Why Task-Level Time Tracking Fails Designers (and the Business)

When you measure the wrong thing, you miss the real value.

Stack what matters — measure stability, balance, and purpose to build something of value. Image by Robert Anasch

At more than one agency, I’ve seen leaders roll out task-level time-tracking systems with the goal of improving visibility, controlling costs, and making smarter staffing decisions. On paper, it makes perfect sense: if you can quantify where your team’s time is going, you can optimize for efficiency.

But here’s the problem: designers don’t work in neat little blocks. Creativity isn’t linear, problem-solving doesn’t happen on a clock, and the pressure to log every minute often does more harm than good — for both the team and the business.

It Feels Like Micromanagement (Because It Is)

Ask any designer how they feel about submitting timecards every week and you’ll get a heavy sigh at best. It’s not because we’re unwilling to be accountable — it’s because the way time tracking is usually implemented makes us feel like we’re being commoditized.

It suggests that our value lies in how many hours we sit at a desk, not in the impact of the work we produce.

Designers are idea people. They move between ideation, iteration, research, feedback, and refinement. Some of that is deeply focused work. Some of it is invisible mental processing. Trying to quantify all of that in 15- or 30-minute increments doesn’t capture anything useful — but it does send the message that you’re being watched.

And when people feel watched, they stop thinking expansively and start thinking defensively. They optimize for appearances. They check boxes instead of pushing ideas. They might even default to a safe option because exploration “takes too long”.

I know I’m not the only one who’s sat down at the computer with my coffee in the morning, ready to create some killer concepts, only to be presented with a math problem: “7 social posts, on 3 topics, in 14 hours — including revisions”. Sooo… 1.75 hours per graphic to leave time for tweaks? Or should it be 1.5 to pad a little since each topic has a different stakeholder? Burning energy budgeting my creative effort is not a recipe for great work.

The Data Isn’t Reliable Anyway

Here’s the other dirty little secret: time tracking data is rarely trustworthy. Sometimes a great idea comes right away but a savvy designer knows under-logging hours means cutting future estimates to the bone. Or they might spend extra time polishing a concept but don’t want to sit through a post-mortem for a blown budget so they just don’t log those hours.

People backfill their time sheet at the end of the week. They guess. They round. They log what they think their manager (or project manager) wants to see.

And why wouldn’t they? The system doesn’t reflect how they actually work, so they play along just enough to keep it moving. What leadership ends up with is a spreadsheet full of fuzzy numbers masquerading as insight.

Then someone tries to use that data to make a resourcing decision — and it backfires. A team that spent extra time on a project to make it great looks “inefficient.” A designer who under-logged their hours trying to look heroic burns out. A team is under-resourced because the logged hours didn’t reflect the real effort behind the work.

Garbage in, garbage out.

What Are We Actually Trying to Solve?

Most time-tracking initiatives start from a reasonable place. Leaders want to know:

• Are we billing accurately?

• Are we resourced correctly?

• Are we spending time on the right things?

Those are legitimate business questions. But task-level time tracking doesn’t answer them well — and it can come at the cost of team trust, creativity, and culture.

If your goal is to understand how well your team is functioning, there are better tools. If your goal is to understand cost and effort, there are better signals.

What you really want to know is:

• Are we delivering meaningful outcomes?

• Are we scoped and staffed in a way that sets us up for success?

• Are teams clear on priorities — and supported in doing their best work?

Better Ways to Measure (and Lead)

You don’t need a detailed hourly breakdown to improve team performance. You need clarity, communication, and room for honest feedback. Here are a few better ways to track and improve:

• Use project retrospectives to learn where time went and whether it was spent well.

• Track outcomes, not input. Did the design improve conversion? Did the client get what they needed? Did the solution align with business goals?

• Check in with your team’s capacity regularly — not just how busy they are, but whether they feel effective.

• Make sure project managers have the visibility they need to manage scope creep without burdening the team with timesheet admin.

Let’s pause here for a reality check.

While task-level time tracking often falls short as a measure of performance, that doesn’t mean time has no place in a well-run creative team. Some level of predictability is still necessary — especially when planning resources, managing client expectations, or ensuring the team isn’t overextended.

