Confessions of a time abuser – By @rubyq

By Ruby Quince

Confessions of a time abuser

Oh boy, it’s getting hotter in the kitchen. The basics are adding up. We’ve got portfolios to build, agencies to network with, stuff still to learn. We were told that we were abusing time so I thought I should do a quick tally to see how much of an abuser I was. ‘Collecting the dots’ and basic human stuff are me-time, so don’t count.Daily town hall, average 45min x 5 = 225Read news daily: 30min x5 = 150Topical expectation is one a week minimum. Around 60minMeditation, gratitude, diary 30min x5 = 150Daily SMP 15min x5 = 75Masterclasses/ sessions: 480min average over the weekOptional classes (comedy school, art direction stuff etc.): 300mins aveAgency visits for crits: 2 p/m (4 hours with prep); average 120min p/w.Personal Scab every 2 weeks: 2 hours, so 60min hour average p/wGroup scab arrange = 30minReflection craft/present: 120min= 1,770, or 29.5 hours so far on the basics.Of course, I don’t do all of these, so there’s a bit of wiggle room around the edges. I soak some of that up making coffee, chit-chatting, idle moments dithering over what to do next.And there are a couple of basics you need to do for live briefs and the PB briefs, outside of actually doing the work…PB upload/present: 120minLive brief upload and present (we don’t present every week, so I’m averaging that out at 50mins per week, it makes the sum easier)You’d be crazy not to check in with the mentors on these projects: 5x 20min = 100min= 2,040, or 34 hours. Or 6.8 hours a day.Officially we’re in for 40 hours a week, but let’s throw 50 hours a week (10 hours a day) in as a figure, just for argument's sake. It’s not like we’re clock-watchers. Someone said that everyone has the same minutes in the day as Beyonce. I bet she does more than 10 hours a day.So. There’s doing the work itself; one live brief and a rolling PB each week. I think that a live brief is probably meant to be about a quarter of the time. If we were clock watchers, sticking to the official 40 hours that should be 1.5 hours on a live brief, 4.5 on a portfolio brief. But we're here to do work we can be proud of, not crank out obligatory artifacts 4 hours for a live brief and 12 for the PB. I suppose technically there are two people working on these as a pair, so you could double the figures. I would if I was billing it to a client. So 24 billable hours a week on a portfolio brief and 8 on a live brief. Sounds about right, right?