Track Your Time – Without Notes or Timers

Hi, my name is Brett.  And I have a serious email problem.

I just learned that I spend a quarter of my working hours staring at my Inbox.

You may be wondering – how is that even possible?  Brett, what are you – braindead?!

Sadly…I may be.  Here’s the shocking proof – captured by Chrometa itself:

Note that in this sample, I have 37 hours of active time (so that does not count phone or meeting time – only active time on my PC).  This was recorded over a 2+ week span.

Due to product testing and such, Chrometa was not running all of the time (though my co-workers may scoff and say that I’m busted for putting in 20 hour weeks!)

AND here’s the really sad part – individual emails are recorded separately, by their subject line, and are therefore not even included in this massive number!

So the 8+ hour entry under Microsoft Outlook – Inbox is solely due to time that I spent looking at Outlook, without an individual email open.  There are a limited number of things I could have been doing, and none of them are particularly productive:

1. Checking for new email
2. Reading an email through the preview pane
3. Looking at my calendar

I’d like to look at the bright side of this finding.  Like you, I often consider myself way too busy to get everything done that I’d like to.  So in a sense, this underperformance is a good thing, as there’s a lot of room for improvement!

In fact, I know that productivity experts often assert that any time you waste is not limited that time itself, but also encompasses the “switching cost” of diverting your focus.  So if my Inbox time is in fact due to obsessively checking for new email, then I’m losing a lot more time than is even displayed here!

Since it is a new year, and a new decade to boot, it’s a perfect time to look at this area as some real “low hanging fruit” for improving productivity.  It’s safe to say that checking email every 5-10 minutes is a disastrous approach – but what is the right approach?

Personally I’m used to being on the “front lines” from a sales and support standpoint, so a once or twice a day checking of email wouldn’t suffice.  But what would the optimal frequency be?  Every hour?  Longer?  Shorter?

What email best practices would you recommend?

1. Split Away Time (Zane’s idea) — split an away time entries into multiple pieces.

2. Manual Entry (Jason’s idea) — need to add a custom entry (ex. “client meeting, 30 minutes”) after the fact? With Manual Entry, Chrometa will be the only time management tool you’ll need.

3. Keyword-based Categorize (Juliet’s idea) — ever wish you could create a rule to categorize all entries containing a keyword?

4. Expanded My Categories view (Zane/Jason) — expand My Categorize panel to the full height of the Chrometa window. Easier drop-and-drop. Less scrolling.

Have a brilliant idea? Share it with us!

Want to get the most out of Chrometa?
Have a burning question?

On Thursday and Friday each week, Brett and I will be sharing our top tips and tricks, and fielding your questions — live!

Please reserve your seat today. Often we see users invite a colleague or two, so we appreciate you inviting anyone who you think would benefit.

Webcast schedules and sign up

1. Export to Excel (print, share, and analyze your data)

Our users Jason, Wes, and Sanjay first requested to transfer Chrometa data into Excel back in September. Since then, many others have chimed in, and Export to Excel is now a standard Chrometa feature!

If you haven’t tried this out, just go to File > Export, and your data is off to Excel. Now you can easily print out reports, share your reports with clients/colleagues, and slice/dice your data however you like!

2. What did I do in Quickbooks?

Chrometa user Louise was a Quickbooks power-user, and needed to track time on each screen in Quickbooks. Sounds easy, right? Problem was Quickbooks doesn’t update its window title as you interact with it, making it difficult for Chrometa to decipher which screen the user’s on. Our solution involved creating a super-advanced component that taps directly into the Quickbooks application. Tada! Quickbooks users: check it out!

3. Snappier categorize and delete activity

The one aspect of Chrometa that’s not fully automatic is categorizing your entries to clients and projects. It was important to us to make this task as easy as possible. Although drag-and-drop has been around since launch, it definitely could use some improvements.

You asked for easier drag-and-drop, multiple item drag-and-drop, and bulk delete… and we delivered!

Drag and Drop:  drag and drop to save you a click each time you categorize. These days, you won’t have to click to select an item before drag and drop. With a simple drag motion, you can categorize any Active Time entry.

Multiple Entry Drag-and-Drop: Same deal — select the entries (using shift and ctrl keys), and drag away. Wasn’t that easy?

Bulk Delete (Mark’s idea): Select the entries (using shift and ctrl keys), right click on a selected entry, and choose “Delete Activity.”