Where Time Awareness Does Help

Let’s be clear: this isn’t a blanket rejection of time awareness. Predictability matters. In agencies, in-house teams, and especially project-based work — some level of estimation and tracking is essential for resource planning, profitability, and trust with clients or internal partners.

But here’s the distinction: there’s a difference between time as a planning tool and time as a performance metric.

Used well, time estimates help teams avoid overcommitment. They help managers see what’s reasonable to take on next quarter. They inform pricing and capacity models. And for project managers, having a ballpark for common deliverables (like “how long does it typically take us to turn around a homepage redesign?”) is invaluable.

This kind of time-awareness isn’t about tracking every 15 minutes. It’s about having enough data to make smart, proactive decisions — not reactive corrections.

Planning with Time Without Micromanaging It

So how do you get the resource-planning benefits without sliding into micromanagement?

Here’s what’s worked in healthier teams I’ve seen:

• Build a time-estimate library of typical tasks — homepage design, landing page testing, usability audits, etc. Update it periodically with input from the team, not just project managers.

• Track time as a team-level pattern, not an individual-level performance metric. What does a given type of project usually require, and where are the outliers?

• Use time tracking in sprints or phases, not down to the hour. Know when a team is in discovery vs. wireframes vs. build — that’s often more useful than the exact hour count.

• Let teams self-report pain points where they feel rushed or overextended, and use that insight to adjust your forecasting model — not to assign blame.

When time is treated as an input to planning — not a prod for more output — it becomes a useful tool, instead of a morale drain.

So What’s the Alternative? Try These Instead.

So yes — awareness of time has its place. But the real unlock comes when we shift away from individual accountability toward shared clarity, smarter systems, and outcome-focused planning.

You don’t need a timecard to understand how your team is operating — you just need the right conversations, some strategic reflection, and a willingness to trust what you see.

Here’s how to do that without resorting to the stopwatch:

1. Use team retrospectives to understand effort

Ask the team what took longer than expected, what felt unclear, or where energy got drained. Patterns will surface — and they’re far more useful than vague time entries. This also builds a habit of reflection instead of defensiveness.

2. Prioritize outcome-based planning

Instead of asking how long something took, ask what it accomplished. Did the design reduce support tickets? Improve conversions? Make internal workflows smoother? Setting smarter stretch goals, not micromanaging hours, leads to real growth

3. Check for capacity, not “busyness”

Replace “How many hours did you spend on this?” with “Do you have what you need to do this well?” or “Where are things getting stuck?” These questions build rapport — and uncover resource issues faster than a timesheet.

4. Make resourcing collaborative

Instead of relying on time data to make staffing decisions, involve your team leads. They know who’s overloaded and where the friction is. They can flag early signs of burnout — and they’ll appreciate being trusted to help solve it.

5. Use project-level forecasting, not minute-by-minute estimates

You can still forecast hours at a high level to plan budgets or timelines — just keep it flexible. Let the team adjust in real time as priorities shift. Don’t expect the original estimate to be gospel. It’s just a starting point.

This approach is more about healthy systems and clear expectations than it is about clocking in and out. And the side effect? Stronger culture, better work, and more trust on all sides.

I’ve led teams with task-specific time cards and ones without. Weekly 1:1s focused on how the person across from me is doing, how they feel about their work, and what I can do to support them is a much more effective path toward mutual respect than having to ask why a task took 31 hours instead of 24.

Trust Over Timestamps

Here’s the truth: you can’t spreadsheet your way to a perfectly predictable design machine. You can create structure. You can build clarity. But once you start trying to quantify every hour, you risk flattening the work — and the people doing it.

Design is messy. It requires iteration, play, failure, and recovery. That doesn’t fit cleanly into a timecard. If your team is producing great work, collaborating well, and delivering outcomes — they’re already doing what matters.

Let them focus on the work. Then focus your leadership energy on supporting progress, not counting minutes.

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I write weekly articles for designers and design leaders who want to grow their impact, lead with clarity, and build careers that actually feel sustainable.