How do you quantify your work?

While I was in school, how much actual *work* I did while the school semester was going on depended on how "booked" my calendar would look like. I'd have a monthly calendar with various different colored pen markings for different classes, and each assigment due date. A line with the respective color for that class or assignment would be drawn for the number of days I estimated that I should work on.

When those lines overlapped 3-4 times over a period of certain amount of days, I knew I was in for a pretty good workload.

Today (recently), I quantify my workload at the office with the number of emails I get / send out during the day. On a normal day, I'd get about 30 emails from my customers total, 10 total or so from vendors. A good chunck of them turn out to be "thanks" or "confirmed" type emails, so it's not a whole big deal to action on them. On a normal day, I'd say my email output is roughly 5-8 per hour. So by the end of the day if I'd sent 60 emails between 9AM-5PM, that's scaling at what I'd consider just only slightly beyond my "normal" workload.

I normally go to work between 8-9AM, usually I'll try to be there before 8:40 at the latest. I've been going home at 7~8PM lately, and the number / times I've sent my emails to vendors / to customers are there as proof for the amount of work I've been doing. I scored 100 sent emails a couple nights ago when I went home at 9 (this to me, is bordering insanity).

So before I lose my head talking about this ( ) how do you scale / measure your workload?

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I measure how busy my day has been by how much time I've spent on GFF (and a few other sites I visit). If I go home and realize I've only had a chance to glance at GFF once or twice, then it's been a busy day, but if I sat here all day refreshing every 15 minutes or so, then there was nothing to do.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by nuttyturnip

I measure how busy my day has been by how much time I've spent on GFF (and a few other sites I visit). If I go home and realize I've only had a chance to glance at GFF once or twice, then it's been a busy day, but if I sat here all day refreshing every 15 minutes or so, then there was nothing to do.

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not, but this is kind of how I do it, too.

Quantifying my work is a futile task, as the workload may be small or high - it depends on what the work is, what I know about it, and how much coffee I've had to tackle it.

But at the end of the day, all my work is done - with very rare exceptions. (The secret is multitasking)

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

No, I wasn't being sarcastic. I have some regular duties, but for the most part, actual work comes in unexpected projects, and it's difficult to quantify. It's easier to look back at the end of the day and see how much downtime I had.

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oh god all aboard the sad train

I read a news portal site and keep chocochat open. If a day has passed and I only read the first two news blurbs, or chat doesn't see much of me, that means I actually had work to do.

I mean to be fair a lot of things I do I require things from other, slower people but in general that's how I know.

Additionally, if the unix admin has to take a trip to my office because I hadn't noticed his IM window blinking, that also means busy.

I was speaking idiomatically.

If I make 5 journal entries in a day, write on every single one of my friends walls in facebook and clean my apartment, it was a really slack day. If I don't touch my computer all day, it was very busy. Like today. Today is friday, I was done class at 1130. I came home. And I won't be going out till later today. So I'm cleaning a little bit. Filling a garbage bag. Huzzah. But then again, I'm also one of those multaskers. Some days, if I post 5 journal entries. It means I've been at my computer all day typing an essay for history or writing up a coding project for computer science class. And then I see fit to refresh the forum every couple minutes to take a break from typing. And at the same time as that I'm watching a movie, and making food. I do everything at once really slowly, or one thing at a time really quickly. If that even make sense.

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If I make 5 journal entries in a day, write on every single one of my friends walls in facebook and clean my apartment, it was a really slack day. If I don't touch my computer all day, it was very busy. Like today. Today is friday, I was done class at 1130. I came home. And I won't be going out till later today. So I'm cleaning a little bit. Filling a garbage bag. Huzzah. But then again, I'm also one of those multaskers. Some days, if I post 5 journal entries. It means I've been at my computer all day typing an essay for history or writing up a coding project for computer science class. And then I see fit to refresh the forum every couple minutes to take a break from typing. And at the same time as that I'm watching a movie, and making food. I do everything at once really slowly, or one thing at a time really quickly. If that even make sense.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Ehh, there's always something to do. It's really just a matter of whether I feel like doing it at the time. Filing for instance, filing is boring. So is data entry. If I find myself doing a lot of filing and data entry, it's a slow day, because it means I didn't have other things that were more entertaining to do, like reporting and analysis.

