| Every small business struggles with tracking their | | | | The more you practice at this, the more |
| time. As a web development shop, we've been | | | | second-nature it will become. We've been doing |
| constantly evolving and improving our time | | | | this long enough now that stopping and starting |
| tracking methodologies since we started eight | | | | task timers are a natural part of our workflow. |
| years ago. Here are some tips we have learned | | | | 3. Find your time zone |
| along the way. | | | | After a few days of diligent tracking, you should |
| 1. Group your daily tasks by availability and type | | | | have a pretty good idea of what a normal day |
| of work | | | | looks like in terms of hours tracked. Don't expect |
| If you know you are going to have three solid | | | | to track every minute at your desk, because it |
| hours to get things done, try to work on a lot of | | | | won't happen. My magic number is 7.5 hours. |
| similar tasks. Mentally shifting gears is a | | | | Knowing my daily number helps me stay focused |
| productivity killer and will hinder your efforts to | | | | on getting things done, but also gives me some |
| track time. It is much easier to keep track of | | | | wiggle room to goof off and surf the ‘net. |
| your hours if you can work uninterrupted and on | | | | 4. Turn it into a competition |
| fewer tasks. The best time for this is in the | | | | At the end of each week, compare your hours |
| morning, when your mind is fresh and your day | | | | tracked with your coworkers, or your own |
| hasn't yet been hijacked by client and coworker | | | | previous week. A friendly competition among |
| needs. | | | | coworkers is a great way to get people |
| 2. Use timers and use them often | | | | motivated to track their time better. We review |
| Find web-based or desktop timer software that | | | | and compare our timesheet tracker totals each |
| works for you, preferably with multiple timer | | | | week, and challenge one another to do better the |
| support, and use it. Get in the habit of starting | | | | next week. |
| and stopping timers each time you touch a task. | | | | |