4. Oh Chrometa… how do you watch yourself like that?

That’s right — Chrometa can now track itself (Gary and Peter’s idea)! Ever wonder how much time you’re spending each day reviewing and categorizing entries? Now you can view time spent on Chrometa just like for any other application.

5. Faster, smarter, more reliable

We were just talking about you… kidding! Since Chrometa runs in the background whenever you’re working, we put on our serious face when it comes to stability and performance. Under the hood, we’ve added several data preservation and run-time optimizations to ensure that Chrometa works reliably and stays invisible until you need it. We’ve also recently added support for Windows 7.

We’re hosting a free webinar next Wednesday, October 28th, that will feature a live demonstration from a practicing attorney about how he uses Chrometa 2.0 to capture and reconcile his billable time.

Our last webinar in June was a big hit – we received a lot of great feedback that folks wanted more nuts and bolts about the product itself.  So that’s what we’ll be sharing this time – some tips and tricks from one of our users in the legal community.

Specifically, you’ll learn how to:

• Fill in missing gaps in your time
• Quickly categorize your time by client/matter
• Export your time for billing

Featured presenters will include:

• Ari L. Kaplan, Esq. is the author of the Amazon.com bestseller The Opportunity Maker: Strategies for Inspiring Your Legal Career Through Creative Networking and Business Development
• Brett Owens, Chrometa CEO and Co-Founder, to share what’s new with Chrometa.
• Adam Tope, Esq. and Chrometa User, who will demonstrate how he tracks and reconciles his billable time using Chrometa.

Who should attend?

• Current Chrometa users who would like to get further acquainted with the 2.0 release
• Anyone who has to track their time, but hates doing it

The webcast will take place on October 28th at 11am Pacific, 2pm Eastern.  Please sign up here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/430072387

For more information on Chrometa, please visit: http://www.chrometa.com/what-is-chrometa.php

Earlier this week, we penned a guest piece for Small Firm Success, a great resource center for small law firms, based on our findings from a time tracking survey we’ve been conducting with attorneys since early summer.

***

Hate Tracking Time?  You’re Not Alone!

If you really hate trying to keep track of your time – at least you’re not alone. Since June, we surveyed over 250 solo and small firm attorneys, many of whom we had live conversations with as well, about their time tracking habits. To sum up their sentiment – tracking time is the worst part of their jobs

Accounting for Billable Time

First we asked each attorney what percentage of their billable time are they able to account for. In other words, how much legitimate billable time is lost due to interruptions, multi-tasking, and an inability to remember what they did after a few days had gone by?

For folks who make a living billing by the hour, the answers might surprise you. They estimated that, on average, they are able to account for only 67% of their billable time – in other words, attorneys are working 3 hours just to bill 2. And check out the breakdown below – almost 40% of respondents believe they are accounting for less than 60% of their legitimate billable time!

Billable Time Captured by Attorneys

Read the rest of this piece at Small Firm Success…

Good news!  By popular request, we’ve added the ability to export your Chrometa time tracking data to Microsoft Excel.

This was released as a free update earlier this week.  If you’re new to Chrometa, any trial copy you download will now contain this feature, located under the File menu.

For existing Chrometa users, please follow these steps to upgrade:

1. Go to Help – Check for Updates
2. Download the Updater
3. Exit Chrometa
4. Run the Updater
5. Relaunch Chrometa

Exporting Chrometa to Excel

An Excel sheet will launch, with data from the date(s) that you have selected in Chrometa.  It’s a pure WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) export – dates and filters are preserved and placed in the Excel sheet.

And there are three tabs that contain your data – in this order respectively:

1. Active Time
2. Away Time
3. Timestamps

As always, please call or email with questions!

Tune in for an exclusive interview with Brett Owens (Chrometa CEO) and Ari Kaplan on the ROI of time capture and other trends in Legal Technology.

Chrometa introduces version 2.0 of its time capture software to help professionals maximize the potential revenue from the time they spend working for their clients.

Sacramento, CA (PRWEB) August 11, 2009 — Chrometa LLC, creator of productivity and time capture tools, today announced the availability version 2.0 of its automatic time capture software. Chrometa automatically captures all computer-based billable activity to help lawyers and other professionals make sure they get paid for every second of billable work they perform.

