Have you ever heard of a billable hour?

Are you looking for tips on how to effectively work a billable hour?

Billable hours is a method of billing clients or customers by the hour for services rendered.

This time tracking method originated in the law sector but is now common practice in many industries.

And for good reason: billable hours are a handy way to keep track of employees’ time on projects, tasks, and assignments.

My introduction to billable hours started years ago when I worked as public relations professional.

The company I worked for billed clients in 15-minute billing increments, which meant employees had to record time spent working on projects and tasks.

All work; from phone calls and emails, to planning and budgeting, to pitching media and holding meetings and beyond, had to be tracked and accurately recorded each and every day.

Suffice it to say, it took some time to get used to this meticulous tracking system!

If you’re new to the world of billable hours, you may need assistance when it comes to accurately tracking your time.

In this post, you’ll find several tips to help you work effectively when it comes to billable hours.

After all, you don’t want to spend your Friday afternoon filling out your weekly timesheet, painfully trying to remember tasks performed on a Tuesday afternoon or Monday morning!

Prepare time tracking software and codes in advance.

More likely than not, you’ll be using time tracking software to log your hours.

Before you sit down to work for the day, make sure your time tracking software is uploaded, updated, and ready to go.

Are you a beginner when it comes to using your time tracking software? Check with your human resources department to see if there’s a user manual, training session, or training videos available online.

Familiarizing yourself with your time tracking program now will save you a lot of time in future.

Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the tracking program, the next step is to secure or compile a comprehensive list of client, project, or task codes. Again, ask your human resources department or local department for help with this.

Trust me, the last thing you want to do is spend time searching high and low for the correct codes…or even worse…having to spend hours redoing your time sheets.

Work on tasks in batches of time.

Do you want to finish your work in the most efficient way possible? If so, you’ll want to nix multitasking and work on tasks one at a time.

Focusing on one thing at a time: writing a proposal, filing papers, or preparing a template, will allow you to complete your work faster, than if you were to constantly switch tasks.

Besides being able to focus on your work, you’ll have a more accurate way of tracking your time. There will be no confusion as to which tasks were performed and when.

One hour spent writing a report will be…you guessed it…one hour spent writing a report.

Bill time while you work.

Tracking your time can be a piece of cake if you follow the “bill as you go” framework. What exactly does this mean?

Simply record your time after completing a task. For instance, if you’ve spent the last hour writing a report, you can immediately add that one hour to your timesheet. It’s that simple.

An added bonus to the “bill as you go” method is that you can use it to check your work progress.

As you bill tasks one after the other, you’ll see how much time you’ve spent working over the course of a day.

Here’s an example for you: let’s say you’ve been working from 9 A.M. to 12 P.M. You check your timesheet and only see two billed hours.

That means there is another work hour that needs to be accounted for.

A quick check of your work and notes will help you determine how you should bill the missing hour.

Practice time awareness.

We all know how time can fly by when we’re fully absorbed in our work.

As such, you may find it helpful to pay attention to the time throughout the day.

Now, you don’t have to be an avid clock-watcher. But, you may want to occasionally glance at the wall clock, your wristwatch, or desktop clock to get a sense of the time.

And what if you’d rather not glance at the clock? Just set a timer before you sit down to work.

You can choose whatever duration of time you’d like.

When the timer goes off, stop working, and enter your hours into your timesheet.

Learn how to be productive in your business

Productivity levels are a major concern for any business owner. That’s why it’s important for you to learn how to do your work with less stress, time, and energy.

My time management guide can show you how to prioritize tasks, manage assignments, and run meetings.

If you want me to show you how you can get things done in your business with less time and energy, then check out my productivity consulting services. Book a strategy session with me today!

How about you? Have you ever worked under a billable hour system? If not, do you use timers while working to stay on track and aware of your time? Join the conversation and leave a comment below!