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Time Tracking - Track Your Time

November 7th, 2007 by Monika

I had a rude wake up call when I read a blog post by another blogger of how we can waste time in general during our working days. For most bloggers this proofs quite a bit of an issue, as many simply don’t have the time to blog a lot anyway. They are restricted by work, family and other tasks they have to do.

But even for a blogger like myself who is lucky enough to stay home most of the time it is a big mistake to waste time. I could do so much more by actually building sites, create products etc. if I only saved a couple of hours a day.

image Therefore from this month onwards I am using a time tracking tool that allows me to keep ahead of myself and learn where I need to spend more time and where I can do with less.

Many free tools are available to help us just do this and I have done a bit of research so others can benefit from this and choose which time tracker suits them best. The tools featured below are online based time trackers as it make it easy to see them anywhere in the world by login into our free account.

Naturally there are also many desktop application which are available from shareware websites. Regardless of this, you will need to choose the one that is best suited to your liking and the below options are merely there to help you get started in the right direction.

1. The first one is Toggl.com

It has a nice interface that allows us to create tasks and track several things such as tracking your time, managing a team, reports, export data and it’s free.

image

2. 1 Time Tracking is another web based application that allows you to join for free. Not only can you track projects with 1 Time, but also expenses. As long as you are using the account for 1 person it remains a free service. The interface is a bit more complicated to get used to in the beginning, but the initial learning curve might pay off, as the tracking is a little more in-dept in the end.

image

3. SlimTimer is what I’m currently experimenting with myself. What I like about this is that it allows me to track several things at once. I can track research as well as writing client articles and more at the same time. naturally for this to happen one has to be a master at multitasking.

image

4. My Hours is another web based client that allows you to track time and expenses from any computer in the world. presently their service is free of charge and if they intend to charge for this, they will inform all customers prior to doing so.

image

These time tracker tools are only a few out of the multi range of available options. I have found that most of these tools are available for free in the first month and then going to variable paid monthly plans. The 4 above are all free to use for as long as you want at present time.

I believe that when we first start off tracking out time, a free software is sufficient enough until we get better at it. If we so desire we can always pay later down the track for a more fancy way of tracking our time.

In the end, you have to make the decision whether time tracking is of importance to you or not. It does take a bit of getting used to initially as I keep forgetting to click that button, but after a few days use of a time tracking tool I find it is already becoming a habit.

Therefore it does get easier to use and remember.

Please let me know, whether you find any other useful tools that help to track our time effectively so we can include them here.

Monika Mundell

Owner and Author of Blogging Web 2.0

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31 Responses to “Time Tracking - Track Your Time”

  1. 18 Tips to Become a Productive Blogger | TheWritersManifestoBlog Says:
    November 13th, 2007 at 11:48 pm

    [...] a time and activity tracking [...]

  2. Becoming A Writer Seriously » Tracking Your Time and Expenses Says:
    November 17th, 2007 at 9:21 am

    [...] Mundell at Blogging Web 2.0 recently addressed this very issue with a very timely post about free online time/expense tracking facilities.  These facilities will be useful if you bill clients by time and effort, or even if you just want [...]

  3. Tom Colvin (12 comments.) Says:
    November 17th, 2007 at 9:57 am

    Just discovered your blog and have subscribed via RSS — look forward to following your posts. Just wrote about your time tracking post on my blog, excellent information which I will personally follow up on.

    BTW, if you are willing to share it, what is the widget you use for the popular posts?

  4. Tom Colvin (12 comments.) Says:
    November 17th, 2007 at 9:58 am

    Gosh, another question: how did your “Comments” facility pick up my pic? I like that feature.

  5. Terry (82 comments.) Says:
    November 17th, 2007 at 4:48 pm

    Hi Tom, thanks for calling in on us.

    Sorry for the slow response - I’ve been having trouble logging in! Ha and I’m supposed to be co-running this show.

    Monika set up all the widgets and thingymejigs so she’ll know which one she used. I have to admit, I’m usually well up on this sort of thing but my head’s been in other clouds just lately. One for the to-do list!

    The comments on this blog seem to be able to pick up anyone’s picture who has a wordpress account and an uploaded picture!

    There, a full bodied comment and I managed to NOT answer either of your questions! - I’ll go away and findout and come back on them!

