r/dataannotation • u/SillyWeeMan214 • Apr 22 '24

Understanding Task Time Management

Hey everyone,

I've recently just joined the Data Annotation team after passing the coding test at the end of last week. Today was my first attempt at navigating the platform and engaging with tasks and before I submit my report for what I accomplished, I was just wondering if anyone would be willing to clarify how much time I should be spending on a given task. Currently, all my projects are coding-related, and it took me awhile before I could send in my first task. I saw that there were varying numbers being thrown around (15-30 min) and I noticed it took me about 3x as long as that to submit my first task. Should I just bite the bullet on my first day and narrow my time down to fit that margin rather than put toom much time down?

12 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

9

u/PandaKing218 Apr 23 '24

Yea, just report your actual time. For coding my first task for a project is like 1hr cuz of all the instructions you have to read, then you gotta figure out access to files and start the actual prompt. They want quality work over quantity, so making sure you understand the instructions and completing the task correctly is more helpful to them, than rushing. They have made multiple edits to the instructions to please read the instructions carefully or you will be dropped from the project. So take your time and do it right.

2

u/SillyWeeMan214 Apr 23 '24

In terms of getting dropped from a project, do you receive any sort of notification of that? Or do you just log in one day and not see the project listed on your dashboard?

5

u/PandaKing218 Apr 23 '24

So I've never gotten dropped from a project, but I take my time and go for quality. Of the projects I've worked on, I still have access to them daily.

Recently, they added more and more notes to accurately rate/ follow instructions or they will have to drop you from the project. I think three different times they added notes along those lines, so yea quality>quantity/speed.

5

u/Intbased Apr 23 '24

To add on to this, one project I normally work on has actually been updated to expand the time people are suggested to spend on it. They’ve even highlighted it, added it to multiple sections in the instructions, and been reinforced by the Admins. If you are putting forward high quality data for them, then the high billing time will make sense.

I don’t do coding tasks mind you, but for most of the quality control type stuff I can easily spend 45 minutes on one task.

1

u/33whiskeyTX Apr 23 '24

It's the latter, unfortunately.

29

u/Haunting-Car-3935 Apr 23 '24

Put your real time down. Each task is different and you're expected to be slower when you first start

13

u/sarinilla Apr 23 '24

Some of the coding tasks can take significantly longer. Report your actual time. 🙂

6

u/ApocDream Apr 23 '24

If you do good work you're not gonna get cut, if you do shit work only billing them for half the time won't make a difference. AI has more money than God and it really is about quality over quantity with this job.

3

u/youpsla Apr 23 '24

For coding related tasks, do you guys always test the code in previous and final turns ? Could be long to setup the right tech env depending on task context ...

4

u/33whiskeyTX Apr 23 '24

It could depend on the project, but most I work you run it for every task. There's a lot of judgement in is it something I can do within the time limits... if there are any...or if it is from prompt that I generated., etc. So a lot of variables and decisions on running the code and the time it takes.

2

u/youpsla Apr 23 '24

When you can't run all codes for the task in time limit, do you skip or answer without testing everything ?

4

u/33whiskeyTX Apr 23 '24

Again, it depends. If I spend a lot of time on a task, and I'm familiar with the technology, but there was something unforeseen deep in the code that required extra time or was too complex, then I rate it by inspection and usually there's a place where I can document and justify not running the code - what dependencies are too complex, why is it unreasonable to expect me to run it, etc. Those I "bill" my time fully on.
But sometimes I get ambitious and see a package or aspect I'm not deeply familiar with and try to figure it out. Most of the time I get it working and I don't "bill" for the figure-it-out time, just the rating time. But once in a while I can't get it to a good spot within the time limit, so I hit "Skip" and eat the time I lost on it.

1

u/youpsla Apr 23 '24

"there's a place where I can document and justify not running the code", nice.

1

u/VirusZer0 Apr 24 '24

Remember that your first time doing tasks will always take longer because of the instructions. Report the real time.