Michael Hunger was searching for a way to track his day. He finds that task tedious and inconvenient. Some of his suggested time tracking methods came in the form of software:
- Spreadsheets
- Plain text files
- Browser based time tracking
- Outlook/iCal
- Popup applications/widgets asking for the current task (hmmm…has he not yet found TSheets?)
And others in the form of the physical:
- Sticky Notes
- Paper
- Tally sheets
- Notebook
- Diary/filofax
All are ok solutions. Naturally, we’re a bit preferential to the application/widget genre, but let’s hear the man out.
What Michael stumbled upon in his daily ‘blue hour’ (time he spends reading in a café before work) is a childhood toy that we all know: Lego. He quickly realized that events in iCal look remarkably like building blocks of time. The transition from playing with his daughters legos to iCal’s block of time to Lego as time tracker is simply genius.
With a box of 600 legos purchased from Amazon, Michael set out to track his day in a colorful desktop form. What he found was that there was a wide variety in color, length, and width of the 600 pieces. By using the ‘one row’ blocks, Michael builds he day (literally) by segmenting 1, 2, 3, and 4 studded pieces to represent 15 minute blocks of time, 15, 30, 45, and 60 minutes. By stacking these individual blocks of time on top of each other, he builds a project (color) coded map of his time throughout the day.
Using a ‘one row’ piece to represent the day, Michael lays bricks on top of this ‘day ruler’ so that he can see what he did, and where in his day he did it. Each day of the week is then coded by a rainbow color scheme. Red, orange, yellow, green, and blue represent Monday – Friday. At weeks end, he then uses his lego blocks to enter the data in a timesheet software package.
Michael has found that by using the Lego time tracking system, he can even pre-plan days by using temporary bases and allotting time via the same color coded method. Benefits include (in Michael’s own words):
- it works (for about 4 months now)
- I have something to play with while pondering stuff
- it looks great
- it’s incredibly fast with no overhead
- planning is possible
He is however quick to point on the one disadvantage:
coworkers coming to your place and disassembling your time tracks
He’s recently updated the original post with an announcement of a small java application that will work in conjunction with a webcam or phone so that the time block is automatically entered in the week’s end timesheet.
This is a fine example of independent ingenuity when it comes to personal time tracking. Certainly this will work while sitting in a closed environment (read…office), but has little practical application in the mobile work. You might be hard pressed to pull out your Lego block set while sitting in economy on the next flight to Atlanta. The Lego system can and will only work for personal time tracking, as just with the time clock or paper and pencil sheets, there are almost certainly time fudgers that would take advantage of the system.
As always, TSheets remains your one stop, easy to use, corporate wide time tracking solution. With widgets, gadgets, and iPhone apps, we’ve got more ways to track time than hours in the day!
Now….off to the TLabs to talk to the Time Scientists about the Lego app integration….
We are looking for current or new 
