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Time Blocking: The Productivity Hack used by the World’s Most Efficient People
Image: Gaining VisualsFeeling overwhelmed, unfocused and exhausted? Swamped with deadlines and unable to complete them on time? Perhaps it’s time to look at how you’re structuring your days. Jumping from one task to another may seem necessary — there’s just so much to do, after all — but this approach can be time consuming and counterproductive. If you’re looking for a solution, time blocking can help.
Time blocking is a time management practice that involves being intentional about how you spend your time. It’s about evaluating your most important tasks. Assessing how long they’ll take to complete. And blocking off time to work on them without distraction. The result? Designated time for deep work and shallow work, improved focus and productivity, and a greater sense of control.
Here, we define time blocking, look at some of its challenges (and solutions), and offer a step-by-step guide to make it part of your daily life.
Let’s get started.
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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But this doesn’t mean that synchronous work is pointless or outdated.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 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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9 Tips to Bill Time Accurately and Boost Your Bottom Line
Image: Wes HicksDoes your business bill time for each project? If so, you’ll know how important it is to track your time accurately. You need to know exactly how much time a particular project takes so that you can quote and invoice correctly, and you need to have a clear sense of whether you’re working productively or if there are more hours you could be billing.
There are countless businesses that operate this way. Those in the legal profession will be all too familiar with this approach, as will accountants, consultants and creatives, including copywriters, designers and developers. Freelancers across industries, who account for 36% of the workforce in the US, as well as agencies, regularly break their work down into hours and bill their time accordingly.
But even if you’re familiar with logging your time, are you sure you’re maximizing your billable hours? Are you working smartly and efficiently? Could you be billing more for your projects and boosting your bottom line? We’re here to offer some handy tips on making your time work for you, and to answer your questions, too.
Take a look at our comprehensive list of tips to help you bill for time — and develop a more successful business while you’re at it.
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Employee Monitoring vs. Time Tracking: How to Help Your Team Do Their Best Work
According to a survey by MIT, 34% of the US workforce has shifted to some type of remote work arrangement. The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t start the remote work trend, but it certainly accelerated it. For many businesses, the only options were to transition to remote work or close down.
This shift presents a challenge for some employers and team leaders. Where once they could monitor their team’s progress by simply roaming the office and having casual conversations, now they need to enlist digital tools to collect data on how their teams spend their time.
Because of this shift, some people are fearful of personal data security. We know the benefits of having our data harvested and analyzed, but we’re also aware of the risks. If a company doesn’t handle our data appropriately, we become exposed to abuse and privacy violations. The potential dangers make many people wary of digital tracking tools that monitor our actions, what we create, and the types of information we access.
As an employer or team leader, you naturally want information regarding the activities and productivity of your team. You need that data to make intelligent business decisions. But how much is too much? What are the appropriate types of information to track? Like many employers, you’re probably wrestling with these questions and more.
There are two main options for studying your team’s work and helping them do their best: employee monitoring and time tracking. This article explains these options and why traditional employee monitoring is too heavy-handed for modern workers.
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Key Features and Benefits You Need in a Team Time Tracking App
You’ve decided that time tracking is right for your team due to the potential productivity and work/life balance benefits. Now you’re ready to get started.
You’ll need a team time tracking app to track time accurately and reliably with as little disruption to your business and team as possible. While teams previously used paper forms and punched clocks to record time, those methods have become outdated and inefficient. We’re in the digital age; you need a powerful app.
A proper time tracking tool is more than just a stopwatch. It’s easy to use, records detailed information about individual activities, and keeps private data private. It lets teams work their best and administrators manage effectively.
But which time tracking app should you choose? Admittedly, several are available, so you must search for the right app for your organization. Consider your options carefully because this tool can profoundly impact your team’s performance.
This article lists the most important features you should look for in a potential time tracking app. Don’t settle on a tool until it meets these criteria.
(Before you dive in, consider browsing our complete guide on team time tracking. It’s a great primer on tracking the time of a group, including how time tracking works, the benefits you can get from it, and how to implement it in your team.)
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Time Management & Mental Health – Create the work-life balance you need
In support of this year’s World Mental Health Day theme ‘Making Mental Health & Well-Being for All a Global Priority’, we have a unique roundup of articles to help you create a healthy work-life balance and build the life you want.
You may be a freelancer, consultant, entrepreneur, part of a team or manage a team – whoever you are, life is busy. Our lives actually seem to be getting even more and more busy; and it’s getting more difficult to keep on top of everything we need to do.
Did you know that time management isn’t about getting everything done, but rather about getting the important things done? Psychology Today refers to time management as “a skill necessary for achieving a better quality of life. By managing your time in a more efficient way, not only will you get the right things done, but you’ll also have enough time to relax, de-stress and breathe more freely.”
Discover how you can improve your time management skills for a better quality of life with this collection of Timing articles.
- Timing Management Tips: How to Work Less?
- Time Scarcity Can Be Beaten! Here’s How to Break Free
- Mental Health Challenges as a Freelancer — and How to Cope
- How to Recognize Toxic Productivity With Time Tracking
- 10 Ways to Overcome Time Anxiety Using Time Tracking
- Why (and How) You Should Schedule Time For Your Relationship
These articles include tips on how to work less, understand what some of the biggest time management challenges are, as well as helpful references and apps that can help you create the life you want.
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How to Introduce Time Tracking to Your Team
You’ve decided to start tracking your team’s time. You understand the benefits of time tracking and believe it’s right for your team and organization. Your next step is to get your team on board and kick off the time tracking program.
Time tracking is a powerful asset for teams of all sizes, including in-house employees and teams of outsourced freelancers. Time tracking offers better productivity, accountability among team members, faster work production, and accurate billing when used properly.
Some team members are naturally suspicious of team time tracking. This hesitancy is often due to preconceived notions of what time tracking is and how it works. They may assume that you’ll use it to force them to work unreasonably hard or fast. Obviously, this isn’t your intent, so thoughtfully introducing your time tracking program to your team is essential. You can soothe many of their fears with the right information.
Many teams welcome time tracking as a powerful tool to improve productivity and gain insight into their work. This article offers a step-by-step guide to introducing time tracking to your team. Then we illuminate some common concerns team members make about time tracking and how you can address them.
Time tracking offers better productivity, more accountability among team members, faster work production, and accurate billing when used properly Share on X -
The Complete Guide to Team Time Tracking
As a team leader, you want your team members to be as productive as possible to make the team (and your overall organization) successful. You also want them to be happy, satisfied workers who don’t struggle with burnout or underappreciation. You can manage both of these concerns with team time tracking.
At one point, we used time tracking only to calculate salaries and paid time off. But in the age of data, time tracking offers numerous additional benefits – for businesses and individual employees. To be competitive, you should take advantage of this powerful technique
In this guide on team time tracking, we explain what it is, how it works, the benefits you can get from it, and how to implement it in your team.
As a team leader, you want your team members to be productive, happy, and satisfied without struggling with burnout or underappreciation. You can manage all of that with team time tracking. Share on X
