Fun stuff like timesheets and…
It's hard to miss Apple's new advertising campaign. One of the recent editions really caught my attention. The PC was describing the "fun stuff" he can perform, and he mentioned "timesheets." Of course this is completely tongue-in-cheek.
Timesheets are not fun. It's interesting that of all the "un-fun" things a PC can do, Apple chose to lead with timesheets. [BTW, I would have chosen "doing taxes," [but that's just me.] I wonder if their hourly employees use them. I certainly haven't met many people who like filling out a timesheet.
However, timesheets fulfill a necessary function -- they account for money. Human capital (or time as we like to call it) costs money. Timesheets account for it.
So it's obvious why they exist and are necessary. Why aren't they fun? Honestly, they typically result in someone getting paid for something. Getting paid is fun -- yet not the timesheet.
I think it boils down to a few issues:
- It's really hard to remember what happened. Unless you are uber-anal about doing time-tracking every day, it's tough to remember what happened a few days ago -- especially when you are immersed. There is scientific evidence that when knowledge workers are in the flow they have a distorted sense of time.
- It's a necessary evil. Ultimately, filling out a timesheet doesn't contribute to the outcome. Most people get their fulfillment from accomplishments. For me, it's building and selling software.
We think that we can help out in this area. While I don't think we will make timesheets or a PC "fun'" I know we can address some of the pain encountered when filling out a timesheet.
We have the data on where the time was spent eliminating the deep thought about what happened last Tuesday at 10:36AM. Hopefully this data will enable folks to get timesheets out of the way quickly and return to what they love -- accomplishing something.
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