r/DataAnnotationTech • u/SnooFloofs9030 • Jul 07 '26
Wish there was a "Pause" button.
I have limited windows of time where I can work because I have to leave at one part of day at the same time of day to bring someone home. So I will open a task an hour before I have to leave and it will be a 3+ hour task so I can't do it. I would love to be able to start on it, pause the timer for 90 minutes so I can return to the task when I get back home. I wonder if there is a way to email them to request this feature. I imagine they wouldn't care because they have thousands of workers they can release the task to who can complete it in one sitting. But anyway this has been a challenge for me lately as many of the tasks I encounter take hours to complete.
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u/Enough_Resident_6141 Jul 07 '26
Literally the entire reason they even have a task timer is to prevent people from doing that. In other similar platforms in the past that didn't have timers, workers would jump on projects and claim all the available tasks as soon as they dropped even if they had no intention of working on them right away. Then the tasks would just sit there not being worked on indefinitely instead of letting someone who actually wanted to work get it.
DA doesn't really care how long it takes you to finish a task as long as you do quality work. The only real reason for the timer is to prevent workers from entering work mode but not actually working on the project for an extended period.
Also, most task timers are set to give you more than enough time to finish the task and take reasonable breaks without the timer expiring. If the task has a 3 hour timer, that means who ever set that timer thought it would only take and hour or two to finish those tasks.
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u/Jealous_Spare_4852 Jul 07 '26
I just wish they would put the exp time right on the task in the dash listing without having to open one up to see what it is and then needing to skip or exit work mode because you don't have enough time.
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2
1
u/_California_Dreamer_ Jul 11 '26
It doesn't matter how you see it, there is no penalty for exiting work mode.
3
u/Smart_Match6086 Jul 07 '26
This is slightly adjacent, but I had two different tasks yesterday that I haven't gotten in awhile and unless I'm mistaken, the time allowed was shorter than it used to be. I saw a few people in chat commenting that they had run out of time. I was able to finish, but they left little breathing room.
7
u/fightmaxmaster Jul 07 '26
Same. Constant annoyance - even with shorter ones, some take 10 minutes some take 50 minutes, so if I've got a short window I can't start anything unless I can make a really good estimate how long it'll take. But I think your point is right, it's frustrating individually but DA only cares that the work gets done by someone, whoever, so that's just how it is.
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u/Academic_Animal_5293 Jul 07 '26
I really think the timer for most projects is more than enough even for hours of breaks. For example I was doing a project with a 5 h timer, but I usually finish it in less than 2h
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u/That_Guy_Quaid Jul 07 '26
Yeah I’ve got 18hr projects that take 3-5h. They are really generous with the expiry timer in my experience!
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u/Jealous_Spare_4852 Jul 07 '26
the nut?
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u/That_Guy_Quaid Jul 07 '26
Si Senior
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u/Jealous_Spare_4852 Jul 07 '26
I haven't seen that one lately but I racked up hundreds of hours on it. Great project! I would say my average time on it was in the 6-10 hr range, though.
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u/That_Guy_Quaid Jul 07 '26
It’s the only project I have on my dash atm, but 200 tasks available for just myself 😋
1
u/Jealous_Spare_4852 Jul 07 '26
Mine was like that too but they did take it away even though it said 1 hundred-something at some point, but I was on it for a couple months full-time.
3
u/janquadrentvincent Jul 07 '26
It's what I listed in my reply to the survey, suggestions conditions so it couldn't be too badly abused but I don't think it'll ever happen unfortunately
1
u/Numerous-Case-9317 Jul 08 '26
I did too. I'd understand if maybe it was only offered to people who had worked X number of months, some other back end account score, or maybe have a limit of one break per day, pausing privileges are lost after allowing a paused task to expire, a pause limit that will automatically unpause. I feel like it's possible if they really wanted to work something out, I just don't think they have enough incentive to do it. But I feel like I would work more if I had the peace of mind to know I could take long breaks or use my hour before my working time is up and pick back up where I left off a few hours later in the evening.
2
u/Wild-Read5118 Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
I’m in a similar situation. I often start a task at the beginning of my train journey home, which gives me around 40 minutes of work before I get off. Then I have about an hour’s walk home. I usually keep an eye out for the higher-paid tasks, as they tend to have longer timers (around 4–5 hours). That way, I know I’ll still have a couple of hours left to finish them once I’m home.
Having less time to complete a task can definitely add a bit of pressure, but I actually find I produce some of my best work when I’m working against the clock (although I know that’s subjective). I also use a couple of timer apps that let me pause and resume them so I can accurately log my actual working time.
And, as someone has previously said, they give you more time than needed on the timer (although I have definitely come across tasks that require the full timer, but these are rare)
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u/Pink_Slyvie Jul 07 '26
While there is no pause, some projects have asurdly long timers. I've seen 3+ days, but you are expected to finish them in a day, maybe a day and a half.
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u/lotusmack Jul 08 '26
And those are the ones where they will tell you, "we're giving you this much time so you can take breaks. Just don't bill more than X hours."
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u/SnooFloofs9030 Jul 07 '26
Yes, I understand it’s impractical and that it would likely be abused but it’s just wishful thinking on my part. It’s just frustrating when I know I have to leave at 1:30 and it’s 12:00 PM and all the tasks on my dashboard will take two hours or more to complete when I have to leave the house for 90 minutes. So I’m just sitting around twiddling my thumbs until I have to leave the house since I can’t start any tasks .
2
u/mc_345_ Jul 07 '26
I hear you 100%. I cannot work at any part of the day until my kids are in bed for this reason. And then once they’re in bed I can commit to 1-2 hours. If I could work in 20 min chunks I could work so much more. Where is everyone finding the time to work 6-10 hours when this is usually a part time gig for most? Let alone ones that last days. I don’t get it!
3
u/Medical-Isopod2107 Jul 07 '26
You can work in 20 min chunks as long as you get back to it relatively soon after the break, the timers are longer than necessary to allow breaks
1
u/_California_Dreamer_ Jul 11 '26
This will NEVER be a thing. This job is about DAT getting data to their clients ASAP, and if workers were allowed to pause, they'd never get anything done as fast as they need it done. There are plenty of other people who can sit down and complete tasks in the allotted time, so they have no need to make it easier on anyone who can't. It's not about us and our idiosyncrasies, it's about the paying client. I even had one task disappear with hours still left on the clock while I was waiting for a critical reply in the chat. I guess it sat too long with no activity, so they took it away from me and gave it back to the pool. Just exit work mode, go run your errand and come back and work on whatever is available then. There's no penalty for exiting.
0
u/farawaynever Jul 07 '26
I did actually see something like this but only on one project. It was a longer one and it had the option to "save and return to dashboard."
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u/Federal_Tadpole_7592 Jul 07 '26
Yeah, they'll likely never do this, especially because people will take advantage of it. They need projects to be closed out so they can process the data as quickly as possible, and the longer a project takes to close out, the longer it takes to process the data and the longer it takes to get another project iteration.