Farewell to Android
Klout is FarmVille for grown-ups
Does Flash matter on mobile?
What is Twitter?
Working for an Internet company is great in many aspects: it's not a high-risk activity (well, except for the odd virus) and as you're constantly online, you can read and learn about lots of interesting topics on digital newspapers, blogs and more. However, permanent access to the Internet can also be a great source of time-wasting activities: social networks, microblogs, personal email, online games and other similar stuff can drive you away from your tasks to such an extent that you may end up dedicating more time to procrastination than you should.
While taking pauses at work is a healthy habit and can even help you raise your productivity, spending too much time on non work-related activities will surely make you feel bad when you realize, by the end of the day, that you haven't finished all the work you were supposed to do. So if you want to avoid these situations without giving up on work breaks, use any of the following time tracking tools: they've all been specially developed to help you focus on work and devote just the right amount of time to procrastination.
- MeeTimer - A handy Firefox extension that keeps track of the time you spend on each webpage you visit.
- RescueTime - Web-based time management tool with very accurate, colorful statistics.
- TimeTracker - Another Firefox add-on that helps you calculate how much time you spend (or waste) browsing the web.
- ManicTime - Complete personal time manager that controls where and how you spend your time while sitting in front of the computer.
- Slife - The most recent addition to our time managers catalogue: track the time you spend on each application and set goals for yourself.
Top 5? Are you serious? I've never heard of any of these tools. You should post real tools, like Cashboard (www.getcashboard.com). They have a widget which we use at my work to log all our time, then invoice our clients!
These sound mostly like personal time tracking applications, which would explain why Cashboard is not on the list. So when viewed from that perspective, the list makes a lot of sense. If you do need a time tracking app for a small business, I would advise checking out Intervals, which is designed to track and report on time for multiple users.
Hi G.Sha, just as John points out, this is a list of time tracking tools intended for personal use and not for business or financial issues. Cheers, Elena
Time tracking tools should increase your productivity as long as you don't have to take time to learn a complicated tool! Excel works right? As long as you don't ask me to report on my time! There is actually a tool from DOVICO Software (www.dovico.com) that is extremely easy to use, entering time now is a few minutes of my week instead of a half day. It's also cell based similar to an excel timesheet, no manual reading required. Reporting on my billable/non-billable project time takes seconds! Thanks DOVICO. S.
Hi Elena, I wanted to also mention Chrometa, which is a time tracking and productivity app intended for both personal and business use. Disclaimer: I'm one of the founders of the company. A lot of our users are the freelancers, lawyers, and other professional services types (professionals who bill for time and expertise). If you hate doing your timesheets, we designed this app for you! Here's our website: http://www.chrometa.com Cheers, JP
My favorite is Workrave.
This is an entirely different list compared to what is very common like Freshbook, Harvest, Freckle, etc. I believe this is more for personal use. If you are looking for something that is great for soloists and small teams, you should check out Freckle time tracking at http://letsfreckle.com.
Freckle is indeed awesome. I'm using it now and I believe for as long as I'm working online... :D
I agree that tracking tool cannot be complicated. As a freelancer I also use one, and my favourite is web-based application - OnePageOnly - a convenient and practical tool that can be also used for small teams. Have a try at http://onepageonly.net/ " href=" http://onepageonly.net/ " > http://onepageonly.net/
Good post Elena, these tools you have mentioned are really very useful. I would like to add this software that works like Rescutime. With this" rel="external">http://www.timedoctor.com/blog/2010/07/25/how-is-time-doctor-different-than-rescue-time">this tool it helps me organize work priorities easily. It also helps me manage time effectively and efficiently.
Great List! Time Doctor is also a good time tracking software. :) One additional tip I could share with you: most of the web monitoring software is sad to say, flawed. So better check out every possible candidate first before deciding to use it. You should make sure that it is the perfect tool to use for your business. I've just bumped into an awesome article that might help you decide what time tracking software to use: http://www.timedoctor.com/blog/2010/11/16/5-reasons-why-most-time-tracking-software-is-flawed ;)
I think everyone should use a time tracker once in a while. Just to find out how they are wasting time.