    Terry :-)

  6. Terry (82 comments.) Says:
    November 17th, 2007 at 4:58 pm

    Here’s the widget for popular posts - It’s called “Popularity Contest” by Alex King

    http://alexking.org/projects/wordpress/

    …and the widget for the avatars in comments, called MyAvatars

    http://www.napolux.com/projects/myavatars/

    Terry

  7. Tom Colvin (12 comments.) Says:
    November 17th, 2007 at 6:47 pm

    TERRY: Thanks for tracking down the widgets — very helpful. I’ll be trying them out on my own blog to see how the theme translates them.

    I’m really impressed, by the way, with the extraordinary progress you two have made in such a short time. Certainly demonstrates your professionalism. I’ll continue to watch your performance, now that I’ve discovered you.

  8. Grizzly (31 comments.) Says:
    November 17th, 2007 at 7:56 pm

    Hahaha… nice rescue Terry!

  9. Terry (82 comments.) Says:
    November 18th, 2007 at 8:22 am

    hehehe I thought so too!

  10. Monika (79 comments.) Says:
    November 18th, 2007 at 8:14 pm

    Tom: A belated welcome from myself too. I was lazy yesterday and took the day off. probably the first time in many weeks I haven’t even turned on my laptop.

    But hell it made me feel guilty. :-(

    I’m glad Terry came to the rescue and managed to answer your questions, thanks Terry :-)

    Do you still have troubles logging in? I just noticed your comment about that?

  11. Terry (82 comments.) Says:
    November 19th, 2007 at 3:48 am

    Yeah, but I’m pretty sure the problem is with my PC and nothing else. I can get on ok with IE so I’m using that for now just for this site.

    I’m looking at a complete PC wipe to try and get around this - there are other issues with programs crashing intermittently that I don’t like, plus the speed of this thing has gone and it’s almost grinding to a halt now and again.

    I’m not looking forward to what I have to do - it can be a day or two’s work and I’ll have to re-install everything from scratch. You never get your PC back the way it was after a total format of the system drive, so it’ll be a bit nerve racking that I can get all my useful tools back.

    Ho hum, that’s life - I may do it this week so if I go off the air for a couple of days, you’ll know why!

    :-(

  12. Monika (79 comments.) Says:
    November 19th, 2007 at 5:49 am

    Bugger Terry,

    That doesn’t sound too good. You might have a bug in the system if the computer crashes and stuff. Or else you are using a year 1990 model, hehe…

    It sounds like you could do with a brand new one. With all the millions you ought to be making now anyway. :-)

  13. Tom Colvin (12 comments.) Says:
    November 19th, 2007 at 8:57 am

    Well, guys, I’m beginning to learn more and more about gravatars. Since Terry’s lead to MyAvatars, I’ve done some looking around and find several avatar/gravatar WP plug-ins. Is there any particular reason why you chose MyAvatars rather than one of the others?

    This also reminds me that I have a lingering problem getting MyBlogRoll working on my site. I’ll try to solve it this week too.

    While I’m on this tack, have you looked into SezWho? When one hovers over someone’s comment, a thumbnail pops up displaying the commenter’s blog. Another plug-in on my to do list. And your blog is prompting me to install DoFollow, which has been sitting in my things to upload for almost a month now.

    Do you get the idea that I’m not doing well with my to do list?

    Tom

  14. Monika (79 comments.) Says:
    November 20th, 2007 at 9:40 pm

    Hi Tom,

    No, there wasn’t a particular reason why we choose this one. It suited the purpose fine.

    As for your blogroll, that should work easily as it is part of the WP set up. Not sure why you struggle with this one. If you need a hand, then I can help you if you give me access to your site.

    Looks like you are on fire with ideas. :-) As for the SezWho plugin, I will have to look into this one. Never heard of it, but sounds like an interesting option.

  15. Lifehack Digest for November 26 - lifehack.org Says:
    November 27th, 2007 at 3:02 am

    [...] Time Tracking - Track Your TimeTracking how much time you spend on your daily tasks can help you keep on top of things as well as help you plan your commitments. Blogging Web 2.0 reviews 4 tools for helping you keep track of how much time you spend on everything.Tags: time, management, productivity, planning [...]

  16. Martin Wildam (1 comments.) Says:
    November 28th, 2007 at 3:22 am

    Here is another time tracking web-application: http://appmite.de

  17. Monika (79 comments.) Says:
    November 28th, 2007 at 8:11 am

    Thanks Martin,

    I’ll check this one out. It seems that is written in German which might be hard to understand for some. :-)

  18. Free Time Tracking Online - Case Study Says:
    December 3rd, 2007 at 9:05 am

    [...] just goes to show, that we need to track our time in order to see whether we are on track or not. Doing this gives me a great overview of where I can [...]

