Analog time
Winkletter • 14 Jan 2022 •
I feel a little silly sometimes as I fill out my time card. I’m punching in twice each day as I sit down to write for myself. But really, shouldn’t I be able to keep this schedule without writing my times down on a physical object?
At work we’ve had to start sending in emails each day with time records. Time clocks are working, but the web interface for remote workers is still down from that Log4j exploit. Management asked us to start sending screenshots of our Windows clock which just seems like the silliest proof of work. Even though I have no interest in cheating I immediately starting listing off ways to circumvent that check.
But it’s easier to just capture the screenshot at the right time.
My time card is a bit silly in this way, too. I could cheat, but it makes it more explicit. It would be so much easier to cheat myself out of this time if I didn’t track my writing sessions.
Comments
Time management for remote work is rather silly. The same concept shows up in meetings where some people insist on taking roll call before every meeting.
@therealbrandonwilson Every meeting should have a timer that displays the collective time being wasted. timeElapsed * countOfParticipants
@Winkletter Add to that the calculation of employee salaries to show the dollars wasted.
@Winkletter Having a physical artefact for habit formation is a great hack. I remember that story that James Clear shared about someone who had 2 jars—1 empty and another with a pre-set number of paper clips—on his work desk, with each clip representing 1 task. His job every day was to move all the clips over to the other jar. I loved that story. I try to do that as much as I can too. I keep a daily $2 jar now for my money habits/daily affirmations.