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Do you need to track your billable hours?
Do you find you’ve gotten to the end of the day, spent it almost entirely engaged in billable or productive work but you can’t remember what you did?
Once upon a time, I needed to document my billable hours and non-billable hours for a job. I did a poor job of this. I would work all day but not remember what I did!
I couldn’t figure out the best timer to use…even though I tried so many!
I started researching timers to help me track my time. This was pretty long ago. Think just before 1st iPhone. I wanted something that would go off at set or random times that would prompt me to document why I was doing. The internet wasn’t helping me.
I had been introduced to the MotivAider in graduate school but never owned one. Thinking back I decided it was exactly what I needed! Whomp whomp...it was too expensive for an early career clinician who’d just shelled out $$$ for a study aid and exam registration and fees.
Enter the Gymboss. I don’t know how he came into my life but one sooooo glad he did. The gym boss is an interval timer that will vibrate or beep at set or variable times. Amazon delivered it and the next day I put it to use. I set it to vibrate every 15 minutes.
Budget Friendly
On The Go
At the time I was using an At A Glance 15 minute appointment book and working in an organization that served individuals in the group home and day program setting. I drove between day program settings and my office during the day and then between group homes in the late afternoon or early mornings. I kept this appointment book on me and was typically able to document my time for billable time reasonably. I couldn’t account for my non-billable or shorter instances of billable activity.
Once I started using the Gymboss my timekeeping definitely improved. I was better able to capture my smaller billable time increments.
For example, I spent 9:10-9:25 with Client A then 9:26-10:25 with Client B. Following that I went back with Client A 10:26-10:40 and 10:41-11 with Client D. Before using the Gymboss I was likely to miss recording either my first time with Client A or my time with Client D.
Seeing so many clients in one day meant a lot of billing entries.
The second instance I’ve turned to Gymboss was to assist me in a time audit. I needed to reconcile for myself where all my time was going. I was implementing a Live Time Audit but I kept losing track of time. I added the Gymboss to my intervention and found that I was better able to recognize the passage of time and therefore better able to tact that I’d switched activities and to record that transition.
I found I was wasting a ton of time in the afternoon and not efficient with my evenings. Implementing routines helped with filling the time after work and before bed mindfully.