Time Tracking Tool

Like most designers, I hated Excel. Then one day the best boss I ever had (an engineer, by the way) introduced me to the wonderful world of spreadsheets.

Excel is a very powerful tool once you get to know it. I don’t know that much, actually, but I have developed a few tools to keep track of design traffic and time. Last year I wrote about time measurement and mentioned briefly how to go about tracking time and tasks.

Today I want to go deeper and share with you a tool I created to track the time and activities you do on a daily basis.

It’s pretty simple. With it you can:

· Establish categories for your activities.
· Know how much time you’re spending in such activities, and filter by category.
· Find out if you’re wasting time in meaningless tasks.
· Find out if there are tasks you can delegate, empowering your employees.
· Measure how much time you’re spending at the office.

Also, as I said in the article I mentioned earlier:

You may find that it's more effective to hire a consultant to take care of certain time consuming activities or you may even ask for your suppliers to absorb such activities which would make your operation even more effective.

You need to be aware of how long do your typical projects take, in order to have accurate planning, and how much to charge.

You can plan more strategically ahead of time so that you know if you need to get some outside help for that big project that will be coming next week or if you have some free time to spend on leadership activities with your staff. In other words, when you know how long will your projects take and how they're organized in any given time frame, you get a broader vision of your business.

So without further ado, here’s the tool and the instructions:

I call it my "Follow Up Activities" spreadsheet. You can download the Excel file here. This is the file as I use it, and this file has been filled for activities for five days, as an example, but feel free to adapt it to your needs!

It’s basically a table with the following fields: Month, Day, Start, Duration, Category, Description and Comments.

Month: This is a text field. I like to name it "00-mmm" where “00” is the number of the month (for instance June would be 06) and “mmm” is the first three letters of the month’s name. Why? Because it allows me to sort by number of the month, instead of the name, so that January will always be at the top, for example.

Day: This is a number field. Type number of the current day.

Start: This is a date/hour field. Type the hour of the day in which that particular activity started, in 24 hour format.

Duration: It’s a date/hour field, with a formula where the duration of the activity is calculated by the starting time of the following task minus the starting time of the previous task. In the picture above the formula would be =C4-C3 for the first cell and then that is copied down on the cells of the D column.

Category: This is a text field. You define the categories of activities. In this example I’ve created seven categories. There’s one called “Breaks” where I record the times I spend on breaks and lunches.

Description: This is a text field. Type a description of the task. I use the same name for the same activity for example I always write “Packaging database” for that particular activity instead of using several different names for it.

Comments: This is a text field. If you wish to add something else like who you met with or if the project was billed, etc.

Now for some instructions:

· Data should be input by the minute, every time you change activity, you need to go there and input that information. This is key, and it needs to be done rigorously and with discipline. This way you always have current information and you're not stuck with having to type several days worth of information.

· The last activity of the day is called “Exit”. You only type the start time, but you must erase the formula in the “Duration” field for this activity.

· When the day ends, I like to use the “Comments” cell of the activity to add up the total hours I spent at the office that day. This is just a SUM formula that adds up the duration of all the activities. For instance in this particular day I was at the office nine and a half hours.

· There’s another worksheet in the Excel file, called "PT%", where I’ve added a Pivot Table report that will tell me how much time I’ve spent in each category or task. Pivot Tables are dynamic, and I can change the fields at leisure. For instance, instead of percentage, I can change it to hours.



· And I’ve also added a graph to illustrate those times.

Neat, huh? Well, I think so. Do leave some comments if you have some ideas about how to improve this tool!

All the best!

Resources: PivotTable reports 101.

Designers beware: 5S Phase 5, Shitsuke (Improve)

Welcome back to my series on 5S, the methodology to improve organization, order and cleanliness. In this article I cover the fifth phase, Improve. If you’ve made it this far, allow me to congratulate you!

