I tracked every invisible hour for two weeks and my retainer price was off by a third

For a long time I priced my retainers by counting posts. Twelve posts, a few stories, a report at the end of the month. It looked tidy on paper and it felt wrong every single week, because I was busy all day and the money still did not add up.

So I tracked everything for two weeks on one client. Not roughly. Every block. The posts were the smallest part. Comments and DMs, building the calendar, chasing approvals, pulling numbers for the report, fixing captions, re exporting graphics, the quick calls that were never in the scope. That invisible pile came to over a third of my total hours. I had priced about two thirds of the job and donated the rest.

What I changed was simple. I priced the next retainer from the tracked hours, not the post count. I wrote into the agreement what community time and admin time actually cover, so it is not a surprise later. And I started adding one plain line to the monthly note listing the work behind the posts, not as a defence, just so the client can see the full picture when they decide whether it is worth it.

Nothing dramatic happened. The client signed. I stopped resenting Tuesdays. The fee finally matched the work.

I am curious how other freelancers here count this. Do you track the invisible hours and price from them, or do you build in a flat buffer and hope it covers it?