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Saturday, December 7, 2019

Tracking Time for Your Personal Use

Hey all my work-from-home entrepreneurs...

Do you sometimes find yourself in a funk and don't feel you're as productive as you could be?

I have felt like that frequently the past few months. At a friend’s urging, I began using a time tracker. I was amazed to see how much time I was filling with minor tasks (like checking Facebook on my phone and surfing Pinterest).

If you haven’t done it before, you should try tracking your time, too. The results can be surprising and like me, you may discover you could be far more productive…

Take 2 Weeks

Think of time tracking like a budget. Your hours are your dollars. By tracking them you can see where your money (in this case your time) is really going. Then you can make adjustments to your schedule depending on what you learn.

Plan to spend at least two weeks tracking your time. If you only track your time for a day or two, you’re not going to get a complete picture of what your habits and routines really look like. This can lead you to under-estimate the time you need to do certain tasks (like finish a big project).

Do Quick Check-Ins

Tracking your time doesn’t have to be all-consuming. Instead, you can check-in with yourself 3-4 times a day to make a note of what you’ve been doing. A good idea is to plan to check-in after every meal. This gives you a chance to think about what you’ve done and what you plan to do in the coming hours.

Record everything no matter what. You wouldn’t splurge on a huge purchase then not budget it. This could lead to financial errors and other problems. It’s the same concept with your time. Acknowledge how you’ve spent it, even if you’re not proud of it.

Use a Physical Notebook

There are dozens of time trackers online. These can be useful when you have to track time for client projects. But it’s not so great when you’re tracking your personal time. If you go to record your time and find yourself distracted by social media or emails, you could definitely benefit from using a physical notebook instead.

Make It Fun

When I started time tracking, I asked a friend to join me. Together we both began tracking our time. I have to admit it was pretty boring at first. But then Kevin suggested that instead of sharing our logs, we take selfies and send them to each other instead.

It made the experience more enjoyable and kept both of us focused on being productive. You can do the same thing—send a quick selfie to a private Instagram account or text each other throughout the day for a visual record of how you’ve spent your time. Decide on a set schedule so you're not texting each other every hour...unless you want to!

Look over Your Log

After you’re done with tracking your time, plan to have a review session the next day. Look over your logs and make notes about what you’d like to change now. Do you want to spend more time with your family? Would you prefer to cut out Facebook and use that hour to work on eating healthier meals?

Time tracking can be a great way to see where you’re spending it well and where you can make some improvements. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself becoming more intentional with how you spend your hours!

Tuesday, December 3, 2019

The 4 Best Tools for Time Tracking

Time tracking is a great way to ensure that projects stay on track while giving your clients peace of mind. But manually tracking it yourself can be difficult. It’s hard to remember to do it every time you start working on a project, leading to inaccurate time estimates.

The solution is simple: stop tracking your time yourself. Instead, use a tool that monitors your time use for you. Then you can simply review it at the end of each day and make sure it’s accurate. Here are a few of the best apps and software for your time tracking needs…



Account Sight

Account Sight allows you to track time for 5 clients and 5 projects. The great thing about this site is that it integrates with PayPal and QuickBooks. This means that you can easily track your time, invoice your clients, and update your earnings with just a few clicks. There’s both a free version and a paid upgrade that unlocks additional features that you may want to use.

Toggl


Toggl makes it easy to see where your time is going at a glance. You can color code clients and projects, which turn into colorful charts and graphs. It also integrates with other productivity tools like Asana, Trello, Basecamp, and more.

Toggl has a free version that you can use for as long as you want. If you choose to upgrade, you’ll probably do it for access to the accounting features so you easily invoice clients and track your profits.

Rescue Time

Rescue Time is another app for your time tracking. It works differently than most tools. With Rescue Time, the program tracks what websites and apps you use throughout the day. It then gives you a productivity score each evening.

The cool thing about
Rescue Time is that you can set specific activities to be categorized as “productive” or “distracting”. This can be helpful if you’re frequently on Facebook to update a client’s group or page. You can simply set Facebook to “productive” so your daily score is accurate. The app has both a free and a premium option if you want more in-depth tracking.

Trigger

Trigger is an app that combines the power of time tracking with project management, resulting in robust software that lets you see at a glance what you need to do each day to stay on track with your projects.

Along with time sheets, you can use
Trigger for online reports and automated invoices. It also integrates with Freshbooks, Zapier, Basecamp, Slack and more. You can get started with a free account but it’s limited to just 5 projects, so you may need to upgrade to a premium account later on.



Don’t get discouraged if the first app or software doesn’t seem to fit your needs. It can take a few weeks of testing out different apps until you find the one that works best for you and your business.