But first, if you’re seeing this article and haven’t read the previous four:
Introduction to the methodology
Phase one, Select
Phase two, Organize
Phase three, Clean
Phase four, Standardize


Phase five, Improve

The purpose of this phase is to maintain the achieved conditions and establish new goals for improvement. When you improve you:

- Keep the order that you achieved during Seiton.
- Items return to their assigned place.
- Hardware and workstations are cleaned regularly.
- People enjoy a great work environment and are proud of their places of work.


And the steps:

Step 1: Redefine
You’d establish a standard, right? Now go back to the questions you asked yourself during phases 1 and 2 and ask them again against your current standard. Is there anything that can be done better? Something that doesn’t need to be in the work space?


Step 2: Document
Once you’ve gone through the questions again, see if the standard changed. If so, document again, take a new picture and post it in a visible place.

Here is a picture of the final standard for my desk, though I later on replaced the CD burner for an internal drive. Where are the pens you ask? Neatly stowed away in the drawers.


As a bonus, here I’m showing you a picture of my current desk, still applying the 5S philosophy.


This is my pencil box. It includes only what’s needed. Black, blue and red pens, a pencil, a highlighter and a calendar (Though now that I think about it, does the calendar need to be there? I have one in my computer dashboard… hmm…)


Step 3: Audit
Ok, so by now everybody in the organization has their standards. It’s time to audit their implementation. How to measure and evaluate progress is really up to the team and the criteria they want to apply.

Here’s an example I’ve used to audit offices. We did it weekly, for about a month.

Criteria to evaluate in each step:

Select
I haven’t selected anything (Earns 1 point).
I’ve selected some things (Earns 2 points).
I have only what I need (Earns 3 points).

Organize
I haven’t organized anything (Earns 1 point).
I’ve organized some things (Earns 2 points).
Every item has and is in its place (Earns 3 points).

Clean
I haven’t cleaned anything (Earns 1 point).
I’ve cleaned some things (Earns 2 points).
My work place is clean (Earns 3 points).

Standardize
I haven’t standardized anything (Earns 1 point).
I’ve established the standard (Earns 2 points).

Improve
I’ve improved the standard once (Earns 1 point).
I’ve improved the standard twice (Earns 2 points).
I’ve improved the standard three times or more (Earns 3 points).


Here’s an example of an Excel table to record and count the points:


After counting the points the person gets a card:

Red card, if the person earned between 5 and 10 points. There’s big room for improvement here.

Yellow card, if the person earned between 10 and 12 points. There’s still room for improvement.

Green card, if the person earned between 12 and 14 points. The work space is very neat and clean!

The idea is for the cards to be displayed in the work area so that maybe a little competition between the people in the team sparks up to get to green in the four weeks of the audit process.

And that’s it for this phase and for the 5S!

It’s a good idea to repeat the audit process in a few months, to see if the team keeps the new conditions.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this series and that your workplaces are areas of productiveness and pride!
All the best!

Designers beware: 5S Phase 4, Seiketsu (Standardize)

Welcome back to my series on 5S, the methodology to improve organization, order and cleanliness. In this article I cover the fourth phase, Standardize.

But first, if you’re seeing this article and haven’t read the previous four:
Introduction to the methodology
Phase one, Select
Phase two, Organize
Phase three, Clean


Phase four, Standardize

The purpose of this phase is to establish a clear standard for order and cleanliness, in order to maintain the results we achieved with the first three phases. It’s based on easily identifying an abnormal situation from a normal one. When you standardize you avoid:

- Going back to the previous conditions.
- Having work tools laying around.
- Having a disorganized work place that you have to organize again.
- Having people who after implementing Seiri and Seiso still accumulate office supplies on their desk.

And you ensure that:

- Items that don’t belong in the area are easily identified.
- The area is always organized.
- The time to find things is reduced.


Now for the steps:

Step 1: Define
There are several kinds of standards like:
- Oder standards.
- Cleanliness standards.
- Item location visual standards.
- Item quantity visual standards.
- Work place visual standards.

