I always had to track my time while working at the IGDA. Both as a way to better understand where my limited time was being spent, and for tax reporting reasons (ie, my salary was allocated across different line items (admin vs. programs vs. marketing, etc)).

This habit has come in handy now that I’m a freelance consultant. I not only track time spent on specific projects/clients, but also my overall work related activities. This chart graphs time percentages since I became freelance in April 2009 to the end of the year.

work hours from 2009

A few comments:

  • Wow, so little time is actually spent on client work (aka “billable hours”). Not sure what the norm is…
  • A lot of things overlap, like speaking at a conference and writing an article could also count towards business development and/or marketing.
  • Feels like I don’t spend enough time doing business development, and way too little time on marketing/communications…
  • Happy that “email” is not too high. My email time at IGDA was nearly 50%. FYI, this is random email and time spent clearing my inbox. Any project specific email would count as consulting time, for example.
  • Sad to lose 13% of my time to travel, though that is when I do most of my reading…
  • I still co-chair the IGDA-Montreal chapter. I always treated that as volunteer effort, even when I was working for IGDA proper. 5% feels right/realistic to me…
  • Good to see “admin” stuff is not distracting me much.

Alright, will be interesting to see how the numbers play out in 2010 as I attempt to do more bizdev+marcom.