I'm not sure I see the connection. Having lovely graphs likely aren't going to save you from massive lay-offs in a large company. Either your work is demonstrably valuable or it's not.

Even if your work is valuable, a company in a death spiral may not take the time to look. If your boss and boss's boss is laid off, who are you going to show your graphs to?

Darcy

Is there a graph that shows how much time you wasted just messing with this App? :)

cgarduc

@jbarr:

Me too. And frankly, if you need some graph because you question your productivity, then there is a good chance that you don't want this evidence showing just how (un)productive you really are.

jupiterthunder

The eye candy is nice, but I think it really boils down to one fundamental question: Do you have the discipline to effectively adjust your habits when you finally understand where your time is spent?

While it looks great on proverbial paper, I know first hand that it can be a challenge. Probably the most important thing is to take the time to prioritize and manage those priorities. When I figure it out, I'll let you know....

jbarr

@Darcy:

Agreed. I thought this was going to be a post about free tools that can replace the licensed tools your company is using in the event they cut the budget to renew those licenses.

Not to mention, in the midst of a recession, I would not lay any stake in a web company or the tools it provide being availabe.

jupiterthunder

The eye candy is nice, but it really boils down to one fundamental question: Do you have the discipline to effectively adjust your habits once you determine how you are really spending your time?

It's all good on proverbial paper, but for resistant procrastinators like me, it can be a challenge.

jbarr

@Darcy: Ahh you do have a good point. However if you can prove that you work all the time that you should work, yet don't have a massive output, they're less likely to sack you over the guy who does truck all and produces truck all.

and even if your bosses bosses boss gets fired and everyone is out of a job, you can take these graphs to other employers to prove that you can and do effectively use your time.

the question is, will it take up time to produce the documents, and on who's time did you produce them

Zepth

The only way to really recession proof your job is to have been busting your tail to work your way up or at least prove to your bosses you are worth keeping.

...so basically it is a little, no wait, extremely late to "recession proof" your job.

wild_bill

get real....the decision to outsource your job to India, or to rationalise your branch or factory will not be influenced by how hard you ( as an individual) work.
However, if you see your boss playing around with little graphs like this....dust off your cv and check the situations vacant columns

muddypaws

You can always get off your lazy butts and start your own business. Heaven forbid someone else stick THEIR own neck out on the line.

jakkyl

worrying about charts like this will more than likely waste more time than it's worth.

The only great way(s) to recession proof any job is to:

- Get a degree or three, specialized or otherwise
- Have an indispensable job, not saying you should be indispensable because that can lead to no advancement later, but jobs that are ALWAYS needed.
- A combo of degree(s) and a solid job would help
- Learn new skills applicable to your job so that you're not the average joe down the hall that's done nothing new for the last 15 years
- GO ON INTERVIEWS, this seems almost counterproductive but a successful professor/coworker of mine once told me that you have to figure out how much you're worth and go on interviews a few times a year. Who knows, you might get a better offer than your current job.
(for those wondering about the professor, has anyone heard of "from the Couch to the 5k" she was the one who made that it was actually on lifehacker not so long ago)

Now given these are all my opinions so if yours differ that's fine, as long as it works for you and keeps your job.

liquidglass

@muddypaws:

I'm in India and even I don't feel safe. We received a (now prophetic) email from our chairman last night warning us of what's coming ahead.

Micho

Sorry, LH editors, this post's title "Recession-Proof Your Job with Free Web-Based Tools" just screams "sensationalist-journalism-just-click-me-so-I-can-show-you-ads". What does use of these tools have to do with keeping your job and the certain-to-come-recession?!?

I read the linked blog, and it's a poor attempt to tie the $700 billion bailout to use of web-based tools. Lazy writing = wasting readers' time. Sheesh.

Posco Grubb

I noticed that at times I tend to get "off track" if you will at work. What I found that worked the easiest was to keep a work log. This is a private file (was a shell script and now it's a little python script) and I constantly put stuff in it durring the day. Like "check email", "check rss", etc. It auto timestamps the entry and I give it a "project" Mainly just stuff like 'work', or 'personal'. I can then go back and see I spent a bunch of time reading rss feeds and not enough time doing actual work.

vrillusions

I don't really see how this recession-proofs anything

ImeldaFloyd

Too late. New career? Dirt Farmer!

MackenzieQuintus

My method for recession-proofing my job: Applying unique knowledge and skills to solve business problems on a daily basis. (In what industry does graphing one's online activities amount to recession-proofing? It sounds too good to be true!)

WirtBabazoid

@undefined: Yeah because this is a FANTASTIC time to start a business... ¬_¬

Jeneni