How to work on Upwork?

Question

Work organization

I started working on upwork, the total number of hours has already exceeded a hundred. As you know, time is calculated using the Upwork Team program, which takes screenshots, monitors open windows, and generally collects statistics on activity. This is where I have a question.
The direction is mainly frontend. As a rule, the workflow includes not only coding itself, but a lot of accompanying. Do you turn off Upwork Team while NOT coding?
For example:

1. Reading a client letter, writing a response
   
2. Commit changes
   
3. Reading stackoverflow, mdn in moments of difficulty
   
4. Thinking, planning on paper
   
5. Testing an idea by writing and running a snippet on fiddle
   
6. Go to the toilet for 2 minutes
   

I'm not talking about reading habr, reddit, watching news on the first channel and others, but about things that relate directly to the current project.

Answer 1

Don't bother. I have not met clients who would delve into the screenshots and then complain. Get down to work - turn on the tracker, finished work - turn off the tracker.

Answer 2

if you are an average worker, everything related to work is struggling, that is, reading letters, reading stackoverflow, well, you need to plan in Azure and not on paper
, drink coffee, write poetry, don’t piss.

Answer 3

Work on one screen, the rest on the other

Answer 4

No, I don't turn it off. All the time spent on the SOLUTION of the problem should be paid.
And point #6 is no exception.
Of course, if you do not have enough knowledge or experience at the Junior level, then you should not track the time spent on self-study.

Answer 5

I think that it is better to discuss such moments with the customer in advance. I pause only on the 6th point. Well, I didn’t have the 4th point, I’m thinking about everything as I write the code.
There was a case when I explained to the customer for 2 hours how best to solve his problem, accordingly I tracked this time, warning him in advance. What difference does it make whether you sell your knowledge in the form of a code or in the form of a consultation.

Answer 6

I work with tahometr, I think the essence is the same. I determined for myself:
1. correspondence and Skype with the customer - work 2. planning ,
design - work (in the tachometer you can add offline time with comments) 50 to 50, if I read something on the topic of what I should know (php directory for example), it’s not work, but if the site needs an api for something (for example, a payment system) and you need to figure it out, work 5. Sitting stupid on the screen is not work. As a result, there are regular customers who allow less and less time to rummage through freelance exchanges. Work honestly and it will backfire on you.

Answer 7

I have already gained experience and now I can accurately estimate the time on order. But you need to do this, take the approximate time, multiply it by 2 and then multiply it by your hourly rate. If the amount that turned out suits you, we start a negotiation with the client. The client gave the go-ahead, we begin to work. First, you can do it without a counter: setting up a workflow, creating a structure, understanding the task. And then we turn on the counter and do it. I basically do not take contracts with a fixed payment. Who knows what else will come into the head of the customer and then he will blackmail you. I have had such cases, I had to return the money. But now Job Success has appeared on UpWork, it has become problematic to break contracts without losing reputation. And if your Job Success is below 70%, consider everything, you can look for another job.

Answer 8

A similar situation, I'm working on a project, the program counts the activity and saves screenshots from the monitor + screen from the laptop. Taking into account the fact that a decent chunk of time is needed to think about a solution to a problem, make sketches on paper, prepare a prototype on paper and sometimes look for a solution on similar projects, upwork with its own time checker is not very happy.
But I approached this philosophically :) I write down all my thoughts in a notebook, and I chew the problem in the same place in a notebook, I do sketches by hand in Photoshop or Illustrator, and I also write correspondence on the project with the timer turned on.