A while ago my AM mentor, Charles Alleneck, shared a little tip on how he observed people for timing without a stop watch. It blew my mind at the time and it still does. It was such a simple but helpful way of breaking up syllables into frames.
So, the concept is:

Watching people while cycling the words “one one thousand” makes the whole process a lot more fun. So, if you see, say…an arm swing and it takes “one-one..” that would be 12 frames. Although 12 frames for an arm swing is rather slow. It might have to be done a few times to make sure its correct. If it was just “one” then it’s 6 and if you didn’t manage to finish the whole word then it would be around 2-3 frames.

So throw your stopwatch away… possibly at the next mean looking dude you see and find out long it takes to hit him…and how fast he starts running towards you!