You know what they say, 'time is money'. And, rightly so! Time management and productivity go hand in hand. While you cannot buy time, you sure can buy tools to better manage it. The fact that technology has bombarded us with countless tools for managing our work life makes it easy for us to improve our productivity levels.
If you are not taking advantage of the hundreds of tools out there, you are certainly missing out. But with so many tools to choose from, how do you know which ones to use? To make your life easier, I compiled a list of the best time tracking tools to increase your personal productivity:
Toggl.
If you use spreadsheets for time tracking but need something more powerful, Toggl is a great alternative. It is simple, easy to use and built for speed. With the Toggl timer you can track tasks in real-time for your team and receive reports based on the time usage. The events or projects can be categorized with tags and user privileges, allowing reports to be emailed with a billable option. Better yet, this online time tracking app allows you to create and categorize reports by client, project, week and/or day.
Focus Booster.
Modeled after the Pomodoro technique, Focus Booster allows you to break up your schedule into bite-sized chunks. Originally built for professionals who need to keep track of time for billing clients, this app works just as effectively if you are looking for an easy way to track tasks. Dashboards for time usage and break reminders help you be more productive.
Freedom.
Technology can be a major distraction for you. Freedom is a terrific tool for helping you block distractions to improve time management and productivity. Users can temporarily disable network access, or focus on temporarily disabling specific applications or websites while trying to get work done.
ToDoist.
ToDoist is a tool that helps users create and manage their To Do lists. It has a very simple design whereby you start by typing in the project you are working on. You can then split up the project to specific tasks. You can then set a deadline for the tasks, which can be recurring, and you can give the tasks one of four priority levels.
Rescue Time.
If you have doubts that you are using your time wisely, this app will send you weekly reports to indicate your time thieves. Reports show how much and what percentage of time was allocated to particular activities such as meetings, emails, social media and research. You may be shocked to discover how much time you are wasting. RescueTime allows goals to be set and keeps a log of daily accomplishments. It also allows you to schedule alerts for cases when you spend too much of your time on a particular task.
Plan.
This is one of the newest time tracking tools on the market. It places greater emphasis on work life balance compared to the other apps, so users can keep track of whether they’re maintaining healthy lifestyles or not. It has a place for notes, a schedule and integrates nicely with Google Calendar.
Evernote.
Evernote helps you manage your time and improve your personal productivity in two ways. Firstly, Evernote can be used to manage resources for a project – making notes and gathering references, and collating them to one place. It can also help you to stop procrastinating by serving as a store for ideas that come to you through the day, web pages that catch your eye, and articles that look interesting.
Week Plan.
With Week Plan you can easily see what is on your plate for the entire week. The application has sections for Roles and Goals as well as a Parking Lot for items to come later. Click any day of the week to add a new task and set its priority as important or urgent as needed. Week Plan also offers a month plan, which is helpful for longer term items.
Everhour.
Everhour is a web-based time tracking app that will help your team reach goals faster and will let you engage with flexible report system. It is mainly focused on teams.
Spending your time effectively isn’t just the key to a more productive life, it’s also the secret to a happier one. If you are not effectively managing your time, it is easy to get wrapped up in work, and miss out on opportunities to spend quality time with your friends and family. Luckily for you, you now have a full chest of time management tools to optimize your life for more productivity and less stress.
Reference.
http://www.theideahunters.net/2016/08/28/time-management-tools-productivity/
https://medium.com/@producthunt/32-of-the-best-productivity-tools-you-ll-ever-need-49fb7a676bcc
https://everhour.com/blog/time-tracking-software-best-in-2017/