Even though many new working models do not use time tracking, I think it is very important to record the time spent. Someone once said: “Only what I measure can I improve”. For me personally, time tracking helps me to focus and budget my time. Especially when you work on many topics, it is difficult to set priorities. Time tracking helps me to keep within limits and to dedicate only the time I have allocated to each topic.
The most important thing for me is that time tracking is as simple as possible and can be integrated very easily. Therefore I have been using my calendar for four years now. A tool that is already open all day anyway. In this article you can find out how to do this.
I took my idea from Twitter. There, so-called tags are used to write a post on a certain topic. Since then I have started to use tags in my calendar entries as well. Every project, every customer or task has a certain tag. When I record time, I create calendar entries that correspond to my working time. This has some advantages
- Calendars can be shared with other people
- There are numerous apps with which I can record my time
- The Google Calendar takes care of the synchronization across all devices
- Time recording can be automated with Zapier, Ifft and Co
- Time recording and appointments are clearly displayed in a calendar.
So erstelle ich jetzt gerade einen Kalendereintrag „#blog Eintrag zur Zeiterfassung“ in meinem Kalender und kann später dann auswerten, wieviele Stunden das Tag #blog im Monat verwendet wurde. Für die Auswertung habe ich eine Erweiterung für den Google-Calendar geschrieben.