I made my estimates by guessing how long a task would take based on how familiar it seemed. If I had done something similar before, I gave it a small estimate. If it was new or looked tricky, I added extra time to be safe. Most of my estimates were just educated guesses. For example, linking macros to the planner seemed straightforward, so I said 1 hour. It ended up being more like 2.5 hours.
Yes, even if the estimates were off, they helped. They gave me a rough plan for how to manage my time each week. They also made me think about what I needed to do before I started. That helped me avoid jumping in without a plan. One example: I thought adding the water tracker would take 0.5 hours, but it took 1.5. Even though I was way off, the estimate still gave me a starting point.
Definitely. Tracking the time I actually spent on each issue showed me what kinds of tasks take longer than expected. Anything with UI or styling usually went over. It also helped me get better at estimating over time. Plus, it gave me a record of how much work I really put into the project, which made me feel more confident in the final result.
One downside was that estimates sometimes gave me a false sense of how “easy” a task would be. If I thought something would only take an hour and it took way longer, I’d feel frustrated or like I was falling behind—even if I was still making good progress. It also made me more hesitant to take on bigger tasks if they looked like time sinks. But in the end, I’d rather have a rough plan and adjust than have no estimate at all.
I used the shared spreadsheet and filled it out after finishing a task. I usually added both coding and non-coding time. I think my logs were pretty accurate, maybe not perfect to the minute, but close enough. If I forgot to log right away, I’d just estimate based on how long I had been working.
Not much; it didn’t slow me down or stop me from working. It became a habit pretty quickly. The only time it felt annoying was if I was on a roll and had to stop to write things down, but even then, it wasn’t a big deal.