subject: Tips For Tracking Employees Time Better! [print this page] Every small business struggles with tracking their time. As a web development shop, weve been
constantly evolving and improving our time tracking methodologies since we started eight years ago.
Here are some tips we have learned along the way.
1. Group your daily tasks by availability and type of work
If you know you are going to have three solid hours to get things done, try to work on a lot of similar
tasks. Mentally shifting gears is a productivity killer and will hinder your efforts to track time. It is much
easier to keep track of your hours if you can work uninterrupted and on fewer tasks. The best time
for this is in the morning, when your mind is fresh and your day hasnt yet been hijacked by client and
coworker needs.
2. Use timers and use them often
Find web-based or desktop timer software that works for you, preferably with multiple timer support,
and use it. Get in the habit of starting and stopping timers each time you touch a task. The more you
practice at this, the more second-nature it will become. Weve been doing this long enough now that
stopping and starting task timers are a natural part of our workflow.
3. Find your time zone
After a few days of diligent tracking, you should have a pretty good idea of what a normal day looks like
in terms of hours tracked. Dont expect to track every minute at your desk, because it wont happen. My
magic number is 7.5 hours. Knowing my daily number helps me stay focused on getting things done, but
also gives me some wiggle room to goof off and surf the net.
4. Turn it into a competition
At the end of each week, compare your hours tracked with your coworkers, or your own previous week.
A friendly competition among coworkers is a great way to get people motivated to track their time
better. We review and compare our timesheet tracker totals each week, and challenge one another to
