Time Span Tracking

[Justin_Barrett]

I recently moved my work history notes into Airtable, and wanted a way to see at a glance how long I worked at each company, including time spans for those companies I’m still working with (I used to work full-time, but starting in 2012 my work became a mix of part-time and freelance/contract jobs).

The end product is a clean listing of years and months¹, as this sample illustrates:

The full table includes three hidden formula fields:

{End Date} defaults to TODAY() if no specific date is entered in the {To} field; otherwise it uses the {To} date. {Years} and {Months} run calculations based on {End Date}. The {Length} field puts it all together.

It’s not a particularly complex setup, but it has more potential use than just job tracking, so I thought I’d share in case anyone else could use it. Copy it to your own workspace to seen the formulas.

Airtable

Time Span Sample - Airtable

Brief example of how to measure time spans in years and months, including situations where there is no defined end date (defaulting to the current day)

1. I opted not to track days largely because it didn’t feel as important, and also because of the complexity it would’ve added to the formulas. If I change my mind down the road, I’ll update the linked base.