Free Time Tracking Software

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Free Time Tracking Software

Free time tracking software improves your personal time management and overall time management skills.

Free time tracking software limits your distractions and increases your focus and effectiveness.

Have you ever got to the end of your day and wondered where your time has gone?

Do you feel you could be more productive but don't know how?

Are you working hard but just can't seem to get through your priorities?

These are some common complaints of executives I have worked with over the years.

The most effective people in the world know how they spend their time and ensure that their time is spent on high impact activities!

One method of identifying time-savers and ensuring you are working on your priorities is to gather objective data - and then act on it.

But gathering this data can be cumbersome and sometimes time-consuming.

For knowledge workers who want to be more effective, free time tracking software can make the collection of this data a snap.

The advantages of tracking time

Time = life; therefore, waste your time and waste your life, or master your time and master your life.

Alan Lakein

The above quote says it all.

Time is a valuable resource and by time tracking and using the time wisely - on our top priorities - you ensure you are moving toward your goals.

Some of the advantages of time tracking include:

Time Management Activity

The Pareto principle suggests that 20% of activity yields 80% of results.

Use time tracking software and set time management goals for how you could ensure that you are spending your time on those 20% of activities that give 80% of the results.

By gaining a better idea of how you spend your time you are in a better position to improve your time management skills.

The ability to gather objective data on your time.
Have you ever got to the end of the day and wondered where your time has gone?
Time tracking identifies where you have spent your time how long tasks have taken.
This makes scheduling tasks easy and improves your personal time management.

Improve your usage of time.
When I used free time tracking software I became aware at how often I checked my email and accessed social networking sites.
Did you know that an analysis of over 500,000 PC user hours shows that the average worker accesses email over 50 times a day.
While email is important it can be a distraction from your top priorities!
Knowing how you spend your time will boost your overall effectiveness.

Schedule time.
Over the week that I used these two software programs, I was clearer on how long different tasks took.
I found that both time tracking software programs made it easier for me to track my actual versus planned task completion rates.

Reporting held me accountable.
Initially I was road-testing the two time tracking programs but I found that the reporting requirements and the analysis of my time (especially Rescue Time) made me accountable for my time.
It was as though I was reporting my time usage to my boss - except my boss was me!

Limits distractions.
Since I felt more personally responsible for my time usage and that I knew my usage was being recorded I was much more aware of focusing on my priorities which were developed using the Pareto principle.
The clarity of my purpose was magnified and I became more aware of time-wasters throughout the day.

Want to Delegate Work

Do you want to delegate work or delegate tasks but don't know how to delegate because you don't know the completion times!

What about when you are on holiday or get that promotion!...Who can step in with a clear idea of how long tasks take?

Free time tracking software that runs in the background gives you a clear idea of your time usage on different projects.

Free time tracking software

There are a number of free time tracking software programs on the Internet.

I road tested two of them, Rachota and Rescue Time.

I found the learning curve for Rachota was steeper than Rescue Time but both of the free time tracking software programs did their job - they tracked my time and focused my attention on my priorities.

But I particularly liked the background time tracking of Rescue Time. It tracked specific website usage to documents that I worked on. I was able to get a clear idea on how often I used my email and for how long.

One of the great things about Rescue Time is that when I step away from the computer the program recognizes that I am not there and prompts me how I want to track this time (was I in a meeting or on a phone call - or do I even want to track this period that my computer was idle?)

By giving me objective data on my email usage - which for me is a distraction from my priorities - I was able to instil new user habits around my email usage - which I talk about at email etiquette.

Since I use a number of email sites, Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook, it was useful for me to create a Tag for Email which allowed me to get an overall view of my email usage. I can analyze my usage in more detail if I choose to.

I also have a number of computers - one that I work on in the lounge and another that I like to take to the park. This was not a problem for Rescue Time which was able to pick up my usage and keep tracking my time on different projects.

Overall these software programs are one of those time management tools that really make a difference. It increases your accountability, gives you objective data, and informs you how long certain tasks take.

This is all information that you can use to improve your time management skills.