When working on a project for an employer, it’s standard to record the number of hours you spend on it each day. While this may be helpful for getting paid, it has no benefit to the planning of your future projects. A more efficient strategy is to track how long each individual task on a project takes, and then place those tasks into larger categories.
For example, instead of saying it will take 6 hours to build a prototype of a website, break down the project tasks into specific categories — designing, coding, testing and fixing. Then, record each task you perform and assign it to one of the categories you’ve created. At the end of the project you will have an accurate log of how long each activity took and which part of the project was most time consuming. This log will serve as a great tool for assessing your next project, as well as a reminder to your manger that fixing can take twice as long as coding.
When you accurately measure how long each part of a project takes, you reduce the risk of getting behind schedule or going over budget on future projects, which, in turn, allows you to get more things done.
