Analyzing the Time Log
Posted on February 24, 2025 by prairiemoonquilts in Quilting For HireDid you keep a time log last week? If so, it’s time to analyze it . . .
For purposes of this exercise, we will call your time schedule your “sewing time”, and everything outside of that is your free time (or your lunch time). If you are actually doing this as a business, there is a list of questions in the book, Quilting for Hire, on page 115 that will help you analyze your time sheet as a formal business.
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
- • How many hours did you allot for your sewing time?
- • How many of those hours did you actually use for sewing time?
- • How many of those hours were spent doing things not related to sewing time?
- • Could any of those things have been done outside of your allotted sewing time? In other words, did you get distracted, and end up doing non-sewing things when you really intended to be sewing?
- • Were you productive with your sewing time? Or did you bounce around aimlessly, never quite figuring out what to work on at any given moment?
- • Did some things take longer than you predicted?
- • Did you have many interruptions?
- • Were you unprepared to spend your sewing time wisely?
- • Were you able to focus?
- • Did you waste any precious time?
- • Did you finish anything?
- • Was there something you really meant to get to, but never found the time to get to it?
- • Did everything go well enough that you’re fine with what you got accomplished and how the week went?
Below is my time log, and my answers to these questions.
I’ll preface this by saying: Yes, I take looong lunch “hours”. We only eat one meal a day here, and we eat it midday, so by the time I cook a meal, eat a meal, clean up after the meal, and take a sit-down break from having been on my feet all morning, it runs long, and I’m OK with that. I do a lot of work outside of the 8-5 schedule that makes up for it, but none of that work shows up on my time log. I get up by at least 6:00 am every day, and work until usually around 6:00-6:30 of an evening, sometimes longer (simply because I don’t know what to do with myself if My Cowboy and the animals are all taken care of!). We don’t have TV here, just the internet, and I don’t spend a lot of time on that, so evenings are my time to read or do handwork (or go to bed early). I will also say that my winter schedule looks a lot different than my summer schedule, simply because I don’t leave the house much in the winter (and this past week was brutally cold), and the days are so much shorter.
So here we go . . .
I allotted 40 hours for my work week.
I spent 25.5 of those hours on serious work, most of them (16) running the longarm, which is as it should be.
14.5 hours were spent on random, not-work-related things, long lunch hours, and having to do chores at 4:30 because it gets dark early. (Chores are done later in the summer time, so they don’t cut into my work day except in the winter, or unless we have some emergency.) I’m not happy with this number, but it does speak to my flittery nature.
I did have some interruptions, but they were not things that could have been taken care of outside of normal business hours, so I can’t be too hard on myself over those things. For instance, who’da thunk our brand new furnace would stop working on one of the coldest nights of the year, so that I had to have the repairman here Thursday morning???
Thursday afternoon wasn’t much better than the morning, and I finally gave up and just sat in my chair like a lump until chore time!
I was fairly productive with my work hours, especially at the longarm, which is good (except for Thursday). I was working on a very intense Baltimore Album quilt, and while I intended to get it done by Friday evening, Thursday threw me off, so it ran into the weekend, and I’m still not finished with it!
Also, I would not normally be “altering a skirt”, but we had a wedding to go to on Saturday that required us getting all gussied up, and up till now, I didn’t even own a dress, period. So I went to the thrift store, bought a “prom dress” for $2, brought it home, and made a fancy skirt out of it to wear to the wedding! And I had to get it done, so I fit it into my schedule this past week.
I was not unprepared to spend my time wisely, because I always have many projects in various stages so that I can make the best use of the time I have. If I don’t have a good chunk of time to run the longarm, then I can process scraps or cut quilt pieces or organize something. If I have a little longer, but feel the need to sit down, I have several projects (and I do mean several) parked beside my sewing machine that I can make progress on.
I saved all my flitting and bouncing around among projects for the non-work hours, and tried to stay focused during the 8-5 time as much as possible. Yes, it was painful. I’m sure some of the time could be considered wasted, such as knocking off early on Thursday because I was so flustered, or taking a full 30 minutes for a coffee/cookie break one day — or that Power Nap! But I don’t worry too much about it, because I usually make it up later in the evenings or on weekends.
As for weekends, I made a new rule for myself this year: I’ve been taking weekends off. Meaning, I refuse to feel guilty for not even stepping foot into my studio if I don’t want to. I have worked weekends for nearly 15 years, always telling myself it’s to make up for lost time during the weekdays and interruptions. But now, slowing down is not going to make me feel bad, because I DO still sew (and even run the longarm sometimes) on weekends if I feel like it. And if there is some reason I have to miss a weekday of working, I can always use the weekend to make up for it if that makes me feel better about it. When you’re self-employed, no one pays you for vacation or sick time or personal days!
No finished projects came out of this week’s sewing, except for the skirt, but I did move several things further along. I’m actually pleased with what I got done, even tho I always think it should be more — don’t we all?
How do you think you did with your own time log? However it turned out, don’t fret over it too much. It’s just a fun exercise to see if you are really spending your time how you think you are, or if you see some glaring places where you could squeeze in some more sewing time when you want to. Maybe there are some things you should stop doing that will give you more time? I should probably stop napping! Or use my crockpot even more!
It might also help to do another time log at a different time of year, or after you’ve worked on and developed some new habits you want to adopt (for example, always keeping your cutting table cleared, or finishing one project before starting another, ahem). Or try a different schedule with different days and time slots. Use it to help you see when you do your best work. My Cowboy says I should work nights because I do so much better then. And he’s right, because at night, everyone else has calmed down and gone to sleep, so there are no urgent messages, phone calls, animal emergencies, or interruptions. But I’m generally a day-time person — I love the sunny days — so I haven’t resorted to that! (yet)
I’m interested in hearing how you think this went for you, and what you learned from it.
And if you ARE running a quilting-for-hire business, there is a lot more information on all these topics in my book, Quilting for Hire, available in my Etsy shop! And a series of related articles about the business of quilting can be found HERE.
oh my, I didn’t pick it up until Sunday… and I looked for Sunday on the sheet lol… I will use it this week.
Yes, too many distractions – still! I need to write that down. I did, however, tick a load of things off my to-do list for other things. Joined another quilt group that play all day, two Thursdays in a month, so that is brilliant for me! Except I feel guilty if it’s dry outside because I feel I should be tackling more outside things!
Even though I don’t sew for pay, I find this interesting. I think I’ll keep track of my time for March and April to see what I learn. Thanks for the suggestion.
Way too much time was spent in front of the competer or TV in my case. Your analysis was helpful and I hope to repeat the process, focusing on curbing screen time! And I love your idea of converting a prom dress into a skirt–FUN!