Four clients, one week, and where the hours went
Sam is a freelance illustrator with four clients: a publisher, two studios and a magazine. They work from home and are paid per commission, not by the hour. This is one of their weeks, and the six moments in it where HourLife does its work.
- 4 clients
- Paid per commission
- Works from home
Sam's week, Monday first. Each lit hour is a moment below.
- Mon 09:00 The clock starts when the drawing does Hours
- Mon 15:00 Fourteen days, and still unpaid Waiting
- Tue 10:00 Inks take longer than 25 minutes Focus
- Wed 18:00 Everything the work runs on, in one list Finances
- Thu 11:00 The cover goes out a day early Projects
- Sun 19:00 Ideas for their own work Someday
Sam is an example, not a customer. The week is made up; everything HourLife does in it, the app does today.
The week without a system
Freelance work does not arrive in a straight line. A cover brief lands on Monday, a studio wants revisions by Wednesday, and the publisher's picture book needs a spread a week. Every client thinks they are the only one, and the fee for each job was set before anyone knew how long it would take.
Sam's invoices are in invoicing software and the files are in a shared folder. What had no home was everything in between: which client the hours went to, which invoice is late, and the ideas for their own work that never get a Tuesday.
A week with HourLife
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Hour 9 of 168 Monday 09:00
The clock starts when the drawing does
Sam added four tiles to Hours through “Activities” in the … menu, one for each client, each with its own name and colour. At nine they open the publisher's spread and tap that tile. It moves to “Running” at the top, with pause and stop.
When the magazine's art director sends notes at eleven, tapping the magazine's tile stops the publisher's, so a switch is one tap. The fee is fixed either way. What Hours keeps is how long the work really took, and Insights in the … menu shows how the last 30 days split across the four.
Hours in the guide Free
Work running at the top of Hours, with pause and stop buttons above the activity grid. -
6 hours later Monday 15:00
Fourteen days, and still unpaid
The invoice for a studio's storyboards went into Waiting the day Sam sent it, from the studio as an organisation, with “Since” set to that day and “Nudge me on” at the 14-day default. Today it reached that date and moved into “Follow up needed”.
Sam emails the studio's producer, then taps “Follow up”. The progress note says the producer promised the next payment run, and the next follow-up date is Friday. When the money arrives, “Mark Resolved” closes the item and records the total time waiting.
Waiting in the guide Free
An insurance claim waiting on Harbor Mutual for 21 days, with “Mark Resolved”, its “Nudge me on” date, and an empty progress timeline. -
19 hours later Tuesday 10:00
Inks take longer than 25 minutes
Twenty-five minutes is too short for a line of ink to settle into. In Focus settings, under “Session Lengths”, Sam set the Pomodoro to 45 minutes and the short break to 10. Tuesday morning goes to the magazine cover: they link the session to its “Inks” task and start.
Each finished session adds a Pomodoro to that task, and breaks never count as focus. When a client calls mid-session and Sam stops after the first minute, the session is kept as “Stopped early”. “Show partial sessions” decides whether those show in Today's history.
Focus in the guide Free
Focus settings: session lengths for Pomodoro, Short, Long and Custom, the default mode, and partial-session history. -
32 hours later Wednesday 18:00
Everything the work runs on, in one list
The drawing app, the font licence, cloud storage for client files and the portfolio site all charge on different days, some monthly and one yearly. Each went into the “Subscriptions” tab with “+”, its amount and its “Billing Cycle”.
The tab adds up what this month's plans charge under “THIS MONTH”, and lists each service by its charge date, with a “TODAY” marker between what has been paid and what is still to come. Charges follow from each plan, so Sam logs nothing by hand. When the portfolio site raises its price, “This is a price change” keeps the old price up to the day the new one starts. Every figure is one Sam types in.
Finances in the guide Premium
October’s services, iCloud+ and Gym App paid, a TODAY marker on Oct 12, and Notion’s yearly charge next March. -
17 hours later Thursday 11:00
The cover goes out a day early
The magazine cover has been a Standard project since the brief came in, with a “Target date” of Friday, its tasks (thumbnails, sketch, inks, colour, final files) and two milestones, “Sketch approved” and “Final delivered”.
On Thursday the last task is ticked and the files go out. Sam taps “Complete Project”, writes a short completion note on what the two rounds of sketch changes took, marks the last milestone reached, and turns on “Add to Highlights”. The project is archived, and the note is there the next time the magazine sends a brief.
The “Complete Project” sheet with a completion note, timeline and highlights toggles, and an option to mark the pending milestone reached. -
80 hours later Sunday 19:00
Ideas for their own work
A picture book of their own, a zine of drawings from the street market, a lettering course. None of them is for now, so each went into Someday as “Someday I might…”, with a note on what started it. The picture book's age has turned coral; it has been waiting more than three months.
On Sunday the “Monthly review due” banner is up, and “Review now” goes through each idea, one card at a time. The zine becomes a Goal, the lettering course is deferred a month, and the picture book is kept. The review ends with a count, and the banner stays away for 30 days.
Someday in the guide Free
The first of three ideas in the review, “Learn to play the drums”, with its note and the Keep, Convert, Defer, and Delete choices.
The screens show HourLife's own sample data, not Sam's.
Where Sam would start
Four modules, set up in the first week. The rest can wait until the week asks for them.
Common questions
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Can HourLife send invoices or do my accounts?
No. HourLife is a personal planner, not invoicing or accounting software. It can track that an invoice is still owed, in Waiting, and list what your subscriptions charge, in Finances, but invoices, payments and tax stay in the tools you already use. Every figure in Finances is one you type in, and nothing connects to a bank.
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Which of these modules are free?
Hours, Waiting, Focus, Projects and Someday are free. Finances is part of HourLife Premium.
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Can I track time for each client?
Yes, as activities. “Activities” in Hours' … menu adds a tile for each client, with its own name, icon and colour. Tap it to start the timer, or add the time afterwards with “Log past activity”. Hours records the time; it does not bill it.
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Will it remind me to chase a late payment?
Yes, once you turn on “Follow-up reminders” in Waiting's Settings, which is off at first. It notifies you at 9 AM on each item's follow-up date. Overdue items can also appear on Today as a nudge card with a “Follow up” action.
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Does it work on my Mac?
Yes. HourLife runs on iPhone and Mac, in English, and your data syncs between them through iCloud.
Your week, not Sam's
Every moment above is one module. Most people start with Today and one other, and add the next when the week asks for it.
HourLife runs on iPhone and Mac, and syncs between them through iCloud.
