Yes, it is time consuming. I actually have a spreadsheet which I use for rating the main meetings on Saturdays, but for smaller meetings like today, I just use a notebook. After you've done it for a while, you start to get a bit quicker. The secret though is not rating each and every race. NO WAY would I think of doing that. Just too time consuming. Besides, I tend to concentrate on just certain types of races anyway, so why bother rating all of the others. In fact today, I rated just ONE race all day:

NEWCASTLE R7
4 PATEZZA (71.0) $3.60
6 COOL FRONT (69.5) $5.00
5 SIR DEX (67.0) $9.00
3 Nips (66.5) $10.00
2 Sportsman (66.0) $11.25
7 Gabfest (65.0) $15.00

So, why not think about which races you prefer to bet on and only rate those. I prefer Open races between 1400m and 1800m because I find that's the type of race I do best in. I do rate other races too, but those are the ones I really like to concentrate on. On a regular day, I'll normally rate around 1-3 races only and even on big days like Saturdays, no more than about 8-10.