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 🚀🙌✨

Replies

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.
Maria Batrin
@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.
Stefan Morris
@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.
Ana Dodig
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! :)
Style and Trends
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.
Ilko Kacharov [Team-GPT]
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.
Maria Batrin
@ilko_kacharov Do you use time tracking for personal life (to see if that's enough of everything, for example)?
Ilko Kacharov [Team-GPT]
@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.
Maria Batrin
@ilko_kacharov Nice point, agree!
Hussain Effendi
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.
Maria Batrin
@heffendi Wow, that sounds inspiring to me! I'd love to get your feedback as our long-term aim is to build a love mark product that really helps (I mean, any negative feedback is welcome too).
Jessie
@heffendi same!! Time management is of essence indeed :)
Alina Ihnatiuk
Allocating my time is always a problem for me. Congratulations on the launch! :)
Maria Batrin
@antonovna Because of procrastination? Thank you! 🙌
Raul Mazilu
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.
Maria Batrin
@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! 😌
Ira GI
I have a schedule every hour. I have multiple businesses, I need control
Maria Batrin
@ira_gi Nice! Seems like time blocking, which is a great strategy 👏
GamerSeo
It is always worth keeping track of time and testing your work efficiency.
Maria Batrin
@gamerseo Agree, and what about your personal life? Maybe you use habit tracker or something like that?
GamerSeo
@maria_batryn Estoy usando Slacj para rastrear mi trabajo. No sigo mi vida personal. En mi opinión, no tiene sentido.
Minal Joshi Jaeckli
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!
Maria Batrin
@minal_at_openelevator Always having a plan and being structured is super cool 👏 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) 🤯
Minal Joshi Jaeckli
@maria_batryn that's really smart insight on people who procrastinate and who your app is for!
Aaron Marco Arias
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.