The word “standard” means how that particular item or area is when it’s in an ideal state. In other words, the standard illustrates the ideal state. This step is about defining how it’s supposed to be after you’ve organized and cleaned the space.


Step 2: Document
Remember I told you about documenting everything with your digital camera? Well, that’s because this would be the easiest way to show how your work space should look in an ideal state. You could also draw diagrams of where items need to be placed.

Here’s a picture of how my desk ended up once I implemented the first three phases. It was a lot better (Though not quite as good as it could be, but we’ll get to that in phase 5), so this became the first standard I implemented.



In this next example, see how it’s very easy to recognize when a folder is missing or in the wrong order?



Step 3: Train/divulge
Once you’ve set and documented the standard, you need to make sure that whoever needs to know about it, knows about it! If it’s related to your desk, then maybe you’re the only one you need to know about it. If the standard is of the supplies room, then make sure each person that uses it, knows it, understands it, and follows it. If it’s a picture, post it in a visible spot. If it’s an item quantity standard, post it near the items it relates to.

Now you can compare your current state with the standard and see if they match.

And that’s it for this phase!

But we’re not quite over yet! Meet me here next time to discuss Phase 5, Shitsuke (Improve).
All the best!

Designers beware: 5S Phase 3, Seiso (Clean)

Welcome back to my series on 5S, the methodology to improve organization, order and cleanliness. In this article I cover the third phase, Clean.

But first, if you’re seeing this article and haven’t read the previous three:
Introduction to the methodology
Phase one, Select
Phase two, Organize

Last week I covered Seiton, where we organized and decided the place for everything. The next phase, Seiso, is about cleaning. Though the methodology lists Seiso as the third phase, it’s possible to clean before you decide where things go.


Phase three, Clean

The purpose of this phase is to eliminate the sources of dirt and to find potentially dangerous areas (i.e. too many plugs in an outlet). When you clean:

- The workplace is a great place to work.
- Things are ready to be used, when needed.
- Cleaning becomes a daily habit.
- Potential safety risks can be addressed.


Now for the exercise:

Step 1: Get ready
Get your supplies like rags and cleaning products and have them ready beforehand.

Step 2: Clean
Pretty straightforward, right? Make sure to be thorough and don’t forget those out of reach places that nobody wants to clean.

Step 3: Place
Place every item in the work area in their decided location.

Step 4: Audit
Once everybody has cleaned their work area, allow for some time, maybe half an hour, in which each person questions how clean every work place is and uses the red labels again, if it’s the case, meaning, if something shouldn’t be in that spot or could be relocated.

And that’s it for this phase!

In industrial environments it has a bigger impact because operators learn more about their machines and see potential industrial risks, like leaks and parts that aren’t working properly, but that’s material for other posts.

By now you’re already seeing the benefits of applying the 5S and if you’ve really embraced it, you’ll notice that you’ve started questioning how other people keep their desks or their houses, haven’t you?

As I said in the first 5S post, you’ll never be the same!

So meet me here next time to cover Phase 4, Seiketsu (Standardize).
All the best!

Designers beware: 5S Phase 1, Seiri (Select)

Welcome back to my series on 5S, the methodology to improve organization, order and cleanliness.

As I said in my previous post, this methodology can be applied to many aspects of life, as you will surely see in the upcoming weeks, as I unfold the steps to use it in a design studio environment. I won’t go into a lot of depth, since the implementation does depend on your own objectives and the different places of the organization you want to tackle.

So here’s one way of implementing the methodology, CaroAyerbe style:

Let’s say you have a design studio or you work in an in-house design department. Let’s say you want to apply 5S there. The coverage would probably be the design offices and the common areas like the meeting room, the library and/or the supplies room.


Just to show you that I practice what I preach, this here was my actual desk a few years ago, yup, that's my elbow right there...






Before starting:

- Explain the methodology to your people about get a consensus on whether or not they think it’s a good idea to implement it. They always think it's good. (Come on, who doesn’t want to be more productive, right?).
- Designate a team of facilitators which will be in charge of guiding the process.
- One facilitator per area is a good idea.
- Train the facilitators.


