Using Time Tracking Tools To Stay Productive

When someone mentions the word productivity, often the first concept that comes to your mind is probably ‘time’ – in fact, it is how we actually define productivity; how long it takes you to finish a certain task, and how much you can get done in a certain amount of time. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that managing your time in the best way possible will result in higher productivity, and one of the ways to do just that is to use software-based time tracking tools.

As the name suggests, time tracking tools are easy-to-use, intuitive apps that can help you keep track of how long it takes you (or your employees) to finish a certain task.  This is essential if you’re the manager of a company with multiple employees under your guidance that you need to monitor, but it can also be a great help if you’re working solo.

The Power of Deadlines

People perform better and more efficiently when they have deadlines – this is a simple fact. When your time is being tracked, and you see a timer telling you that you took twice as long as you expected to complete a task, it isn’t really a good feeling, and then you’ll naturally try to avoid that happening in the future – even if you don’t have a real deadline to work against.

The same goes for your employees; when they know they’re on the clock and that you’ll be able to see how fast they’re working, it serves as a healthy motivator to work as hard as they can. People like to be viewed as fast, efficient and capable, and for that reason alone we will put more work in if we know that it’s going to count.

A Better Sense of Time

Another benefit of tracking your time is that it can help you get a better grasp of how much time you actually need to do something. It might be less than you think, and it might be more, but the fact is that the more you are aware of this, the better you’ll be able to leverage your time and make a plan that can make you as efficient as possible.

This way you’ll be able to market yourself better by giving realistic deadlines to your client that you know you’ll be able to meet, and this is something that every client likes to see.

Simpler, Faster Invoices

If you run your own business you probably know how much time invoicing can eat up. Many of these apps now have a built-in feature to automatically calculate how much you should charge a client, or how much an employee should be paid by factoring in an hourly rate, and the amount of time that was spent on the project in question. This saves you the hassle of having to do all that math yourself, and this makes things much simpler, and much faster.

Tracking Tools In A Nutshell

The great thing about these tools is that they were designed to waste as little of your time as possible (otherwise it would pretty much defeat the purpose). Once you’ve used any time tracking tool you’ll find that you can probably find your way around any of them, so there’s no need to worry that you aren’t “tech-savvy” enough to handle this kind of technology.

Final Words

We are constantly bombarded with items fighting for our attention and sometimes it’s really difficult to resist the temptation when you need to focus on your tasks. Whether it’s for personal use or for business, keeping track of your time can really have a positive effect on your productivity in the long run. When you take a step back and analyze all the small elements which constitute your time-drains, you can make a better decision on how to organize your day stay more focused on the tasks that need to be done.