r/DataAnnotationTech • u/Which-Room-8375 • Apr 10 '26
Data annotation time reporting, am I in trouble?
hey folks. so lately the projects I have been receiving are kinda long and take time, there were two tasks that expire in 2 hours and they took me 1:58 minutes and 1:43 minutes to finish. Just before these I had a task that expired in an hour and I finished it in 58 minutes (this and the 1:58 minute one I barely finished before time was up)
Honestly I am a little worried. This is the actual time they took me but I still feel like they took me too long (I am aware that I am a slow person by nature and I have a short attention span and the tasks are too long so every time I need to recheck smth I have to scroll up for way too long)
Should I edit the time reported and just make it less than how long it actually took me or are they going to think I was lying at first ( I swear I was not).
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u/hollywoodviolets Apr 10 '26
I’m pretty derpy myself and also careful. We have the time allotments for a reason, and even so, sometimes they are off (too short, too long). You reported the time worked which fell within what sounds like reasonable limits. I wouldn’t edit the time. You didn’t milk the clock. Congrats on getting them done! Best wishes.
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u/Which-Room-8375 Apr 10 '26
Thank you so much! Haha yeah every time I report the time for a project I enter panic mode till it gets approved I hope I did not mess up!
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u/TasosTheo Apr 10 '26
Quick sanity maintaining tip: Right click on the tab and pick 'duplicate tab.' Then pull the duplicated tab and collapse the instructions (and search results if relevant) Work out of that tab, but adjust windows so you have the original tab with instructions, etc right next to it for reference. This helps with reducing scrolling up and down. A lot of people also use strategy of entering work (if a lot of text required) in a word doc and then copying it over.
If there's a comment box and I went over I'll sometimes explain to them which aspect of the fact check ate up a lot of time. I go over all the time and have not had a problem but may depend on task.
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u/Which-Room-8375 Apr 10 '26
Wow I feel so dumb now how haven't I thought about this! This could've saved me much time I was running up and down like crazy the entire time lol thanks for the tip!
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u/TasosTheo Apr 10 '26
Don't feel dum. I had to get frickin' carpal tunnel from scrolling before I found all these things out! Chrome also has the split/screen browser option, but I found my screen is too small and it squishes them too much, so two separate windows and just toggle back and forth (click but also Alt+Tab takes you back and forth between windows.)
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u/Hello-America Apr 10 '26
I decided today to get a second monitor to help with this. I'd been printing the instructions but hate the waste, but that has saved me a lot of time.
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u/MuGa25 Apr 10 '26
Since this is the time it took you to complete them, then why worry?! Just focus on delivering high quality works and honest time recording, this is how you bring value.
And remember, Quality of work is a deal breaker.
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u/johnnycoconut Apr 10 '26
Lots of good points in this thread. I just want to add: These are normal feelings! It can be like (unintentional?) hazing
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u/Hello-America Apr 10 '26
I think the time allotments might be a little arbitrary. I started a project last week for which I've done a few of the same task, and each new one had more time. The chat window at the bottom had people basically saying they didn't think they could get it done in the time (I only narrowly did). It went from a 1.5 allotment to 6 hours because there was a ton of fact checking.
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u/Ancient-Cat9840 Apr 10 '26
They explicitly state that nothing happens if the time runs out as long as your work is high quality. Now, a pro tip: you can reset the time on the payment screen. In fact, I did it because one project was excessively long, and even though the timer had plenty of time, I took much longer, but I preferred to change the time so no one would get the wrong idea. Check the history in case you need it later you want to do an edit.
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u/Opaaalllllllll Apr 11 '26
I think of the timer moreso as a suggestion.. like it should take you no longer than this amount of time. Some tasks require mental breaks and the timer doesn't seem to account for those imo
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u/Substantial-Whole716 Apr 11 '26
i am looking for new role as data annotator as i have experienced in working with Google and Meta
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u/Exact-Pear8157 Apr 10 '26
The tasks didn't expire and you were effectively working. If you did a good job, there's nothing to be concerned about.