As a consultant, I'm accountable for every minute I spend working during the day. Unfortunately I get pulled into impromptu discussions and meetings throughout the day. For those interruptions, I rarely check what time it is when I leave or get back to my desk, so I have no idea how much time I just spent doing something else.

But I discovered today that Windows Media Player can serve as a great backup measure to this problem. For example, I was pulled into a conversation this morning while listening to an Edgey playlist. When I got back, I took note of what songs I had missed, and realized that I could do the math and estimate how much time I was away from my desk based on the length of the tracks.

Moral of the story: listen to music while you work, and don't pet the alpacas.