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Actually since I work in a pharmacy, I'm required to process and fill minimum 100 prescriptions a day. This number is based on being at the computer 8 hrs a day and taking refill calls as well. Since I don't take refills, and only spend roughly 2-3 hours per shift on the computer, I should be hitting right about the 50 mark, which I can do if there are no problems on the orders.

For example today I did about 12 RXs (or 4 complete orders) in 40 minutes. I would have been done sooner if they hadn't just moved my desk (because I'm part time) and the printers for my RX labels were printing correctly. On a Saturday where I spend a considerable larger amount of my time at my desk, I can typically hit 75-80 in a 3-4 hour span given that there are no interruptions.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Basically, I work at a printing outfit, in quality control, so I check samples from the various machines. It's pretty easy for me to figure out if I'm busy or not by the size of the pile on my work table. If I never clear the "todo" pile, it's been one helluva day. That also usually means I didn't even glance at the bag department, which as much as it's not a good thing, is another sign of when I've had a pretty busy day.

I consider myself having a good day, when despite being behind all day, I can still catch up and leave the table clear for the next shift. Considering that we're currently shorthanded, that won't be happening for a while probably.

I could also factor in how many breaks I take, but that's not always a good indication, as often times on busy days I simply force myself to stop and take a break, so that I don't overwork myself. But if I wasn't on my feet all day, it would probably be a better indication of workload.

On a more obscure note, I do tend to quantify my workload based on what particular jobs might be on the machines. Certain customers require more testing on their products, so if those jobs are running, more work for me. Get a few of those running on the same shift, and you've got yourself a crazy day. If we're just running straight simple no nonsense labels and typical fare, well, those are my cruise days, where I can take it easy and not put in too much unpaid overtime. ;p

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I have somewhere between 110-130 cases on my caseload, so I am able to measure my workload by the amount of paperwork processed, client contacts, scheduled appointments, and monthly deadlines met.

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I typically have a lot to do during the school year. My real work at the hospital will start next semester though. I'll have 8 hour shifts for the first couple of weeks, and then eventually get a few 12-hour shifts in various units. I'm only a student nurse, but they require us to manage a lot of patient case work. My busiest days usually involve a full day away from checking my messages online or not being able to watch one episode of anything on TV.

On the contrary, if I'm able to sit and watch five episodes straight of my favorite show, then I know it's a slow day.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I quantify a given day based upon how many times I allow myself to look at the clock. If the number is high (100-200, obsessive I am sure), then obviously my day is boring and uneventful. The opposite can also be true.

Basically its difficult to quantify work with any amount of resoluteness because the demands of life are ever-changing.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Shorty

While I was in school, how much actual *work* I did while the school semester was going on depended on how "booked" my calendar would look like. I'd have a monthly calendar with various different colored pen markings for different classes, and each assigment due date. A line with the respective color for that class or assignment would be drawn for the number of days I estimated that I should work on.

When those lines overlapped 3-4 times over a period of certain amount of days, I knew I was in for a pretty good workload.

Today (recently), I quantify my workload at the office with the number of emails I get / send out during the day. On a normal day, I'd get about 30 emails from my customers total, 10 total or so from vendors. A good chunck of them turn out to be "thanks" or "confirmed" type emails, so it's not a whole big deal to action on them. On a normal day, I'd say my email output is roughly 5-8 per hour. So by the end of the day if I'd sent 60 emails between 9AM-5PM, that's scaling at what I'd consider just only slightly beyond my "normal" workload.

I normally go to work between 8-9AM, usually I'll try to be there before 8:40 at the latest. I've been going home at 7~8PM lately, and the number / times I've sent my emails to vendors / to customers are there as proof for the amount of work I've been doing. I scored 100 sent emails a couple nights ago when I went home at 9 (this to me, is bordering insanity).

So before I lose my head talking about this ( ) how do you scale / measure your workload?

I'm gonna try the line thing, seems like a pretty good method!

I tend to just write notes all the time. I have an academic diary, and each day I write a list of the things I need to do with a little tick box next to it. If I don't do it, I write it up on the next page for the next day. I tend to finish all work on the weekend that I haven't done during the week.

I also have post-it notes of any major assignments that I need to do. I stick them on the wall in front of my laptop to keep reminding me I should do something about it.

I was speaking idiomatically.

If I'm feeling good at the end of the day, that means I've done a lot of work. If I'm feeling crappy that means I haven't done enough work and I know my entire next day is going to be spent making up for not getting enough done today.

How ya doing, buddy?