How to Track Time: Tools, Tips, and Templates That Save Hours

According to Forbes, 69% of corporate employees said that they don’t track their work hours accurately!

The amount is enormous as it indicates the tendency of low productivity hours and accountability. It shows how easily companies are losing productive hours without even realizing it. When you don’t track time properly, projects take longer, tasks start to build up, and productivity slowly drops without anyone noticing what went wrong.

But do you know what the best way for time tracking is? Well, in this blog, we are going to discuss how to track time, the best tools, tips, and share templates.

So, without any further ado, let’s get started—

How to Track Time Effectively: Top 4 Methods of Time Tracking

I’ve tried all the available methods of tracking time effectively. Among these, here are the 4 methods that seemed more efficient, budget-friendly, and easy to maintain for companies of all sizes.

1. Manual Time Tracking

As the name says, this is the oldest and easiest method. I try this method with some paper, a pen, and either my mobile phone’s timer or a stopwatch.

Start off by noting down the task name, then add the start hour, and after finishing the job, note down the finishing time as well. Then calculated manually from the start to the end hour to find the number of hours you worked.

For one or two tasks, you can do this, but for a long list of tasks, I don’t recommend this process, as the process itself is very time-consuming.

Benefits of Manual Time Tracking:

• Simple, easy, and cost-free.
• Doesn’t need any knowledge regarding technology

Drawbacks of Manual Time Tracking:

• Time-consuming

2. Using a Time Tracker:

Time tracking apps are mainly built to track an individual's or a team’s time automatically and provide detailed insights along with it.

These apps record your work hours during the day. All you need is to log in and start the timer, and the rest is its job. Many time-tracking apps also help track attendance, making it simpler to manage remote teams. Additionally, some time tracking apps like Apploye allow you to monitor productivity by tracking your activity.

Time tracker dashboard, with a list of the top 5 employees based on total time tracked and average activity, along with hours tracked in projects with bar graphs and a pie chart of the projects' time.

This is so convenient and automatically calculates the total working time. Moreover, you can get a better idea of the time you spend on each task. This app easily manages your time and increases productivity.

When you track your time, you can not only improve productivity but also maintain a healthy work-life balance.

Benefits of Using a Time Tracker:

• Provides a detailed report on the time spent on each task
• Automatically tracks time
• Easy to use and convenient
• Tracks employee attendance and generates invoices
• Works on different platforms

Drawbacks of Using a Time Tracker:

• It can be complicated for some people
• Advanced features can be a little costly

3. Timesheet Templates

Timesheet templates are pre-designed templates where you can directly input your time and find the work hours. This is an advanced version of manual time tracking.

You’ll find many timesheet templates for different purposes. Among them all, the most used timesheet templates are the daily, weekly, and monthly timesheet templates.

Daily timesheets record the time you’ve spent on your task on a day-to-day basis. On the other hand, weekly timesheets record time spent throughout the week. Similarly, monthly timesheets record the time spent in a month.

You need to enter the date you want to record, and then the amount of time you spent on each task.

Benefits of using Timesheet templates:

• Quick and easy method
• Organized and structured
• Templates can be customized

Drawbacks of using Timesheet templates:

• It can be time-consuming

4. Using Spreadsheet:

I remember the first time I thought of tracking my time. There were endless options out there, but I tried something I knew: spreadsheets.

It was simple yet effective. You’ve probably used spreadsheets before, too, right? If not, there is an easy process:

First, create a task column and on the right of it add a start hour column. Next to that, create the end hour column and finally add total hours on the rightmost column. In the total hours column, you subtract the end time from the start time to find the difference.

You can additionally add a date on a separate column to track the tasks by day.

But here is the simple trick. You can use the pre-built templates that I just talked about on the timesheet method. That will do the job.

Benefits of using spreadsheets:

• Customizable and easy to use
• You can analyze the data using the formula
• Can create reports

Drawbacks of using spreadsheets:

• Time-consuming
• Limited application

How to Track Time Using Time Tracking Apps

Apps are one of the best and most convenient ways to track your time. The best part about using a time tracker is that it’s available in downloadable form and browser extension as well.

On top of that, these are suitable for both remote and in-house jobs.

