So I stumbled across Twitter today. It’s kind of like a Micro-blogging site where you write little blurbs to let your friends know what you’re up to. What I really like is how you can use your cell phone and IM. So you can update your status and receive updates from friends with mobile connectivity.
What if in addition to quick messages, you could flag what kind of activities you are doing - i.e. work or non work. When I work for myself I use a similar time tracking tool to try to optimize my time spent working. The application I used would let me flag my current working state (i.e. working, goofing off, or eating) throughout the day. At the end of the day I could then see what % of my day was actual work.
What’s the value of having all this information online? First off - I don’t see this as an evil “time sheet-micro management tool for jerk bosses” but as a tool freelancers can use to check themselves. We are all online through out our work day - perhaps having some proof that you put in solid hours of work while having unlimited distractions would look good on a resume.
Have you ever worked in public - or with a group of people close by? I notice that when I’m coding on my laptop at say a coffee shop I stay on task mostly because of all the peeping eyes around me. Maybe that could be some incentive to keep you working hard - the peeping eyes of all your friends. We need to get smart at how we use our time - especially if you are a freelancer and are tight on time. Not only that, we are supposed to have lives right? Why spend 8-10 hours a day at 60% efficiency when you can work 6 good hours at 95%?
So what do you think? What if Twitter tracked your working state in a “social manner”? Would you work a bit harder if your friends knew how much you were screwing around? What if you wanted to be able to prove you could output as much work as Matt Brett? (Not bloody likley, the guys a friggin Cylon) What if they graphed it out to show your work performance historically vs. some of your peers? Good idea bad idea?
Brandon
February 19th, 2007
That sounds like an excellent idea. Additionally, I’d like something like that to also change your display name on MSN. Maybe you could make aliases for that (if active window process = devenv.exe, msn display = “working”). If I had that, maybe some of the more annoying people on my msn list would get the hint … or maybe I’d stop annoying people who have jobs
Matt Brett
February 19th, 2007
That’s an interesting way of looking at Twitter. I can’t say this even crossed my mind once. I do post updates through-out the day while I’m working, though. I see lots of other freelances doing it as well. You might be onto something here dude.
David
June 4th, 2007
This is exactly what I’m thinking about. In fact I came across your website because I googled “Twitter for time management”. As the saying goes, anything that can be measured can be managed, so I decided to see how well I could use twitter to measure how much time i spend doing what during the day.
My plan was to post to twitter when i’m working, when i’m online, etc. and then analyze this data off line to see where I am wasting the most time, or when I am being the most productive. But it doesn’t seem that twitter has timestamps on your posts, does it? Have you had any luck with using Twitter for time management?
Your Friend,
David.