I’ve lost count of the number of junior consultants I’ve seen struggling with time reporting. In an effort to be professional — or maybe just hyper-precise— they track every minute of their day. They carefully log each activity in some clunky time-tracking tool, thinking it will make them more productive, or worse, they work in an organization that expects time reports down to 15-minute intervals. (Yes, that’s still a thing.)
Here’s the deal: no one wins with this level of precision. At the end of the day, you’ll inevitably have a block of unaccounted-for time. What’s this mysterious gap? It’s all the stuff that makes you human:
- Grabbing coffee (necessary for survival),
- Having an inspiring chat with a colleague that suddenly sparks an idea,
- Sharing a quick laugh after lunch to re-energize,
- And let’s not forget the six bio-breaks (thanks to the aforementioned coffee).
Oh, and that 10-minute detour where you decide life will be better if your inbox has just two more folders. These moments aren’t distractions; they’re part of what makes you a productive, value-creating professional. They recharge you, fuel creativity, and frankly, the customer should be paying for them. You aren’t a robot that churns out work every second. You’re a human delivering value—and value takes more than perfectly measured time blocks.
Let me state this loud and clear: no one should ever be made to report time in 15-minute intervals. It’s not realistic, it’s not healthy, and it’s a big red flag for a work environment that lacks trust — whether that’s from your employer or your client. The idea that you can break down your day into neat little chunks of 15 minutes is absurd.
If you’re ever asked to do this, consider it a sign that something’s off. No KAM, PM, or SDM should ever agree to these kinds of demands with a customer. Work doesn’t happen in neat little packets of time — it’s messy, it’s creative, and it flows in waves. No one achieves anything valuable by tracking every minute.
In a perfect world, we’d all be using a value-based, SaaS-driven approach where your service engagement is part of the overall delivery. Instead of obsessing over time spent, the focus would be on the results you’re delivering. But we’re not quite there yet, so here’s the next best thing: report your time at the end of the day.
That’s right. At the end of the day, look back and reflect on what you’ve accomplished. Then, if you must, distribute your time evenly across the workday. Your day starts when you begin working and ends when you decide it’s time to head home. Sure, you may not have logged the exact minutes you spent brainstorming, troubleshooting, or refilling your coffee cup, but what’s important is the actual value you produced.