This engineer tracked his time for more than a year and this is what he learned
Struggling with wasted time? Track, tag, and reflect on your tasks to boost productivity and accelerate your software engineering career. 🎁 Bonus template at the end
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Tracking your time makes you a more productive software engineer. I use a system that records every minute I work with a 15-minute granularity, tags tasks as meetings, deep work, or leisure, and includes time for reflection.
This method gives me a clear view of my day and helps me set precise goals. I learned that knowing where my time goes is the first step to better work habits and faster career growth.
⭐ In this post you'll learn
How I record work time as I work
How I tag tasks for meetings, deep work, and more
How regular reflection sharpens my daily routine
⚡ #1 Detailed planning & scheduling
Rob Dyrdek is an entrepreneur who tracks many things in his life. I used his system as inspiration and applied it to my own system. Rob schedules every minute in 15-minute blocks and uses color coding. His fixed calendar leaves no gap for uncertainty. I respect his method, but I track my work time in real time to see exactly how I spend every minute. I record the time I spend on each task as I work. This leaves room for the unexpected without having to re-schedule my entire day.
As I capture what I work on, I tag each task with a predefined label. This lets me see whether I have spent too much time in meetings or if my deep work sessions are short. I set goals based on this data to better plan future tasks.
I also review my day and adjust the next day’s plan. This iterative reflection is key to my system. It provides a clear record of my productivity and helps me understand where I need to change. I use these insights to plan detailed scheduling that fits my actual work habits.
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⚙️ #2 Batching tasks & communication
I batch similar tasks to reduce context switching, and beacause I can't track my time at 1-minute block granularity. For instance, I group code reviews together rather than reviewing them sporadically. Batching code reviews has proven more effective than interrupting my flow during other tasks. I allocate a specific time block for these reviews so that my mind remains in a single mode.
When I wasn't tracking my time and I just did things without an intention, I ended the day unfulfiled. I tried to reflect in what I got done and I did very few things. These are things I would expect to do in a few hours of focused and batched work, not the entire day.
I batch my communications as well. I set aside specific periods to answer emails and messages. This prevents interruptions during focus time. I have found that responding to messages in one session is much better than doing so while my brain is already out of the game. Since different areas of the brain are used for different purposes, it makes no sense to be switching from one area to another. Once an area of my brain is warmed up, I try to use it until I don't have more actions there.
I also limit meetings to a set schedule. I prefer fewer, longer meetings that conclude open loops rather than many short interruptions. This is related to some lessons I got from Cal Newport: He'd rather do some research and propose something than answer an email with another question. That's not moving things forward, it's just getting something off your plate without making progress.