Category: Time

Architekwiki

A Resource For Architects

Construction Administration Economics

1/26/2019

If you do a good job of Construction Administration,
you, the architect, will lose money.
Guaranteed.

Timekeeping

9/9/2018

Click Image For Source

How often do you complete your timesheet?

I personally have used 'twice monthly', 'weekly', and 'daily' timesheets. You are probably different than me; but when I filled out my timesheet it usually went something like this ...

ROUNDING-UP YOUR TIME

6/26/2018

8 REASONS FOR ROUNDING-UP YOUR TIME

This might be controversial.

I think architects should round-up their time.

I also think that you should complete and submit your timesheet daily. If you aren’t completing your timesheet daily, then this idea won't interest you because you are already fudging your time entries.

This is why rounding-up isn’t fudging.

You Can't Afford Accounting

3/17/2018

Most Architects can’t afford to do accounting

The reason is simple. Most architectural firms have less that 10 people.
By most, I mean 80%.

And architects can’t afford it because it takes at least 20 hours per week of someone’s time - on average. Just for accounting functions.

Time Management vs Goal Management

7/23/2017

I am a bit of a self-help junkie. Lord knows I need it. My first architect-boss informed me that I might make a better monk than an architect. I never listen.

During my self-help bingeing years, I probably consumed two dozen books that tried to tell me how to manage time. Very little of that wisdom stuck. The real help came from the authors who talked more about goals and priorities than time-management. Folks like Steven Covey, and Dan Sullivan of The Strategic Coach. But once you set goals for yourself, how do you actually get there?

The best system I have found is 'The Three Things'. I don't know where it originates, but at least once a year I read an article that promotes the idea.

Setting Priorities

7/4/2017

Priorities Are Good

Here is a general rule of thumb for setting priorities when you are working on a project. I find that it is the best way to move a project ahead effectively during the design phases. It is ideal to tackle design issues in this order:

Customized Project Management

8/18/2015

SORRY, This Post Is Obsolete

Daily Time Sheets? Yep, Daily!

1/19/2015

You have probably heard it before, and it is true. You need to fill out, and submit, time sheets daily. Why? I suspect that you know, but I'll recap for you.

Random Thoughts On Time Management

3/13/2014

Some Random Thoughts On Time Management:

THE WORK DAY

The 8-5 work day is quickly becoming an anachronism. It is still meaningful for a lot of workers, but not for knowledge workers, designers for instance. Being at the office is only good for making it look like something is getting done. When you factor in all the gossip, 'doing office stuff', interruptions, 'having a meeting' events and times when you really don't feel like working, the typical work day is maybe 5 hours of actual work. Maybe.

I think it would be more adult-like for everyone to work 35 productive hours a week when and where they want to work them.

COMP TIME

Compensatory Time is a tool for recognizing and documenting actual hours worked. If the goal is 35 hours of productive work a week, and you actually worked 30 or 40 hours, then the 5 hour difference is tracked as a running balance. Periodically you evaluate whether any action should be taken. A big balance might merit a bonus. A deficit might require a conversation, or it might show that the work is getting done just fine without all the hours. It is basically a salary tool to make sure neither party is being taken advantage of.

OFFICE HOURS / BEING AT THE OFFICE

The reality is that knowledge workers don't have many reasons to be at the office. Office hours let the letter carrier and sales reps know when they can expect to find someone in the office. Everyone else communicates by phone or email. So set the goal of manning the office from 10 AM to 3 PM. Post a sign. Coordinate schedules to meet the 10 - 3 goal; and let everyone work at the office when they want to.

SCHOOL HABITS / OUTGROW OR HONOR?

I know I taught myself some lousy time-management habits when I was in school. I wouldn't be surprised if you did, too. If those habits don't work for you, by all means change them. But if those habits represent who you are and how you deal with time, then I think it is alright to decide to honor the habits and not change. I promised myself that when I turned 40 - "no more all-nighters". My last all-nighter was when I was 52.

MEETINGS / STANDING MEETINGS

Meetings are the biggest time-wasting invention of all time. I have caused at least a few man-years of wasted time with my meetings. Standing meetings should be outlawed. Standing meetings always degenerate into a waste of time. An email is usually more than adequate. When it is easier to call a meeting than to write the email, you are really out of control. Always have a unique agenda to make sure you know what you want to accomplish. Don't copy the agenda from the last meeting. Start from scratch. If the purpose of the meeting is to make comments, send an email. If you want input, send an email. If you want a decision, send out a poll. Just make sure you need to meet to get the result that you need.

EFFICIENCY VS EFFECTIVENESS

Efficiency and effectiveness are not the same thing. You want effectiveness every time. Some people can get tons of stuff done every day. They burn through the mail, the email, setting up meetings, making decisions, completing assignments. It is possible that they were 100% efficient in the use of their time. If none of this work led to accomplishing their top priorities, then they were 0% effective. Racing to the finish line only counts if you are in the right race.

DAILY GOALS

The best technique that I have found for staying effective is the 3 Daily Goals. End each day by evaluating what you accomplished toward your 3 Daily Goals. Then write down the 3 Daily Goals you want to accomplish the next day to take you closer to meeting your top priorities. During the day, check the list every hour or so. Get back on track if needed.

PRIORITIES

I can't tell you what your priorities should be, but I can tell you how to prioritize your design work.

Tackle the work first that others are waiting for or will need from you. Keep the design team moving forward. Avoid being a bottleneck.
Find the answers to all the unknowns. When you get the answers to the unknown issues, there are always ramifications (because they were unknowns!). Get the answers up front before you have to re-work a lot of the stuff you did while ignoring the unknowns.
Do the hard stuff. The hard stuff always takes longer than you think. Doing the hard stuff at the end is where all-nighters come from.
Do the easy stuff. At the end of a project you can even delegate all the easy stuff. Go have a beer...

