The surprisingly *calming effects* of time tracking

Time tracking used to stress me out.

7 years ago, I freelanced for an agency that was REAL rigid with time management.

We met once a week and "committed" all the hours in our capacity to specific work.

The tasks had time estimates and we would pull them in to our workload until it all equaled out.

And I remember how ANXIOUS it made me

Like shit, I gotta get this done in that time?

And omg, the clock is ticking. f*ck... aghhhh.

Fast-forward to now and time estimates & time tracking give me the exact opposite effect: it CALMS ME DOWN.

Bc straight up: doing client work can be stressful.

You wanna do your best and get the best outcomes, but that's not always an easy thing to do.

Which usually = *loads* of self-applied pressure. 😬

Lots of feeling like things are taking too long and needing to go faster.

But its a catch 22 because to do your best work, there needs to be time and space for creativity and flow. And breathing down your own neck the whole time? That's the exact opposite of flow.

When I'm in the middle of creative work, I start to feel like it's taking too long.

Like, it shouldn't be taking this long, I don't have time to waste right now...

You know the script.

That whole song and dance used to send me spiralling

But I also used to create giant 3-hour daunting tasks called "weekly email newsletter" and expect myself to just DO IT.

Now I break it into two tasks: 1 hour for rough draft, 1 hour to finalize. That first hour? It's the messy time. Brain dumping. Writing without self-editing.

So when the this is taking too long pressure shows up, I glance at the timer: 37 minutes. I still have 23 minutes left to play.

That's why the timer doesn't feel like pressure anymore. I designed it right for how I work.

Which is why it's worth paying attention to how you actually work 👀

So you can build it into a project in ClickUp, with steps that are spacious enough to sink into, and allow you to create your best work.

Eventually that panicky voice in your head that says "faster!" gets replaced by something calmer: "You have time. You're on the right track. Keep going."

Reader: Is there a task you do right now that feels strained?

Sit with it and think - can this be broken down into multiple steps? Can I include more time for play?

Seriously, hit reply and tell me. I wanna know what work is making you feel rushed and panicky. Maybe we can figure out how to give it some breathing room.

xo,

Robyn

Robyn Henke

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