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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But this doesn’t mean that synchronous work is pointless or outdated.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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Case Study: How Toast Design Simplified Their Time Tracking with Timing
Tracking and correctly attributing time spent on projects is vital for accurate cost estimates and managing your team and business, but can be challenging for agencies with several moving parts.
Toast Design needed a time tracking solution that would help them to simplify attribution of project work. Find out why they work with Timing – watch the video, or continue reading.
“Timing is probably the most awesome timing app that I have ever used…really, really simple to set up, simple to configure, simple to convince the team…” says David.
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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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Time Efficiency Matters — Here’s How to Get it Right
Whether you’re paid on an hourly, daily or project basis, being efficient with your time is critical to your success. You’ve got to produce strong work in a reasonable amount of time if you’re going to maintain and grow your business. But time efficiency isn’t as easy as it sounds. With time sinks waiting around every corner to distract you and slow you down, working efficiently takes practice and dedication.
Here, we’ll take a look at what it means to be time efficient and why it’s so important. We’ll also offer five time efficiency tips to help you use your time as well as possible. (Spoiler alert: tracking your time on an app like Timing is a good place to start!)
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Die 11 besten Zeiterfassungs-Apps für Mac: Eine umfassende Kaufberatung
Hintergrundbild: César Couto; Icons: die jeweiligen App-EntwicklerWissen Sie wirklich, wie Sie Ihre Zeit verbringen? Wenn Sie zurückblicken auf ein gerade abgeschlossenes Projekt, haben Sie dafür wirklich die drei Stunden gebraucht, die Sie glauben, oder waren es vielleicht doch nur zwei Stunden – und die letzte Stunde haben Sie mit der Beantwortung von E-Mails verbracht? Der einzige Weg, sicherzustellen, dass Sie wissen, wie Sie wirklich Ihre Zeit verbringen, ist die Verwendung einer der elf besten Zeiterfassungs-Apps für Mac, die wir unten aufgelistet haben.
Die Wahl der richtigen App hängt davon ab, was Sie benötigen – jede App ist geringfügig anders. Während einige Ihre Aktivitäten automatisch erfassen und sorgfältig festhalten, welche Webseiten und Dokumente Sie verwenden, lassen andere Sie Ihre Zeit manuell protokollieren. Einige eignen sich besonders gut für Freelancer und kleine Unternehmen, während andere eher für größere Unternehmen entwickelt wurden.
Lesen Sie weiter für einen Überblick über den gesamten Markt der Mac-Arbeitszeiterfassungs-Apps im Jahr 2023!
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How to Log Work Hours for Yourself and Your Team
Image: Christina Morillo
One of the most fundamental yet vital parts of completing any project is accurately logging work hours. Whether working solo or managing a team, keeping track of hours is essential to ensure clients get billed correctly and meet compliance standards.
Fortunately, we live in an age where this process is more efficient and streamlined than ever, and you’re not stuck punching that antiquated time clock.
In this post, we’ll explain how to log work hours and helpful tools you can use to make it as simple as possible. We’ll also go over best practices and common mistakes so you get started on the right foot.
Let’s jump right in.
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Top 10 Time Management Tips: Work Less, Achieve More
Image: Firmbee.com
What constitutes a working week for most people? Does the old Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, norm still stand? Well, if the results of the world’s biggest four-day workweek trial are anything to go by: probably not. In fact, it’s likely safe to say that the working week revolution is underway. Now more than ever, businesses are using smart time management tips that can help professionals live more productive balanced lives.
The old nine-to-five workweek structure goes back over 200 years. So, it’s been due for a revamp for quite some time. Part of dismantling this system and implementing a new solution, however, has involved understanding how to manage time effectively.
Freelancers and professionals who need to bill time accurately have always understood the importance of effective time management strategies. The pandemic fuelled interest in this issue among broader business groups. We balanced our professional endeavors with our domestic commitments in increasingly blurred ways during the early 2020s. And as we did, we started to ask ourselves: are there time management tips that could help us do more and work less?
The answer is yes. Let’s dive in.
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Time Sink Be Gone: Find and Eliminate the Tasks that Waste Your Time
It can be hard to tell where the hours go sometimes. Your day starts off well enough, with only one meeting and a few seemingly achievable deadlines. But by the end of the day, you still haven’t ticked everything off today’s to-do list, and have only added to tomorrow’s. The culprit? One time sink after another, sneaking their way into your day.
The ramifications of losing minutes, hours, and sometimes even days to a time sink or two can be serious. Unless you stay on top of things, the quality of your work could suffer, you could miss out on opportunities, and your income could stall. It isn’t an exaggeration to say that a time sink that’s deep enough could affect the viability of your business.
Let’s take a look at what time sinks are all about, and how you can eliminate them, wrap up unfinished projects, boost your productivity, and ensure your business growth. (Psst: A time-management tool like Timing can help!)
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Increase Project Profitability with These 7 Simple Strategies
Image: Vlada Karpovich Project profitability is one of the essential factors in building a thriving business. It helps you determine 1) whether or not a client is worth your time, effort, and resources and 2) which clients to prioritize. Due to this, project profitability is one of the most “bottom-line” minded measurements and one you should learn how to calculate and use to maximize your revenue and fuel growth.
In this post, we’ll explain what project profitability is precisely, why it’s important, how to calculate it, and steps you can take to improve your profitability on a project basis. Let’s jump right in.