OfficeTime The Time-Keeping App

12/16/2013

If you are keeping your billable time in a spreadsheet, or, god forbid, a paper form; I found a really nice alternative, OfficeTime

Although there is a one-time cost of $47 for a Mac or Windows desktop version, you will certainly make that up by capturing all your time more easily. This is especially true if you also use the $8 iOS app so you can log your billable time anywhere.

The iOS apps synch with the desktop app by bluetooth. Once you turn it on, it just happens when the apps and desktop versions are open and nearby. I use an iPhone, iPad and the desktop and there has never been a hiccup.

The app is clean and simple with enough tools to do what you need by using the Timesheet, Project, Categories and Reports screens.

New Session
The main data entry is by adding or editing a session or expense. A Session is a work session in which you select the project and record the date, start time, time duration of the work session, and the category you want to assign the time to. If needed the session can be resumed later in the day rather than have two similar entries. The app’s settings let you use the last session’s info to avoid repetitive data entry. You can also add a note to each entry to describe the work you did.

Timesheet
The Timesheet is the screen that captures these entries as you can see in Figure A. The table represents one of your projects, which can be changed by clicking to the right of the displayed project name. Clicking on any cell in the table allows that cell to be edited. A new work session can have its duration entered or you can use a timer. You can start or restart a session by clicking the “Play” arrow at the left of the row when selected. Multiple timers are possible.

Figure A

Figure B

Figure C

New Expense
Expenses like mileage or printing costs can be added to a project by completing a simple form, Figure B. Give the amount, describe the expense, and add a category.

Categories
The ability to add a category to a Session or an Expense gives you a way to track types of project time and expense. Categories could be phases of the work, or types of work, like specs, 3D, field visits - anything you might want to identify later. For Expenses, the categories could be reimbursable, non-reimbursable, or mileage, reproduction, permits, or similar that you will want to be able to add up. In Figure C you see the Category creation form where you name the category, give it an hourly rate or value. Change the color of the text for easy ID.

Projects
Adding projects is the first step and it just amounts to filling out this form, Figure D. The project name could be the client (selected from your address book), but the name used here will appear in reports/invoices. Choose something that your client will relate to. You can use a project number that might be more useful for your record keeping. Note how you can control placement of the number. Selecting a default category will fill that data in for you on Sessions, and you can easily change it later.

Figure D

Figure E

Reports
The Report feature really brings it all together. A single click produces what you see here in Figure E. You can then modify it by the options at the top or the bottom. Select one of the eight preset date ranges or customize the date range. Select one or more project or all projects. Select one or more categories or all categories. Employee choices are similar.
Note the option in the lower right to make an invoice.

Invoicing
I think the invoicing function is very nice because of how much and how easily you can modify the template. Most systems I have tried require you to work with what they give you. With OfficeTime you can change any data-field placement to get the look you want. See Figure F (sorry about the scratch-out). You have the choice of including the detail of each entry on a second page, which many clients like to see.

Multi-user
I don’t have a way of testing the multi-user feature, but my understanding is that all team members can submit their data to the desktop version and from that consolidation of input you can run reports and create invoices. It appears that each employee must have the desktop version in order to merge data like this. This could get expensive, and more so when major paid upgrades come along. However, for four or five people, the cost would be similar to a single year of many systems that aren't as customizable.

Figure F

Wrap Up
OfficeTime works perfectly for me. I have been using a time-keeping system that is part of the accounting system that I subscribe to. I was in the market for a cheaper solution. I found a free accounting system, Wave; but there is no time-keeping and the invoicing is clumsy. That's where OfficeTime comes in. For a one-time charge that is a 75% reduction in my annual cost, I will have my needs covered. And no monthly fee. I think that for small design teams OfficeTime is a home run. Try it out, there is a 21 day trial of the complete desktop version and free, but limited, iOS apps. Constant logging of time is the only way to go. OfficeTime makes it easy.

Finding Information on Architekwiki

10/2/2012

SINCE THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED a lot has changed. So it's time for an update.

Finding information on Architekwiki can be done in two ways.

The first way is by using the Google site search widget to filter the articles based on your key word(s).

The second way is by using the categories of the blog in question to filter the articles. We will address them one at a time. [Footnote: from time to time duplicates show up in the lists of categories for unknown reasons. I attempt to eliminate them.]

For the WIKI page there are 20 categories, listed below. Every article is tagged with one of the first four categories and also with one or more of the other 16 categories. (You will note the actual category list are in alphabetical order.)

WIKI categories and a brief description of their intended content.

Business Development - sales, marketing, promotion, PR, etc
Management - steering the various aspects of the practice of architecture
Services - the architectural services provided to clients
Finances - money management
Communications - verbal, written, published
People - staff, clients, consultants, vendors
Process - a standardized multi-step task
Projects - a unique and complex undertaking for clients or for the practice
Records - saved communications and work products
Tools - physical, digital or conceptual ways to do work
Miscellaneous - catch all
Legal Issues - contracts, laws, codes
Money - fees, value, compensation, etc
Estimating - projecting or predicting costs, quantities, and time
Planning - determining the steps required to achieve a result
Standards - adopted templates or methods
Design - creatively determining the possibilities and deciding among them
Specifications - written guidelines, requirements or instructions
Time - using and measuring it
Concepts - ideas and ways of looking at an issue

For the DETAILS page there are 14 categories, each represents a category in the UNIFORMAT II system. This article will give you more information about UNIFORMAT. The one exception is Proj Dwgs, which is used to tag articles about an entire project.

For the BLOG page there are 6 categories as follows. Others may be added from time to time.