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"post_content": "How long does it take you to bill 8 hours a day? I’m a first year and feel like I’m not as efficient as I could be or am under billing. It takes me 10-12 hours to bill 8. This includes the hour I take for lunch and dinner, some breaks for bathroom, and non billable time like entering time etc. how are people billing 200 hours a month? What am I doing wrong?",
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If you’re a fat kid going to the gym for the first time, would you expect to be able to run a mile as fast as the D1 basketball player?
Not in my hypo. The point being an absolute beginner should not feel disparaged if they’re not yet as good at something as someone who has already dedicated a significant chunk of time
Subject Expert
10-12 to bill 8 is not abnormal. 200 hour months for me mean I’m billing for an entire weekend or two, pulling an all nighter or two, etc.
Subject Expert
This is why I’m always telling people to be aggressive about pushing back on too much work - a 1950-2000 minimum is already far from a 9-5 job, even if the daily billable requirement works out to “only” 7.5 or whatever, that is often 10-12 working.
Most 9-5 workers are not spending 7.5 hours a day working diligently and efficiently without needing to use the bathroom or eat or take a mental health fishbowl break 😂
A. B. C. Always. Be. Clocking.
I routinely lose approx 20% of time actually worked to administrative tasks, etc, along with bathroom etc (but rarely break for meals). And generally bill 200+ a month. Those are the hours.
Subject Expert
Well you’re taking an hour for lunch and diner there, that will reduce your efficiency. I eat lunch at my desk and work through it. Everyone I work with does unless we have a meeting at lunch time, then we eat at the meeting at bill through it. I do the same for dinner unless I’m done for the day and get to eat with my spouse.
Aim to spend every possible minute at the office on billable tasks, or tasks that forward your career (I will take breaks to get coffee with mentors, etc.). Also off load as many admin tasks as you possibly can to your admin assistant (that is literally that person’s job). I can get 8 hours of billable time out of an 8.5 hour day at the office most days if I don’t have a department meeting or something.
My efficiency depends on how stressed I am lol
About 10 hours, need an hour to study fantasy football.
I am a first year. It takes me 9 hours to bill 8. I do not take a break for lunch because I need an hour for bathroom breaks, mindless ceiling gazing, looking at emails, checking my phone, etc. Otherwise, I bill all the time it takes me to do my assignments even if it seems crazy that I’m taking so long. I billed 10 hours on Monday, 9 today and I will probably bill 11 tomorrow.
Thank you! That’s super helpful!
I’m a second year and while sometimes I can bill 8 in 8.5 or 9, most days it’s around 10. I don’t think you should be worried at this point, but there’s certainly a lot of good advice in this thread. I will also say that when I’m extremely busy, I’m far more efficient because I have to be. When this happens for you, you’ll start to see where you’re inefficient. As for getting to 200, if I’m having a month like that, I’m working every weekend for at least half days each weekend day. Very rarely does it work out that I can cram 200 in by only working 5 days a week.
8.5 hours
Thank you everyone! This was super helpful!
You take an hour for lunch EVERY DAY?!
No I take 30 min for lunch and 30 min for dinner. This also includes time to wash the dishes and sometimes cook