Guides

    Practical guides to tracking coding time: from git history, from the terminal, and from whichever editor you actually work in. Each one covers what the method measures, where it breaks down, and what to do about the gap.

    Showing 37–44 of 44 posts in Guides
    How to Estimate Developer Hours From Commits (a Practical Method for 2026)
    Guides

    How to Estimate Developer Hours From Commits (a Practical Method for 2026)

    A step-by-step method to estimate developer hours from commits: session reconstruction, gap thresholds, and calibration. Plus where git-only estimates break and how to make the number invoice-ready.

    Matt
    How to Measure AI Coding Productivity in 2026 (a Framework That Holds Up)
    Guides

    How to Measure AI Coding Productivity in 2026 (a Framework That Holds Up)

    Measure AI coding productivity by tracking leverage and shipped output, not lines or tokens. Here is the framework: what to measure, what to ignore, and why commit volume and token counts mislead in the agent era.

    Matt
    How to Prove Your Code Is Human-Written, Not AI (2026)
    Guides

    How to Prove Your Code Is Human-Written, Not AI (2026)

    You cannot prove code is human written not AI by inspecting the code, because finished output looks identical either way. Here is what actually proves human authorship: provenance, attribution, and an audited record of how the work happened.

    Matt
    Coding Time Tracker Without an IDE Plugin: What Actually Works in 2026
    Guides

    Coding Time Tracker Without an IDE Plugin: What Actually Works in 2026

    Want to track coding time without an IDE plugin? Start from a git baseline with nothing to install, then add one editor-agnostic CLI tracker for accuracy. Why per-editor plugins fail, and what to use instead.

    Matt
    How to Track Coding Time From Git (and Why Git Alone Isn't Enough in 2026)
    Guides

    How to Track Coding Time From Git (and Why Git Alone Isn't Enough in 2026)

    You can estimate coding time from Git commits, but git alone is a benchmark, not an accurate clock, especially with AI. Why telemetry is the accurate layer, and how to combine both.

    Matt
    The Real Cost of Context Switching for Developers (With Numbers)
    Guides

    The Real Cost of Context Switching for Developers (With Numbers)

    It takes 23 minutes to refocus after an interruption. The real cost of context switching for developers, the yearly math, and how to see and protect your deep work.

    Matt
    Why Manual Timesheets Lie (and What Git-Based Tracking Shows Instead)
    Guides

    Why Manual Timesheets Lie (and What Git-Based Tracking Shows Instead)

    Developers overestimate productive time by up to 40%. Why memory-based timesheets are inaccurate, what it costs, and how git-based tracking gives you honest hours.

    Matt
    How to Measure Flow State Without Breaking It (2026)
    Guides

    How to Measure Flow State Without Breaking It (2026)

    Traditional productivity tracking destroys the flow state it tries to measure. How to measure deep work passively, from your real coding activity, without interrupting it.

    Matt

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