Poll: Do you pay attention to how productive you are (e.g. words per hour/day)? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you pay attention to how productive you are (e.g. words per hour/day)?".
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| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 12:58
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
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I like to have an income that is as predictable as possible. The only way to achieve that is by determining a word goal per day (or week, or month) and trying to achieve it as close as possible.
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It's something I like to pay attention to because it can be very useful both for me and my clients.
I like to be able to say how long would it take for me to translate a certain type of content.
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I care more about quality than productivity (what good is it to produce a large volume of garbage?). With long jobs, I always set myself a daily comfortable translation quota in order to be able to squeeze smaller jobs from other customers. A huge advantage of big projects is that you become familiar with content quite early and the more familiar you are the faster your translation speed picks up. Let's say that each time I happen to exceed my daily quota I have a kind of a childish feel of acco... See more I care more about quality than productivity (what good is it to produce a large volume of garbage?). With long jobs, I always set myself a daily comfortable translation quota in order to be able to squeeze smaller jobs from other customers. A huge advantage of big projects is that you become familiar with content quite early and the more familiar you are the faster your translation speed picks up. Let's say that each time I happen to exceed my daily quota I have a kind of a childish feel of accomplishment but I wouldn’t call it “productivity”… ▲ Collapse
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| No, I never have | May 30, 2023 |
Lieven Malaise wrote:
I like to have an income that is as predictable as possible. The only way to achieve that is by determining a word goal per day (or week, or month) and trying to achieve it as close as possible.
Or… charge the right amount for each job so you get the same amount per hour.
| | | | | Productivity? | May 30, 2023 |
Wouldn't that go hand in hand with an economic upswing?
| | | | Dan Lucas 
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:58
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
| If I don't know how productive I am, how can I plan? | May 30, 2023 |
I think most of us have very clear deadlines. If we don't know roughly how many words or characters we can get through an hour, how can we organise our schedules when things get busy?
If Client A says "I have 10,000 characters to be done by Thursday" and Client B says "I need 4,000 characters completed by start of business on Tuesday", you need to be able to make a judgement on whether you have the capacity. And the quicker the better, because if you can't do it the client will nee... See more I think most of us have very clear deadlines. If we don't know roughly how many words or characters we can get through an hour, how can we organise our schedules when things get busy?
If Client A says "I have 10,000 characters to be done by Thursday" and Client B says "I need 4,000 characters completed by start of business on Tuesday", you need to be able to make a judgement on whether you have the capacity. And the quicker the better, because if you can't do it the client will need to find somebody else and it's not fair to keep them waiting.
I work in 30-minute chunks with 5-10 minute breaks. I have a piece of paper on which I jot down a start number for words or characters, and a target for the end of the 30-minute period. If I don't hit that target then I'm either getting distracted or the text is harder than anticipated. This may have implications for the deadline. Conversely, if I'm ahead of target then maybe I have a bit more time than I thought.
Dan ▲ Collapse
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How can you miss that?
But productivity is not the goal for me.
While I need to make enough money to get by, there must also be time to pursue other interests and obligations.
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I keep track of more or less how many words I do per hour for every job I do. Like this I can see how long each type of subject takes me, as well as the average for each client, measured either in words or in euros.
This, I suppose, is my "productivity" - I use it mainly to decide which clients or topics to ditch when I have too much work. Some years ago, I decided to stop working with three clients as I saw they weren't paying well enough per hour and have never regretted the deci... See more I keep track of more or less how many words I do per hour for every job I do. Like this I can see how long each type of subject takes me, as well as the average for each client, measured either in words or in euros.
This, I suppose, is my "productivity" - I use it mainly to decide which clients or topics to ditch when I have too much work. Some years ago, I decided to stop working with three clients as I saw they weren't paying well enough per hour and have never regretted the decision. It also shows me which clients I should never turn down or where I need to raise my rates.
On the other hand, one client that brings in less than average per hour is the one most likely to pass my name on to other clients, so I've kept them since 1995. A real goldmine.
In theory the per-hour rate for each subject or client should also give me an idea of how long a job might take but I tend not to trust it. At the moment, my workchart tells me that I have about 5.5 hours work for tomorrow and a total of 288.4 hours of work already on my desk (about 4.2 hours per day on average, but more will be coming in). Not accurate but it gives an idea. I often use this to see whether or not to accept a job.
I can also see how many words/euros I produce per day/week/month/year, but that's just to satisfy my curiosity.
Simon ▲ Collapse
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I find it unhelpful to count number of words translated. I have so many different clients, so many different texts, so many different steps in workflows … there’s no uniform way to catalog my productivity except hours worked by job (which I then later correlate with fee received per job, to double-check whether my estimates and billing are appropriate).
Now if only there were some way to reliably determine the financial effectiveness of admin/marketing work! (This is why I’m a... See more I find it unhelpful to count number of words translated. I have so many different clients, so many different texts, so many different steps in workflows … there’s no uniform way to catalog my productivity except hours worked by job (which I then later correlate with fee received per job, to double-check whether my estimates and billing are appropriate).
Now if only there were some way to reliably determine the financial effectiveness of admin/marketing work! (This is why I’m a translator rather than working in cost controlling.) ▲ Collapse
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