Toggl is the first new “app” I’ve added to my daily workflow in a long time, and I want to give it a little plug.
My workplace requires me to log my time so that they know how much money they’re spending on various projects. I found a great way to do that with Toggl. I leave it open in Safari (unfortunately it does seem to cause Firefox to crash every couple days) on my external monitor. It looks like this:
Each line is a task I’ve spent time on, and each one of these tasks is connected to a project. Once I’ve put in a task and a project, it’s super easy to click “Continue” next to a previous iteration or to simply start typing it in and let it pop up as a suggestion. I can even add a little note specifying just what I was doing in the “Bible Integration” category. And I can easily change entries or add entries manually if I need to.
As those entries stack up, I get a nice pie chart showing me how I’ve spent my time this week. Here’s last week:
I also get to see how much time I’ve been spending on any given task—while I’m working on it. That’s huge, because let’s face it: the Internet can easily waste more time than it saves. It’s too easy to look up and see “Ancillary Tasks — 41:37.” Ouch. I have the awesome privilege of writing a brand new textbook. Why would I spend four minutes and thirteen seconds (and counting) on a blog post?!
I apologize to you both; you’re worth my time.
I like it, but I wish there were a way to pause and resume a task without creating an additional line item. Am I doing something wrong? Or am I missing why having them broken out might be useful?
I thought that initially, too, but now I like it, because it shows me how broken up my day is–or, hopefully, isn’t. It helps me make it my goal to give long, uninterrupted blocks to my most important tasks.
Unfortunately, I can only dream about having blocks of uninterrupted time.
Thanks, Mark – I just started a new job where I’m required to log hours. Their spreadsheet is just a “total hours” log, but this should make it pretty easy for me to log hours in live time and get totals for the spreadsheet.