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The Modern Freelancer: Freelance Time Tracking Tips, Tricks & Tools
Image: Generated with Dall-EFreelance time tracking is the backbone of a profitable freelancing business — yet most freelancers struggle to do it well.
How often do you find yourself:- Undercharging for projects because you lost track of hours
- Overwhelmed by your to-do list
- Guesstimating your hours on invoices
Research shows that 80% of manually updated timesheets contain errors, and delayed time entries can cost professionals up to 70% of their billable revenue.
What you need is a proper freelance time tracking system — one that helps you work smarter, not harder.
Whether you’ve tried time-tracking solutions in the past or you’re just getting started, you’re in the right place.
Below, you’ll find proven freelance time tracking methods, common pitfalls, and tools to make sure no billable minute gets left behind.
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Boost Your Freelance Career: 12 Habits of Highly Effective Freelancers
Image: Canva StudioThe freelance economy is thriving and showing no signs of slowing down.
According to a recent study by Fiverr, there are 1.57 billion people who are pursuing a freelance career, and the freelancing market is worth a staggering $1.5 trillion.
That’s not all.
By 2028, more than 90 million Americans (half of the U.S. workforce!) are expected to make an income from freelance work to some degree.
But with so many people opting to work for themselves over the traditional 9-to-5, it brings up a lot of important questions like:
- How do you stand out in a crowd of so many?
- How do you market yourself to attract your ideal clients?
- How do you make clients come to you instead of spending your precious time and energy hunting them?
The answer is simple.
By implementing these essential habits of highly effective freelancers, you can set your freelancing career up for long-term success.
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How Work Breaks Help to Boost Focus and Productivity
Image: Brooke Cagle
Contemporary work culture tends to glorify busyness. We often feel pressured into working constantly, pausing only to lament how few hours there are in the day. But our frantic schedules tend to neglect one important fact: working incessantly isn’t sustainable. It isn’t healthy and it doesn’t result in good quality work. In fact, part of working hard — and well — involves integrating work breaks into our day.
This may seem counterintuitive at first, especially if you’re struggling to get on top of your workload and meet your deadlines. You need to work more, not less, right? Not necessarily. Scheduling 10 to 15-minute breaks throughout your day can actually help you get more done, more quickly. Breaks can boost your productivity, improve your creativity, and prevent you from experiencing productivity-killing burnout.
Here, we take a look at the benefits of work breaks, the different types you can take, and why burnout is such a big deal. We also offer a practical solution to help you step away from your desk from time to time.
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Asynchronous Work: How to Stay Focused and Productive in the New World of Work
Image: Al ghazaliWorking environments aren’t what they used to be. The days of masses of people huddled in cubicle farms has largely become a thing of the past. Teams are now increasingly decentralized, with a growing number working in various locations, across different time zones, and according to their own schedules. The former synchronous working model we used to live by has been replaced with a new one. Welcome to the world of asynchronous work.
While this trend was gaining traction before the pandemic, there’s no doubt that Covid helped it to become an international phenomenon. Leaders and employees who thought their companies couldn’t work asynchronously were proven wrong. And after working remotely or on a hybrid basis in the years since then, many aren’t going back. A massive McKinsey study has revealed that 58% of employees work today remotely at least part of the time.
Of course, if you’re a freelancer, you’re probably familiar with async work. Some freelancers are expected to work specific hours, be available during certain windows, or even work from a client’s office occasionally. These cases are rare, however. Many dictate their own working hours and habits.
But this doesn’t mean that synchronous work is pointless or outdated. There are plenty of good reasons to work at the same time as, and alongside, other people. Let’s take a look at asynchronous work vs. synchronous work. The pros and cons of each. And how you can stay productive no matter how or where you work.
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The Complete Guide to Project Time Tracking
Image: Louise ViallesoubranneWhile there are many variable metrics that feed into project management, there are always three primary pillars: quality, cost and time. In order to pull off a successful project, you need to complete high-quality work within an agreed budget and a set timeframe. Everything flows from there. Project time tracking is critical to how you manage the third pillar, and affects pillars one and two as well.
When you start a project, you have to assess how much time you need to produce good work. And you need to consider how many of these hours are billable hours, and how much profit you’re likely to make. Keeping track of these hours as the project progresses is important, too. How much time have you used to date? Are you on track? And when you finally invoice, was your original estimation accurate?
An automatic project time tracking tool (like Timing) is the best way to predict, manage, and evaluate the time you spend on a particular project. Let’s look at project time tracking in more detail, including why it’s so important and how to implement it.
