Who Ate My Hours?

Have you ever noticed that when you work hourly you work all day but only end up officially clocking about 4 hours?

Today I spent my day writing a blog (for someone else. My blogs take me about 12 minutes, if that) and doing social media research. Before I started writing the blog I had to transcribe a 17 minute interview, which, let me tell you, does NOT take 17 minutes to do. Or even double that. No, it takes about an hour of starting and stopping to make sure you got everything and to double check what someone said, or to decipher mumblings. Then, I'm a draft writer, which means my first draft of anything sucks, because I'm just getting the thoughts out. Then I go back and revise. And then I go back and revise again because I'm a perfectionist. Today I went back and revised two or three more times because I know that this blog post is a test of my capabilities. So this blog post actually took me about 2.5 hours to do. But that seems like an insane amount of time doesn't it? 1.5 hours it is.

Next, social media research. I don't know if you have ever done this, but it's busywork. Busywork that sucks you into the lives and hobbies of whatever you're researching. I've officially been sucked into mommy blogs, wine blogs, financial blogs...things I never thought would interest me, but there ya go. Especially those mommy blogs. I get sucked into the pictures, and the stories about little Robbie pitching a fit in the library, and I can't tear myself away. Before I know it, 4 hours have gone by, and I think to myself, Did I really work those entire 4 hours?

No, of course not. I took breaks to goof off and check my email and Facebook and Twitter, and to eat. So I'm not going to clock 4 hours to that. Hmmm, about 2.5.

And now it's 5pm and I've worked all day, but am only officially clocking 4 hours. Clearly I'm an idiot.

Wood Factor: 2. Working at home Wood Factor: 3