Because I’m working on a range of different projects I’ve decided to start keeping a record of what I do by the hour. This is also because projects are never just about outputs. There are always a number of meetings that happen that aren’t in any project plan or PID.

I’m becoming amazed and fascinated by how much time it actually takes to do certain tasks - in particular the ones that seem like they might just take a minute or two. For example, sending an email. Where there are lots of ‘issues’ and fragile or fractious egos, this can take a surprising amount of time. The amount of time spent just organising work is quite absorbing as well.

Must try and read Harry Braverman again over the next few days as one of the few people that I’m aware of (there may be a whole industry that I don’t know about) that has attempted to analyse the detail of work processes from a marxist perspective in terms of the relation of labour to capital, control of production, control of labour power, relations of production and means of production.

Boy does it feel good writing those categories down for further exploration. They make the mind come alive.