Do you track time?
Maria Batrin
26 replies
Where is my time going? Am I managing it efficiently? What should I measure first? I've been asking myself these questions for quite a long, so I'm curious if anyone else faced this problem.
I think tracking your life is one of the best ways to measure progress. To make it regular and keep life balance in mind, we've created a Life tracker app that is launching today - https://www.producthunt.com/posts/life-tracker ππβ¨
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Stefan Morris@stefan_morris
I don't track my time because I follow a routine and I have pretty clear goals. That combination gives me a pretty clear view of my progress.
I also set milestones, which I am constantly crosschecking. It's ok to miss a milestone but there should be a very clear (unexpected) reason, otherwise I rethink my estimates and approach to my work.
I think a lifetracking app would still be useful to some, though.
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Life Tracker
@stefan_morris Yeah, that's cool too! Do you use it for work or personal goals as well?
It reminds me of 12 weeks plan, something like that:
- Shorten your feedback loop on goals that you set.
- Prioritize your time by blocking it off through a weekly plan.
- Measure your execution regularly, and work to improve it.
- Focus on your goals and join a community for accountability.
@maria_batryn I use the same approach for work and personal, however I do struggle a bit with personal goals, usually because they simply are not a high enough priority to me.
We use at work Clockify to track our working time and see how much we spend on each project, but besides that I don't track my activities outside from work. I don't have problem with personal organization or with free time.
Nevertheless, congratulations on the launch! :)
I have a general structure of my day, what I'm gonna do at what time. Then I just go and do it, adapt here and there as the day goes, never tracking it down to the minute.
My team usually tracks their working hours by the minute and this is how we invoice our clients.
We also track time spent on internal projects and in this way we split the outcomes proportionally as labor shares.
Life Tracker
@ilko_kacharov Do you use time tracking for personal life (to see if that's enough of everything, for example)?
@maria_batryn It's funny but having a newborn makes you track time precisely as well. Beside that I don't track my personal activities.
You are literally a savior! Just today I was wondering about ways to increase my productivity and utilize my time wisely. Time for me to check out your product and see how that can help.
Life Tracker
Allocating my time is always a problem for me. Congratulations on the launch! :)
Life Tracker
@antonovna Because of procrastination? Thank you! π
I've tried quite a few time tracking options over the years, including handwritten stuff, excel spreadsheets with a myriad of formulas, and most recently Notion.
I do this both for my personal life and for my professional life to stay on top of everything I need to do and to ensure what I do on a daily basis is aligned with my yearly goals.
I'm happy with my current setup, but I'll gladly test the Life tracker app you've put together and provide feedback.
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@raulmazilu Yeah, aligning daily actions to yearly goals is the key! It seems you are a pro in personal productivity, would be really helpful to know your thoughts! π
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@maria_batryn Estoy usando Slacj para rastrear mi trabajo. No sigo mi vida personal. En mi opiniΓ³n, no tiene sentido.
That's super interesting Maria. I am very - annoyingly :) - structured so I unusually have a game-plan which I execute. I can imagine your tracker is very helpful for people who procrastinate... and hate that they procrastinate.
Good luck!
Life Tracker
@minal_at_openelevator Always having a plan and being structured is super cool π
Honestly, I don't think that something can help people who procrastinate until they are ready to change it. I think our app is for curious people who'd like to know where exactly their time goes (and how real picture differs from the perfect one in their minds) π€―
I've tried to track my hours, but I didn't find it constructive. I ended up judging myself for how much time I spent doing certain kinds of deep work, instead of enjoying the flow state.
As of late, I'm taking an intuitive approach to my workday - I take breaks when I'm becoming inefficient, I end my day when I've already tackled the tasks I needed to tackle that day. Having a checklist and a well-defined workflow (which my team and I always try to optimize) is what has worked best for me.