I stopped tracking my time. Now I can't focus.

Joe Masilotti

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I stopped tracking my time. Now I can't focus.<br>I'm getting more done than ever, and I've never felt more scattered.

Joe Masilotti<br>Jun 11, 2026

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One of the most freeing things I’ve ever done in my business is to stop tracking time.<br>I used to religiously track where I spent my time when on my computer. Client work in one bucket, personal branding in another, and side projects/adventures in a third. Inside of those, I would then categorize which engagement/project I was working on.<br>At the end of the year, it was awesome! I had this huge breakdown of where all of my time went. I could even cross-reference it against what each thing made money-wise and figure out my effective billable rate. Which sometimes was super empowering. But for side projects? Super depressing. :P<br>I’ve launched more than a handful of “things” that made no money at all. And spent a ton of time working on them.<br>As time went on, I found myself taking a few seconds to pick which project to bill time to. “Ok, let’s go build this thing!” “Oh, let me track time first.” “Hmm, is this personal branding? Marketing? A side project that I haven’t solidified yet?”<br>That additional context switch (on top of the actual one) could often kill the idea I had in my head. Before I even started working, I all of a sudden had an admin task to take care of.<br>And sure, I could do it after the fact. So I started just clicking “start” without assigning a project in my time tracker. Which worked pretty well! But then I would forget entirely. Or even worse, switch tasks and now had to make two decisions (old work and new work).<br>I eventually realized that it was costing me more time and, more importantly, mental energy, to keep this up than the payoff was worth.<br>So in 2026, I completely stopped tracking my time. And it has been the most freeing thing I’ve ever done for my business.<br>When an idea sparks, I just... do it. When I want to context switch, well, I context switch!<br>And with AI-assisted development? It means I can bounce around like all freaking day working on whatever I want without any repercussions!<br>Except… not exactly.<br>Now I’m bouncing around all the freaking time. Why work on one thing when I could work on ten things ?! Why limit my creativity to a single project that doesn’t make money when I could be building twenty things that don’t make money ?!<br>And so on and so on.<br>Turns out, the friction I felt around picking one thing may have actually been beneficial. Perhaps it was actually helping me stay focused. Even if it cost just a bit of extra time before I sat down and worked.<br>I’m not sure if AI caused this or just threw lighter fluid on an existing fire. But whatever it is… damn is my brain fragmented.<br>I feel like I’m getting so much done. But also so mentally exhausted at the end of the day.<br>I also really want to work… more? It’s quite a feeling. And maybe all this is just my ADHD getting dopamine hit after dopamine hit when I’m working with Claude.<br>Or maybe this is just the new way of working?

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