Time cards are a necessary, yet often begrudgingly completed task for consultants after long workdays or busy weeks. They play a crucial role in driving billing cycles and the ability to justify time spend. For smaller projects, where consultants operate without the constant involvement of a project manager, time cards also help in tracking scope, capture risk and ensure various stakeholders are timely informed of what is going on. Yet, despite their importance, filling out time cards is no one’s favorite task.
If I try to imagine what I would time reporting to look like, the following comes to mind: “Captain’s log, stardate … “. The various captains of the Starship Enterprise also need to do reporting. 🙂 And they do so by simply talking to the computer. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could do it that way? Oh, but wait, we now can!
Enter LLM’s and GenAI ! Talking to a computer and having it extract information from your conversation, then structure and format it the way you need is perfectly possible. While a fully automated “captain’s log” app isn’t commonplace yet (if anybody knows of one, flag it to me), technology is steadily moving in that direction.Here is an example of what is already possible using Gemini which you likely already have on your Android phone today.
- At the end of an activity do this: “Hi Gemini, can you please log a meeting in my calendar from 14-16h with as title Customer X – Data source analysis. In the description, please add the following activities: Reviewed data sources A, B and C for the project. Analysis added to project repository on Google Drive. Risks identified: Data source A seems to suffer from data quality problems. Inform: project manager”. Do that, and in less than 30 seconds you’ll have an accurate log of your activity. In case the activity is an online meetings you might already have a recording, and you can easily extract that same information from the call transcript with a quick prompt. You’ll be looking for activities done, risks and red flags captured, follow up tasks, and people that need to be informed.,
- At the end of the day, take 5 minutes to reflect on the day. Look at your calendar, and reflect on how things went. Did you have enough time to prepare for all the activities (too busy, too much free time), did you feel you had the skills required to do your job, did you like the assignments that you carried out.
The innovation doesn’t stop there. GenAI can take this a step further by compiling all this information at the week’s end, extracting data directly from your calendar (and emails if you let it), and preparing your time card for you and – if you want so – a status report for your manager. This streamlined approach means you can say goodbye to the tedious task of manually filling out time cards, all thanks to the capabilities of Gen AI.
Try something like this (Sample prompt for Gemini) – in case you use GCal
Your objective:
I need you to act as a data parser and calculator. Your sole output must be a single, complete block of semi-colon separate data based on Google Calendar data (which you can access directly).
You will only extract the data from my Google calendar for 1 week, from Monday to Sunday. I will provide the start date of that week.
Do not include any introductory text, concluding remarks, or explanations in your output—only the semi-colon separated content starting with the header row.
—
Target CSV Structure & Formatting Rules:
The semi-colon separated output must adhere strictly to the following column names and order.
Column 1
– Name: Date
– Format: YYYY-MM-DD format (e.g., 2025-10-15)
Column 2
– Name: Start_Time
– Format: HH:MM format (24-hour clock, e.g., 09:00)
Column 3
– Name: End_Time
– Format: HH:MM format (24-hour clock, e.g., 10:30)
Column 4:
– Name: Duration_Hours
– Format: Calculate the total duration in decimal hours (e.g., 1.5 for 90 minutes; 0.75 for 45 minutes).
Column 5
– Name: Activity
– Format: The main title of the event
Column 6
– Name: Notes
– Format: The full event description.
Column 7
– Name: Risk
– Format: Y or N (look into the notes and see if the word risk appears. If it appears set the value of this column to Y, otherwise to N
After every row, add a carriage return character.
Or this (another sample prompt for Gemini) – in case you use GCal
## Your objective ##
I need you to act as a data parser and report write. Your sole output must be a professional looking report of my weekly timespend, based on Google Calendar data (which you can access directly). Please use both the data from my agenda titled Private and the agenda titled Family.
You will only extract the data from my Google calendars for 1 week only, from Monday to Sunday. I will provide the start date of the week for which you need to create the report.
## Target report format ##
The report title will state “Weekly time report” with as subtitle the start date of the week in format: DDDD MMM YYYY
The you will have a section for every day, with as title the name of the day and the actual calendar date. E.g. Monday, October 4th
For every day you will list the activities carried out in the following format:
Start Time ## Activity
Description
where:
Start Time is the start date of the calendar event
Activity is the title fo the calendar event
Description is the full text description included in the calendar event
In summary, Gen AI offers a glimpse into a future where time cards aren’t a chore but an automated part of a consultant’s workflow. This represents a significant step forward in the realm of time management, making the lives of consultants just a bit easier.
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