I’ll discuss how to track time using time-tracking apps. These tips will help you get the most out of the time-tracking apps.

Step-01: Choose The Right Time Tracker

When I first started tracking my time, I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of apps out there. But here's the thing: finding the right app depends on its features and your needs.

Before you choose a time tracker, look for the key features that your team needs. For instance, the key features in an hour tracker for you should look for are:

• List of employees with their productive and non-productive time
• average activity percentage
• total time worked,
• Analysis of working hours with downloadable reports.
• Budgeting and cost tracking
• Invoicing and billing
• Team and user management

Different apps have different features. Some apps only record time. While the other provides you with detailed insight about where you spent most of your time and how.

So, it’s best to choose an app that aligns with your goals.

Step-02: Allocate Your Projects

Once you choose the best tools, it’s time to move forward to the next phase of tracking time. Before you start using the software, it’s best to create projects and assign team members to them accordingly.

This keeps everything organized from the start and makes your time tracking far more accurate.

Most time-tracking tools let you use labels or tags, so separate tasks by client, project, or work type. You can also set priorities or deadlines to help you stay focused.

Make sure every task is placed under the right project so nothing gets lost or left in “uncategorized” sections. You can also review your project list once a week. It will help you keep things tidy and easy to manage.

Step-03: Start Tracking

As soon as you choose your app and set it, you will be able to see a timer in the app. Log in and start the timer when you start working.

This will track your working session and measure your productivity, too. Some apps also monitor employee computers by taking random screenshots that show where you spent most of your time during the session.

From your admin dashboard, you can see the list of currently live employees, along with their projects and tasks, and their latest start time. This will help you analyze their work, prepare invoices, and keep a proper record of the data.

Step-04: Analyze Reports Regularly

The best output of employee time tracking comes when you use the data for improvements. When you analyze the report regularly, you’ll know your strengths and your weaknesses. It will also show you where you can improve.

For employers, reviewing reports regularly helps you see patterns you might miss in day-to-day work. For instance, you can see tasks that take too long, team members who are overloaded, or processes that slow everyone down. With this information, you can adjust workflows, redistribute responsibilities, and make decisions that genuinely boost productivity and accountability.

For employees, the same reports can become a mirror for you. You get a clear view of where your hours go, what you’re great at, and which tasks eat up more time than expected. This makes it easier to fix habits, manage your workload better, and improve without needing to work longer hours.

When you and your employees, the wheels of your company uses the insights, it becomes become smoother, more balanced, and a lot more efficient to grow your business.

Common Challenges in Time Tracking and How to Tackle Them

By now, you know that time tracking is a must to get all your work done and avoid missing deadlines. But there are also some challenges you may face.

As I’ve been using time-tracking tools for a long time now, I know it’s hard to track your time consistently. If you have multiple projects or tasks, you may feel overwhelmed and often end up ignoring time-tracking apps.

Without proper time tracking, you can fall into the trap of overwork. This may lead to burnout and decreased productivity.

Here, I’ve discussed some challenges that I faced throughout my journey and solutions on how to tackle them:

Forgetting to Track Time

This is so common among many people. Often, it takes time to get used to these apps. Forgetting to track time repeatedly can provide inaccurate reporting and missed deadlines.

Solution:

To prevent this, start using a timer. Start your time tracker as soon as you remember. You can use a browser extension, too, for convenience.

Automated time-tracking tools can help in this regard.

Also, if you are always on your smartphone, download the app on your phone so you don’t forget.

Distractions

There are so many things that distract and snatch our valuable time. Moreover, distractions seem to creep in when we’re at our most focused time.

An illustration of distracting icons like social media logos and notifications surrounding a clock, pulling attention away.

I often sat to start my work, but after half an hour, I realized I’d been scrolling or lost in a conversation. Pretty frustrating, right?

Distractions can come in various forms. Interruptions from colleagues, noisy places, or constant notifications from your smartphone.

Tracking your time helps you stay focused and cut down on distractions. This makes it easier to get more done and work more efficiently.

Solution:

The blocking method helped me a lot to get rid of distractions. With this strategy, you can block specific hours of your day to dedicate yourself all.

This effectively breaks down the work week into small, achievable goals to work on projects and even take a break.

