I'm a fan of "administrative overhead" and team meetings. :)