I’m considering taking another shot at using Beeminder to directly track my work time. I work from home and have a lot of flexibility with my job, so it falls to me to make sure I put in the time.
In the past I created a goal that directly tracked hours / week, but this ended up being a super stressful goal which I ended up derailng on. I have a few theories as to why:
I had other issues that were making it difficult for me to get in the hours that I wasn’t adequately addressing.
My slope was initially too high.
My stakes were too low.
I’m not 100% sure any of these are right.
Since then I’ve tried a goal based entirely on daily commitments, which you all helped me to develop here:
It’s been quite helpful, but it really only helps on the day-to-day basis. By design it doesn’t really care about the big picture, only that I stick to whatever I’ve committed to for that day.
I’m considering adding an additional goal(s?) to help keep me on track with the larger picture.
This weekend my wife and I moved to a new apartment where I now have my own office (yay!).
A few days before the move, I stumbled upon some advice in a Lifehacker article that it’s very important for remote workers to keep a schedule, even if their job doesn’t require it. Having a room of my own makes keeping a work schedule a lot more doable.
So I’m struggling to think through what goals I should be creating and how I should be structuring my remote work time. So far things I’ve thought of:
Beemind clock-in
Beemind clock-out
Beemind time spent on lunch break
Beemind hours directly
Do some combination of the above
How should I be thinking about this? What have you guys found works for you?
I beemind tasks completed on various fronts but also hours works via RescueTime on various goals
overall productive hours
hours spent on Big Project A
hours spent on Big Project B
hours spent on Big Project C (yeah, I have a lot of different fronts to keep in sight)
hours spent on mobile (keeping it low aids all the other goals)
The rate of each goal will vary from time to time so a monthly review is usually done for the rates.
Now, if you think that schedule is important (and it can be depending on your lifestyle choices/goals), you should definitely beemind that. RescueTime does have a feature where you put your “office hours” and it shows you if you are working outside of them or not. But I’m not sure Beeminder reads any of that.