Phase one, Select

Basically in this phase you decide what goes and what stays, that’s the main purpose. Why select? Because…

- Work places are filled with clutter.
- The usable space is used by stuff that offers no advantages.
- Closets and shelves contain things that are never used.
- It’s difficult to find the necessary utensils.
- There’s too much stock of stuff you don’t actually need.


What you will need:

- A digital camera. Humans are visual creatures, so one of the best ways to record and evaluate results is to take pictures. The before and after. Ideally, each facilitator has a camera.
- A huge plastic bag, for trash.
- Little red cards. Prepare these beforehand, it can be a little business-card-size piece of paper, with a little ribbon to attach them to objects.


Step 1: Prepare yourself.
Get a plastic bag and red cards.

Step 2: Gather.
Bring all your stuff to one place, near the area you’re working on. Take everything and put it on a big surface… on top of the desk or on the floor. Now, everything means everything. Absolutely every item needs to be accounted for.
It’s necessary to check behind closets, on top of closets, on the walls, places that are not well lit, behind the desk, inside drawers, everywhere.

Step 3: Separate.
Ok, this is where the fun starts! Once everything is in sight, divide it in two piles:

Pile A: The stuff that goes, trash, if you will. What you don’t need.
Pile B: The stuff that stays. What is actually needed or you can’t live without.

So the first pile, pile A, if it’s trash, why make it a pile? Because it’s good to take a picture, and measure how much of what you originally had, was actually garbage. So don’t discard it until the end, but do discard it; this is what the plastic bag is for. The first time we did this, we gathered 127Kg of trash.

By now you’re left with the stuff that is needed, right? Ok, now you’re going to divide that into two new piles:

Pile C: The stuff that needs to be in the work space.
Pile D: The stuff that is needed, but not in the immediate work area.

Step 4: Audit.
Once everybody has separated their materials, allow for some time (maybe half an hour) so that each person can go through other people’s stuff and question if an item should stay by attaching a red card to them. I like to leave a space in the card so that people can write a message on them, something like “do you really need three mugs for your pens?”.

Once the time is over, the person needs to decide whether or not the item goes. Nobody is allowed to remove the cards, until the fate of the item is determined.


And this is the end of phase 1; you now have selected what’s useful.


If you’re one of the facilitators, you will see that deciding what goes and what stays can be tricky for people, especially because we tend to become attached to some objects, so be prepared to deal with someone who thinks they need 7 blue markers and 8 red ones.

If you’re doing this on your own, be honest with yourself and think about what would happen if the object wasn’t there.


Meet me here next time, to talk about Seiton (Organize) and we’ll see what happens to the selected objects!

Do leave me a comment if you have any questions, I’d love to help! Also if you’re familiar with the methodology and would like to add to this article, do so as well! All your comments are welcome.

All the best!


For more information, visit my previous article which is an introduction to the methodology.

Designers beware: 5 steps to productivity, the 5S.

How would you like to be more productive and have a better workplace? Would you believe me if I said that you can achieve that easily with little or no investment at all?

Would you be able to work here? Do you actually work in a place like this?


Would you like to live like this? Do you currently?


A few years ago, when I was part of the continuous improvement team of the company I worked for, I was entrusted with the task of implementing a certain methodology that promised to improve our productivity. So of course, I had to be the first to test it.

It changed me. I’ll never go back to the way I was before, immersed in clutter, with a feeling of not having any control over my stuff, my activities, my life! Being tired before even starting to work, just by glancing at my desk.

5S (Five eses, if you will) is a methodology that was developed by Japanese companies, mainly Toyota, to improve organization, order and cleanliness in work stations. It can be as extensive as you wish it to be, with thorough measurements of improvement in machinery performance in factory conditions, but as I’ll present in the upcoming posts, it can be applied to almost every aspect of life, yes, the design business included.


