I just had an incident where my task logs have saved me a lot of time and effort. I’ve already spent more than an hour downloading material for an assignment. Today I asked my client to send me some more references. He asked if I wanted him to email me the articles as he gets them or put them all together to deliver physical copies. I opted for the latter. I may have the articles a few hours later than if they came electronically, but I can be doing productive work during the lull rather than frittering away time managing downloads.

And Jenn, you are absolutely right about clients not realizing what goes on in the background. For every half-hour interview I do, I probably spend 3 hours researching the topic, scheduling the interview, formulating questions, and transcribing.

My success with project rates comes from experience logging by task. Whenever I’m about to set a project rate, I look at past log sheets for similar projects. That reminds me of all those tasks that don’t feel productive but take time away from other things I could be doing. I get a realistic idea of how much time I could be wasting doing what needs to be done to finish the project, and I account for that time when I determine the project fee.

I always keep task logs, even when I’m being paid a flat fee. Or maybe I should say especially when I’m being paid a flat fee. Sometimes I come up with creative task descriptions, such as “chasing down blind leads from websites that aren’t up-to-date” and “listening to client rant about computer problems.” These notations account for decreases in productivity that have nothing to do with how well I work but do decrease my effective hourly rate.

The point of pricing by flat project fee is for the freelancer to profit from the increased efficiency that comes from practice and experience.

William, the Journler app you mentioned — I didn’t find that in iTunes. Through which interface do you use that?

Thanks!
-Donna

I have a feeling if I followed this process with my work, I’d feel less guilty. You see, my specialty — branded web series script writing — is all about creative concepting, which means I’m always brainstorming. While, I understand that my ideas turn into something of value — and that people are actually willing to pay for them — admittedly I feel guilty, like I’m only thinking, and not really working (especially since I enjoy it so much).

When I get like that, my subconcious mind starts looking for “real work” and I let myself get side-tracked with projects that FEEL more like work, but aren’t.

In following your example, my log would look something like this:

1) Created backstory for Character A — 1 hour
2) Developed ten ideas for integrating product into storyline — 3 hours

and on, and on. Mmmm … I think my guilt-ridden days are over!