  19. Brian Says:
    December 3rd, 2007 at 2:37 pm

    Also, check out RallyClock - http://www.rallyclock.com. Track time from the web or instant messenger (and it’s in English).

  20. Bryson Yeats Says:
    December 21st, 2007 at 10:30 am

    Monika,

    Excellent list of time trackers, as they normally tend to increase productivity for users. We use a more integrated package called CommuniClique, that combines time tracking with an emphasis on team communications.

    Do you know which of these tools listed is absolutely essential to you using them daily?

    – Bryson

  21. Tom Colvin (12 comments.) Says:
    January 13th, 2008 at 3:49 pm

    I’m back! Your November post got me started into time tracking too — it came as just the moment when I began to worry about spending too much time on my blog, and not enough on my book. So I too have been looking into time trackers, both online and offline.

    I’m finding the search so valuable that I am beginning a series of posts about various tools, with screenshots showing the various tools in action, along with an overview about how they are structured. Thanks for getting me started.

  22. Becoming A Writer Seriously » Time Tracking Part 2: An Overview of Tools Says:
    January 14th, 2008 at 10:03 pm

    [...] I’ve been looking at various time tracking options.  I was initially kicked into action by a post about online time tracking at Monika Mundell’s Blogging Web 2.0.  I started playing with one of the four options [...]

  23. John Reeve (2 comments.) Says:
    January 16th, 2008 at 2:06 pm

    Have you considered Intervals? We built it to solve our internal problems with time tracking. Check it out.

  24. Monika (79 comments.) Says:
    January 17th, 2008 at 4:12 am

    Tom: that is great news. I reckon your idea of doing those posts with screenshots rocks and will be much received by your readers. Glad to set you off on the right track. :-)

  25. Tom Colvin (12 comments.) Says:
    January 17th, 2008 at 3:59 pm

    Thanks, John, for the lead to Intervals. At first sight looks to be very powerful. I´m travelling for the next week, but will signh up for trial run when I´m back home.

    TWO QUESTIONS — Are the prices by month or by year? And is there any way to track time when offline, other than manual insertion of data when signed back on?

    Tom

  26. Tom Colvin (12 comments.) Says:
    January 17th, 2008 at 4:02 pm

    Monika, I rather enjoy trying to understand a software´s underpinning logic and then trying to clarify it via screenshots. Time consuming, but fun. I´ve already learned a lot about the various approaches task timers take. First up is your favorite Slim Timer, next Tuesday.

  27. John Reeve (2 comments.) Says:
    January 17th, 2008 at 5:43 pm

    Tom, Thanks for asking. Intervals is priced month-to-month. We like to give our users as much flexibility as possible. At this point we don’t have any offline time entry methods, but we are considering building desktop widgets and mobile phone timers to interface with the application.

  28. My Favourite Freelance Writing Tools | The Writers Manifesto Blog Says:
    January 18th, 2008 at 1:56 am

    [...] Time Tracking Tools: I have written a post about this on my Blogging Web 2.0 blog. To this day it is the most popular. Using a time tracker has not only allowed me to see where I’m wasting time, but also to determine my hourly pay rate. [...]

  29. Tom Colvin (12 comments.) Says:
    January 23rd, 2008 at 7:50 pm

    JOHN: Thanks for the reply to my questions.

  30. Andy Powers (1 comments.) Says:
    February 1st, 2008 at 10:03 am

    Bryson,

    Thank you for your comment about CommuniClique’s software. We are eager to receive feedback about our product. To readers who are interested in trying the software you can obtain a thirty day free trial of the CommuniClique software at
    http://www.communiclique.com

    Thank You,
    Andy Powers
    CEO CommuniClique

  31. Edison Thomaz (1 comments.) Says:
    November 12th, 2008 at 11:33 am

    Hi - We’ve recently introduced a new version of our time and activity analytics solution, Slife v2.0. It’s now available for Mac/Windows and you can extend it to multiple users with Slife Teams.

    http://www.slifelabs.com
    http://www.slifeteams.com

    Give it a try - the Slife client is free. And feel free to contact us if you have any comments or suggestions.

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