In addition to the time tracking capabilities included in earlier versions, Chrometa 2.0 includes additional “smart,” capabilities that remember previous actions and classifications of tasks. For example, if a user drags and drops a specific activity such as “contract review” to a billing category, the next time the user works on that item, Chrometa will group it in the appropriate category. The result is that Chrometa captures and categorizes all billable activity, with no effort or data entry required on the user’s part.

“Ease of use and quick time reconciliation were the driving factors for Chrometa 2.0,” said Brett Owens, CEO and co-founder of Chrometa LLC. “Our mission is to simplify our customer’s lives, so we made Chrometa smarter. Comprehensive time capture and fast categorization by account/client matter are very important to our users – and thanks their great feedback and input, we’ve drastically improved these features in Chrometa 2.0.”

How Chrometa Works:

• Chrometa is a software tool that runs in the background of a PC, without interfering with established work flow and routine;
• Chrometa automatically records the amount of time spent editing documents, writing emails or even conducting research online;
• Chrometa’s logs contain only relevant activity; keystrokes and content are not stored, to protect client and attorney information and confidentiality;
• Files, folders and URLs can be tagged with client accounts or client matter numbers to easily filter work history;
• Real-time activity logs can be accessed at the desktop for quick time reconciliation

Confidentiality:

The ability to manage client confidentiality is built into Chrometa with unique features that allow users to track specific activities that the professional chooses, or even block other activities that users would not like tracked. Also, the new release includes the ability to delete activities.

Pricing and Availability

Chrometa 2.0 is available now for a free 30-day trial (no credit card required) at Chrometa or call (916) 254-0260 to speak with a company representative. Chrometa is available immediately for a $99 one-time fee, which includes free email support. Multi-user licenses and contracts are available. Chrometa has dedicated representatives standing by to assist with product installation and support.

About Chrometa LLC

Chrometa LLC, headquartered in Sacramento, CA, is in the business of saving time and maximizing efficiency. Chrometa LLC’s time tracking tools are utilized by high-paid professionals to enhance revenue and gross billings. Please visit www.chrometa.com for more information.

If humans ever split into different species, lawyers will likely evolve into giant heads with no bodies. After all, you only need your body to transfer your thoughts to your computer. Otherwise, it serves no particular function other than creating more lawyers, which you could no doubt outsource. But for now, you may as well make sure you get paid for the long hours you spend hunched in front of your computer.

Chrometa 2.0 … in One Sentence

Chrometa automatically captures and organizes the time you spend on your PC, facilitating your ability to accurately bill all your time.

The Killer Feature

As soon as the “ink” dried on our previous report on Chrometa 1.1, the company announced version 2.0. As you may recall, we pointed to Chrometa’s ability to log all your computer activity as its killer feature. You can later transform these log entries into time entries in your billing system.

This automatic capture still exists, but the company has added a second killer feature — drag and drop, which further automates the time capture process.

You can now drag one or more activities recorded by Chrometa and drop them on the appropriate client/matter account. Chrometa is smart enough to remember this action so that next time you perform similar work (e.g., editing the same document), Chrometa will automatically enter the time spent in that client/matter account.

“We found that lawyers spend an average of 2.6 hours each week reconciling their time,” Chrometa CEO Brett Owens told us. “Chrometa’s automatic time capture and now drag and drop take a significant bite out of this process.”

Other Notable Features

Befitting its new version number, Chrometa includes many other new features. For example, you can now capture meeting, phone, and other time spent away from your PC, and categorize it by client/matter. This form of tracking requires manual entry, but Chrometa created a quick entry tool for this purpose. The upshot is that you can now see all your activities in Chrometa.

By popular demand, Chrometa features improved categorization of computer activities. For example, it can list email messages individually by subject line along with the accompanying time spent reading or writing the message. Chrometa also supports advanced tagging of both Word and WordPerfect files, providing similar granularity down to each individual document. When you’re ready to transfer the time entries you’ve captured into your billing system, Chrometa can sort them by client/matter.

Equally notable in the new version are the redesigned user interface (see accompanying screenshot) and improved security tools. You can now password protect Chrometa, delete activities, and remove historical data.

What Else Should You Know?

Chrometa 2.0 runs in Windows XP and Vista, and sells for an introductory price of $99, which includes unlimited email support. You can try it for free for 30 days. Learn more about Chrometa 2.0.