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How Flex Time Can Improve Work-Life Balance and Job Satisfaction
Image: Christine HumeFlex time, flexitime or flexible hours. It’s often one of the things that draws freelancers to self-employment in the first place, and especially since the pandemic, has become increasingly common among larger companies, too. It refers to the ability (as the name suggests) to be flexible in how you manage your time. It offers some important benefits.
Studies have shown, for example, that flextime decreases work-related stress, boosts job satisfaction, and leads to a greater work-life balance. This is because it can often be difficult to deal with domestic responsibilities like caring for your home, looking after children, and attending to health concerns if your working hours are cast in stone. A little flexibility, however, makes it easier to stay on top of your different commitments. If you’re an employer, there are advantages for you, too, such as increasing productivity and reducing absenteeism and employee turnover.
Let’s take a closer look at what flex time means, and answer some of your questions. What are the pros? Are there any cons? And how can you make a flexible working arrangement part of your business?
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The Top Hard and Soft Freelancing Skills You Should Spend the Time to Develop
As a freelancer, you’re in charge of everything, including your own personal development. No one will force you to attend classes, take courses, study new techniques, or practice new skills. That all falls on you.
If you’re thinking, “I don’t need to improve; I already know how to do my job,” you’re making a serious mistake. There is always something new to learn, some new way to improve yourself and the work you perform for your clients. To be competitive and find reasons to raise your rates, you must continually develop your skills.
But which skills should you improve? We can help with that. This article lays out the top freelancing skills that will help your career.
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Freelancing Red Flags: 16 Signs to Abandon That Problem Client
Freelancing is more popular than ever, which means more people and businesses are using freelancers to meet their needs. It’s a tremendous time to be a freelancer as nearly every industry is embracing this work model, especially since the pandemic.
But while many of your client relationships are healthy, productive, and lucrative, some just aren’t worth the trouble. As a freelancer, it’s smart to identify your problem clients and abandon them quickly. The sooner you call it quits with a bad client, the sooner you can start working with a good one.
How do you predict if a client will be a problem? By looking out for red flags that indicate the arrangement won’t be pleasant for you. This article lays out the top freelancing red flags and what to do if you spot them.
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Should You Call Yourself a Freelancer? Why Your Title Might Be Holding You Back
The words you use to describe yourself matter. Words affect your personal brand. They influence people’s perception of you, especially when a few words is all they know about you. If you want to be a successful freelancer, you need to be thoughtful with the words you use to describe yourself and your work.
The words we speak aloud can even affect our own brains. Simply introducing yourself to a client can change the way you view yourself. If you refer to yourself as an experienced professional, eventually, you will start to think of yourself as such. But if you refer to yourself as an amateur or newbie, that’s exactly what you’ll be.
Self-perception is important because words can influence your own mood and behavior. Having repetitive negative thoughts can activate the brain’s fear center. If you think of yourself as an imposter who lacks control over their work and career, you’ll present that message to clients and prospects through your behavior and language.
Your title is one of the first pieces of information that prospective clients learn about you. It should tell clients who you are and how you can help them. This begs the question: Are you introducing yourself properly? Does it make sense to call yourself a “freelancer,” or is there a different way to set the stage for client relationships?
In this article, we help you understand whether it makes sense to call yourself a freelancer or if a different term is more suitable for your career.
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ActivTrak vs RescueTime: Which Productivity App is Better for You
When you have no control over your bad work habits, they affect your personal life and career. Browsing the internet, shopping online, and especially using social media during work hours can significantly reduce your productivity.
Statista reports that over 200 million people worldwide are addicted to social media. It can even destroy your otherwise successful career in extreme situations.
Luckily, there is an effective way to keep your professional life in order and win back some of the time you’re wasting every day on various online distractions. Spend it instead with family and friends or doing activities that make you happy!
While developing Timing, our premium time tracking tool for macOS users, we extensively researched other time tracking solutions and productivity apps such as ActivTrak and RescueTime to address most of the issues users are likely to have with these tools.
Our goal was to deliver the best possible solution to help our users cut down on bad habits that affect their productivity and efficiency.
We provide high-performing professionals with detailed time reports to help them understand how they spend their workdays and where they can make improvements. As a result, our users feel more in control and empowered in their personal and professional lives. Sign up today for a 14-day free trial, start tracking your time and see if Timing is a good fit for your needs.
Now, let’s go over the basics on RescueTime and ActivTrak and see why Timing is an excellent alternative to these tools.
