How to report for the work if you did nothing?

Question

Time Management

Good day. As a novice developer, I often encounter the fact that I cannot correctly estimate the time to complete a task. It happens for various reasons. My lack of knowledge in the technology used, this is completely new for me, I read / heard about it somewhere but never did it, etc. causes. But here's the PM - says estimate the time. Let's say I have already started the task, but I'm looking for the right information, trying to find solutions on the Internet or any other materials that would help me. And if you roughly estimate that in 16 out of 32 hours (let's say two days) of work, I should already show some result or report that this and this points are ready, I move on to the next stage; Instead, I'm just starting to try to implement something from afar resembling the task.
So how to behave in such situations, what to do, say?
Say that I don’t know how or I can’t, refuse, etc. - does not fit.
And what if a difficult task turned out to be so simple after 2a days or 2 weeks that the real estimate is 4 hours. I understand that in the future I will already know how to do it. acquired some experience and skills. But the essence of the question is what to do if you face the unknown. So far, I have been able to cope with everything - often I do not strictly fit into the deadlines and crookedly implement this or that part of the task. But after all, it will not be very pleasant either for me or for the boss or for the customer - for anyone. If one day the work is not done at all, and the time is wasted.

Answer 1

You can be accountable for some of the work done.
Investigated the possibility of using the xx option.
Dealt with the yy framework.
Fixed a problem with xx, but testing showed that not everything was fixed. I continue to work.
Worked on tickets #1 and #2, #3 hasn't started yet.
Depending on your work and on your leadership, you need to choose a reporting strategy. If it is important for them to know the exact progress of your activities - write the maximum truth. If it is important for them to know the progress for reporting upwards, they can show the activity without going into details.
In general, in your case, I would talk like a thread 1 on 1 with my immediate supervisor and find out for myself what exactly he wants to see in the reports.

Answer 2

Call the time x2 what you really think.

Answer 3

First, the PM knows approximately how wrong you can be, and how accurately you estimate the complexity. So always say the correct number. Secondly, always log the correct time, and if you see that you are not investing, notify the PM as soon as possible if he himself does not ask for that time. This is all normal workflow, don't worry.

Answer 4

So far, I have been able to cope with everything - often I do not strictly fit into the deadlines and crookedly implement one or another part of the task. But after all, it will not be very pleasant either for me or for the boss or for the customer - for anyone. If one day the work is not done at all, and the time is wasted.

PM in this situation probably wants to find a person who really spends as much time as he talks, i.e. wants to weed out those who can't handle it. How to report - put hours on the spent task, despite the fact that there is no implementation yet. (although you will most likely get fired)
Management is at fault in this situation. Perhaps hourly payment is categorically not suitable for this project, or the division of tasks is not optimal. Or they think that it is possible to introduce any person into someone else's code from the 1st day.
According to you, they end up with crooked implementations. But they kept within the clock, well done.
In such cases, I am in favor of evaluating the effectiveness in long-term sections, at least 2 weeks should be given.

Answer 5

Yes, you can honestly say - I have not encountered anything like this, and the problem (software version, etc.) is new and not very relevant, and therefore there is very little information on the Internet on how to solve it.