The rules in Australia are very simple; Only one pilot can log IF at a time, and that can only be when in actual or simulated IMC.
Pilot Log Books The rules in other countries vary, and are usually significantly more liberal, but that is the rule here.
As a result, IFR instructors who stick to the rules, log much less than their actual IMC time, despite the fact that they spend much of the flight scanning instruments and ready to take over control. For anyone who hasn't instructed on an IFR flight in IMC, I promise that when you're in cloud you're doing everything you need to be ready to take over, because when a student loses it you'd better be ready to go !
Personally, I keep an extra column in my logbook for tracking when we're in actual IMC but the student is flying - That way I have a record of the time. Any time that I am manipulating the controls or the autopilot in IMC, I log as required in the standard IF column.
In the early stages of a student's Instrument Rating, I will usually tell them that if they want the autopilot to say "autopilot on", whereupon I will take control and hand fly the aircraft. That usually gives me 0.2 or 0.3 per flight that can be legally logged as IF if we are in IMC, and is more than enough for recency issues.
I'm not a slave to rules, but I get nervous when IFR pilots (of all people !) start to look for ways around them. This is one part of flying where the rules will save you much more than they hurt you.
Kelly, I fly GA not airline, but my logbook shows a similar ratio. For me that's the great thing about an instrument rating - We use it to get above weather at the start of a flight and back down through it at the end. The rest is mostly sitting above clouds in the sunshine or looking at the stars :-)))