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The real reason my estimates were always off by 20 percent
I spent two years in Kansas City thinking I was bad at pricing projects, turns out I was just using the wrong tracking method. I finally ran a Toggl report alongside my invoices and saw I was missing all the little admin tasks and client emails that added up to almost 3 hours per week. Has anyone else found a gap like that between what you think you're doing and what the clock actually shows?
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perry.jesse1mo ago
Man you just described my entire freelance life. I ran a similar check a few months ago and found I was losing about 4 hours a week just on client emails and random Slack messages that I never budgeted for. The gap between what I thought was billable and what actually was turned out to be huge. I started tracking everything down to tiny 5 minute tasks and it was eye opening. Now I pad my estimates with an extra buffer and it feels way more honest to both me and the client.
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the_robin1mo ago
That thing about "random Slack messages" hit me hard, Perry. I used to roll my EYES at people who tracked every 5 minute task, thought it was overkill and a waste of time. But last month I finally caved and logged everything for a week and I couldn't believe it. I found myself doing these quick little browser searches and copying text between tabs that I never counted as real work. By Friday I had an extra 2.5 hours I would've just forgotten about. It definitely changed my mind and now I'm the guy logging every stupid 5 minute thing.
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