What can 5S do for you? Keep reading…

The name 5S responds to five Japanese words that describe each of the five steps:

1. Seiri (Select)
Identify and separate the necessary from the unnecessary items.

2. Seiton (Organize)
Everything has its place.

3. Seiso (Clean)
Identify and eliminate sources of dirt and clutter.

4. Seiketsu (Standardize)
Maintain the status of order and cleanliness achieved.

5. Shitsuke (Improve)
Make it a habit and reach new standards of order and cleanliness.


5S can be defined as an ideal state in which:

- Unnecessary materials or utensils have been eliminated.
- Everything has been identified and been assigned a place.
- Clutter has been eliminated.
- There are visual references to control the status of processes.
- All this is maintained and continuously improved.


By implementing 5S you will:

- Reduce errors.
- Reduce supplies inventory.
- Reduce unnecessary movement.
- Gain more space.
- Be proud of your work place.
- Easily recognize the status of things.
- Quickly find the utensils you need.
- Improve the image your customers have of you.
- Improve your team work and cooperation.
- Improve responsibility and commitment.


There are many resources on the web about this subject, covering all kinds of businesses and situations, big and small, where this methodology can be applied. I’ll be covering each of the steps in a design studio environment and how to implement them and measure the results.

Meet me here next time to cover step 1, Seiri, and learn how to get rid of most of your clutter and not feel guilty about it! :-)

All the best!

Designers beware of… time measurement.

Have you even been one of those people that at the end of a long day go "I worked my butt off all day and still I didn't get to do what was important, I feel like I didn't do anything at all…" Well, you may need to start measuring your time.

In my experience I found that there are several kinds of activities, for instance, true added value activities like strategic planning, chore activities like entering invoicing information into a collection system, annoying activities with no added value like burning CDs for other people and personal activities like breaks, lunch or cooler talks, to name a few.

It is important to know how much time you're spending in these activities. Why? Here are a few reasons:

- Because you may be spending a little too much time in activities that add no value to your operation.

- Because you may encounter that you can delegate certain activities to your employees, which not only would empower them, but free time for you to spend in more added value activities.

- Because you may find that it's more effective to hire a consultant to take care of certain time consuming activities or you may even ask for your suppliers to absorb such activities which would make your operation even more effective.

- Because you need to be aware of how long do your typical projects take, in order to have an accurate planning, and how much to charge.

- Because you can plan more strategically ahead of time so that you know if you need to get some outside help for that big project that will be coming next week or if you have some free time to spend on leadership activities with your staff. In other words, when you know how long will your projects take and how they're organized in any given time frame, you get a broader vision of your business.

So here's how I go about it:

- First, get your staff involved, so that the data collection is very accurate.

- Make a list of all the activities you and your staff are performing. Everything from creative meetings to smoking a cigarette, from the time you enter the office to the time you leave. Try not to leave anything out.

- Assign categories to the activities, for instance, a creative meeting and meetings with customers will go under "meetings" or "strategy". It depends on your particular needs and activities.

- Create an Excel table to enter the information with time and date and how long each activity took. For example:

You can set up the Excel table to count the time spent in each category and start analyzing the information, after you've collected it.

- Once you add up the time at the end of a predefined time frame, for instance, a week or a month, you can being to make some choices.

Depending on how many people work for you or your strategic plan, perhaps you want to start with your own activities first and then start measuring the staff according to their tasks, like, first the graphic designers and then, the sales people… it's your call, you define the criteria.

The first time I tried this methodology I found that 40% of my time was spent scanning pictures and burning CDs for other people (We were the only department in the company that had CD burners and a scanner, back in the day). This lead me to suggest to my boss that maybe somebody else (his assistant?) could take care of such activities if he invested a bit of money for the hardware, which would allow me to use that precious time attending to the clients requests.

All the best!

Update: To learn further about how to use the Excel activity tracking tool, go to my article about it, from October 30th, 2007.