Here’s How You Can Track Time Spent on Tasks - Task Time Tracking 101

In this article, you’ll find:

• Definition of Task Time Tracking
• Benefits of Task Time Tracking to Your Business
• Step-By-Step Guide on How to Implement Task Time Tracking in Your Organization

Introduction

Time tracking in its manual, paper form has been around since 1888 when the first New York-based company developed a “time recorder”. In its earlier days, time tracking was straightforward and simple. Employees clocked in and out of work using a punch time clock. Its primary purpose was to monitor attendance and calculate salaries.

Today’s business landscape is far different. Digitalization as a pandemic aftermath led to new ways of working, ultimately making the old, manual time tracking processes redundant in most work situations. As innovations and technological advancements continue to make their way into work processes, companies are becoming increasingly keen on determining how employees spend their time, particularly those under hybrid or remote arrangements.

While roughly 25% of businesses around the globe have already transitioned to automated time tracking solutions, only a small percentage of these organizations have been able to fully leverage its many benefits.

The reason? Insufficient knowledge on effective productivity strategies that are needed to complement their time tracking apps.

This is where the concept of task time tracking comes into play.

What is task time tracking?

Task time tracking is a productivity approach that not only monitors hours worked on a client or project, but also the progress of each task. It digs deeper into the details and specific to-do lists by breaking down each project into smaller tasks, delegated among the right team members. It’s as granular as it can get. That way, employees can focus on their roles and easily track time spent on each task.

How can task time tracking help your business?

Whether you’re operating an agency, a firm, a retail enterprise, or a larger corporation, tracking time spent on tasks can be beneficial to your business. Through systematically-generated task time tracking reports, you will be able to identify which activities require more time and resources. 

This information will then enable you to:

• Gain better insight into your team’s capabilities, leveraging this data to increase operational productivity, and effectively manage your team’s workload
• Monitor employee performance and provide additional training or tools to unlock their full potential 
• Identify inefficiencies and gaps in your project management processes to create solutions which address them
• Empower your teams to learn the value of prioritizing and scheduling tasks
• Determine and eliminate distractions and interruptions that hamper efficiency and workflows
• Ensure the delivery of top quality results at the agreed upon timelines and meet, if not exceed, your clients’ expectations
• Improve project planning, budgeting, and resource allocation
• Develop data-driven strategies to expand your agency or business

Additionally, according to the 2022 Anatomy of Work Index, over 10,500 surveyed workers around the world believe that they spend 58% of their time at work doing tasks unrelated to their respective roles– an occurrence that could have been completely avoided if most companies properly execute task time tracking for their teams.

How you can track time spent on tasks

We’ve already mentioned that task time tracking can be a bit of work, but with the right tools and engaged employees, you can seamlessly integrate this productivity approach into your day-to-day operations.

The most recommended and efficient way to do so is through time tracking software.

Case in point: a survey from Monday.com shows that 54% of employees believe that they would be more productive at work and save over 5 hours a day through the help of task automation tools. Meanwhile, 24% have determined that the most time-consuming compliance activity is manual data input, so much so that more than 70% of respondents prefer using automation solutions particularly on mundane, repetitive tasks, which includes manual to-do lists and time tracking in its paper form.

Among the many time tracking apps available in the market, it’s important to look out for extensive features for data collection, analysis, and reporting. These are the ingredients that make your task time tracking strategy a success.

Here are some guidelines to get you started on setting up your tools and teams so you can track time spent on tasks with ease:

Create a full project list

First, develop a complete list of all projects you and your team are handling for each client. These are the overarching assignments that your company has been contracted for. 

For example, under Client A, you have the following projects:

• Social Media Management
• Website Design & Development
• Event Coordination For An Upcoming Trade Show

Use this as a guide for the next step.

Break down your project lists into smaller tasks

This is where the actual task time tracking begins. It’s important to identify the specific activities that need to be done in order to achieve the desired results for each project. Likewise, this makes it easier for your project managers and team members to comprehend and visualize how their tasks contribute to the overall success of each project. This wider understanding of how things will flow gives them a sense of accomplishment as they fulfill their roles.

Following the first example, this is how your task breakdown may look like:

Client A:

• Social Media Management
  • Draft social media post copies & plot them in a calendar
  • Create the graphics or videos for each drafted post
  • Schedule the approved posts for publishing
  • Analyze the performance of posts and provide recommendations to optimize
  • Manage client, facilitate presentations and feedback
• Website Design & Development
  • Draft website landing page copies
  • Create a design proposal
  • Develop a mockup of the design proposal
  • Actual coding and development of pages
  • Manage client, facilitate presentations and feedback
• Event Coordination For An Upcoming Trade Show
  • Liaise logistics and overall coordination of client, venue, suppliers
  • Create needed collaterals (posters, banners, etc)
  • Social media posts featuring the event

Identify timelines and persons in-charge

A task time tracking plan is not complete without deadlines and appointed people to handle each activity. Having complete details ensures that there won’t be any redundancies or overlapping tasks across the organization. Plus, it gives the point person accountability over the tasks assigned to them. 

While there are certain activities that require collaboration and teamwork, it’s ideal to have a person responsible for such work as it may call for meetings that need to be facilitated for them to be productive.

Taking the example above, you can now create a chart of tasks wherein you can clearly plug in the timelines and persons in-charge:

CLIENT A

Project Manager: Cara

Get your team onboard the task time tracking system

Creating an organized chart, as done in our previous example, provides everyone in the team with a starting point for easier coordination and seamless work. This also gives them a clearer understanding of what you’re trying to achieve through task time tracking.

Note that it may take a few days to get everyone used to the system. However, once they see that their efficiency and productivity are also increasing through this method, they will be more willing to practice tracking time spent on tasks and implementing it beyond mere compliance.

Set guidelines for employee time tracking

Whether you’re utilizing a time tracking software or a timesheet template through a spreadsheet, employees need to plug in the specific tasks that they’re working on. They can then easily refer to the chart you have provided for consistency on labeling each activity, project, and client on the time tracker.

If your company is already using an automated time tracking app, they can simply tap start and stop buttons at the beginning and end of each task. For manual entry in a spreadsheet, they can jot down the time they started and ended each task, count the hours it took to complete, and input them into the spreadsheet.

Conclusion

Tracking time spent on tasks is highly recommended for businesses looking to boost their productivity, efficiency, quality of work, and in the long run, improve their client satisfaction rates and revenues.

When you’re able to drill down into the details of each major project and digest them into smaller, more actionable tasks, employees will have a greater sense of accountability and accomplishment in fulfilling each activity.

From a macro perspective, task tracking will help you build and generate accurate data that will enable you to reap the complete benefits of time tracking in general, serving as the foundation for more concrete, data-driven decisions and strategic advancements towards business growth.

It’s time to get Productively.

Productively is a time tracker app that lets you elevate work efficiency with advanced time tracking, real-time reports, and powerful analytics. By managing your hours, you can seamlessly handle everything else.

With a streamlined dashboard that lets you access time tracked by days, weeks, months, or by client and project, you will be able to make more informed decisions based on accurate data. Its seamless invoicing feature allows you to automatically generate account statements for a more organized billing and receivables system. Altogether, it provides a comprehensive view of your teams’ efficiency, hours worked, billables, and most importantly, profit.

Bolster productivity, reduce unnecessary costs, and improve the way you do business with the app that empowers you to visualize your untapped capacity.

Learn more about us at https://productively.io/schedule/