4 reasons to integrate time tracking & task management

Source:- bmmagazine.co.uk
As a professional, you’ve probably heard many people rave about time tracking. Monitoring how you spend every minute of your working day seems like a tedious task.
In many ways, it actually is. While it’s difficult to shrug off old habits, knowing where your time goes proves to be crucial whether you’re an executive, a team member, or even a freelancer.

Usually, you know the tasks that you need to complete. The problem lies in allotting time for these tasks. With so many distractions, it’s easy to lose track of the things you need to do and end up cramming at the last minute. You wouldn’t want to compromise the quality of your work just because you felt the urge to check your social media feed or play some game on your phone. Integrating time tracking and time management is the key to productivity and a healthy workflow.

Spot inefficiencies
One of the best things about time tracking is that it tells you how much time you spend on each task. And as you know, the most time-consuming tasks aren’t necessarily the ones that bring the most value. For example, it’s easy to get lost in your email inbox, yet only a handful of messages can lead to new clients or more sales.

By spotting inefficiencies like this, you can improve your workflow by limiting the time you spend on less productive activities and dedicate more time for those that lead you closer to your goals.
Gather historical data
A fantastic way to impress prospective clients is to show confidence in meeting deadlines. Once you develop the habit of time tracking, you can gather historical data on how much time it takes to complete tasks and projects. You can use this data to provide accurate estimates to potential clients. No need to play the guessing game when you can use tools like Trello time tracking to stay on top of your time logs. Trello also allows you to generate customized reports with the exact data and in the preferred format of your clients. Available as a Google Chrome extension, Trello helps you increase productivity whether you’re at home or on the go.

Stop procrastinating and multitasking
Even top executives suffer from procrastination. But by tracking your time, you can easily bounce back instead of letting time slip by. While you may find relief in checking Facebook for a few minutes, you end up beating yourself up when you keep putting things off.

The same holds true for multitasking. Many thinks that they’re being efficient by doing several things at once, but this can take more time and may involve more errors. Tracking time is an excellent way to stop procrastinating and multitasking by helping you to focus on a particular task and finish it without any distractions before moving on to the next.

Determine when to delegate tasks
Delegating tasks is one of the best ways to increase productivity. But it’s not always easy to tell when it’s time to delegate. By tracking time, you can tell whether your time is better spent elsewhere. Figure out whether another person can do the job so you can use your time to accomplish other things. You might be surprised by how much this can help in ensuring the quality of the work while meeting deadlines as well.