Procrastination

This is one of the biggest challenges for any employee. It’s a silent productivity killer, and we often end up missing our deadlines because of this.

This steals most of our work even before we realize it.

But what is the reason behind it? Employees might procrastinate because they feel overwhelmed, lack motivation, or fear failure.

The other employees might procrastinate because they strive for perfect or high-standard output, resulting in unnecessary delays.

Solution:

Before starting your work, allocate time for each task. Set deadlines for every work you do, or make some small achievable goals.

Deep working sessions can help in this regard. When you focus on what really matters, work gets done easily and effortlessly.

Scheduling Tasks Ineffectively

If you don’t plan before starting your work, you will be in a time warp. This often leaves us missing deadlines. At this time, it feels like 24 hours is not enough!

You can't manage your time and focus if you invest most of your time in less important tasks.

This often decreases productivity and increases stress levels. That’s why scheduling your tasks effectively is necessary.

Solution:

After your tiring day, bring a pen and paper and write down the six most important tasks for tomorrow.

Then prioritize from the most important to the least important tasks. This is called the Ivy Lee method, and this was so helpful for me.

Not Reviewing Regularly

Just tracking your time and never reviewing it, won’t help you to be productive in the long run.

Without regular follow-up, you won’t get a clear idea about your weaknesses and where to improve.

No matter what, if you want to improve your efficiency, you must review your performance regularly.

This time-tracking software can provide reports automatically. So you can get an understanding of your effort and hard work.

If you analyze your time reports, you can avoid time overestimation, which often leads to missed deadlines.

Solution:

Before starting your day, review your daily routine. In the middle of the day, look into what you have done so far and what’s left.

This will create a regular habit of reviewing your tasks.

Best Practices for Effective Time Tracking

Would you believe that only 20% of people can control their daily workload?

Research shows the US economy loses 50 million working hours each day because of not tracking work activities.

But how do you save your company from that hole?

After you start tracking where all your time goes, you’re half done. Here, I’ve discussed some of the best practices for effective time tracking.

1. Make it a habit: It does not take much time to track your time. Instead, it’s a habit you should build with a little bit of consistency. When you keep consistency in tracking time, it makes it
2. Say No to Multitasking: Multitasking might feel like it saves time. But, often, it only leads to more stress and less progress. So, to make your time more productive, don’t try to do everything at a time. Instead, start with little and try to shift to multi-tasking slowly.
3. Prioritize your work: different projects and task requires different focus and effort. Understand your task’s complexity and organize your daily schedule accordingly.
4. Block your time: When you block a specific time for a specific task, you focus on one task at a time. This helps you manage your work more effectively and prioritize every task equally.
5. Review and Analyze the Report: When you review the report frequently, it helps you identify where you spend most of your day. This also helps you identify your most time-consuming activities and reduce them.
6. Use Pomodoro Technique: The Pomodoro time management technique is the method of taking a 5-minute interval every 25 minutes for 4 sets in a row. Then, starting to work again after 30 minutes, with a 30-minute break after each set. This ensures you are dedicatedly working on your focus time without breaking your workflow. Many employee monitoring tool like Apploye offers a built-in POMODORO feature. This keeps you from burning out and helps you stay focused.

Track Your Time Like a Professional

So, you see, tracking time doesn’t necessarily mean staying on top of tasks. It improves your habits, works on the most important tasks, and shows how you choose to spend your time.

You might get confused at first, or even forget to track some days. But don’t give up! The more you practice, the more you'll notice how tracking time really helps you with increasing productivity.

You will have more control over your time and spend time mindfully. That’s when time starts working for you, not you running after time!

Frequently Asked Questions

How to track time spent on projects?

There are two ways by which you can track your time: i) Using a Timer, where you will track your time as soon as you start your work, and stop when you get everything done. And ii) Manual Time Tracker, where you will approximately enter your login and log-out entries at the end of your day/week/month.

What is the best time tracker?

According to its usability, accuracy, and simpler report preparation, Apploye is considered the best time tracker for all business types.

What is the 1 3 5 rule in time management?

1 3 5 rule in time management is a proven method where a person plans their day by completing 1 big task, 3 medium tasks, and 5 small tasks to stay focused and productive.