Who’s this post (and time tracking) for?
This post is for creative visionaries.
You who have MULTIPLE projects on the “back burner” and feeling “stuck”.
Because you aren’t seeing the progress you want.
Visionaries who are struggling to “focus”.
Because you feel:
- “pulled in all different directions.”
- “scatterbrained”
- “all over the place”
This post gives you a time tracking tool to break out of that rut and get producing at the scale you want to—fast!
What agony is post meant to solve?
The AGONY of being stuck!
The AGONY of a project stalling out.
The pain of sky-rocketing out of the gate, only to fall flat on your face, overwhelmed.
SEETHING with frustration.
When you feel like you are “working all the time,” yet nothing is getting done.
When you are, looping over the same work in your head over and over again.
You can’t seem to move forward, no matter WHAT you do!
The Core of this post
WHEN you feel like you “don’t have enough time” your creative projects OR you aren’t progressing as you want — track your time!
Why?
Sobering Data
SEEING how much time you are spending on a project is DEEPLY informative!
You say to yourself:
“Hey if I only had a {{insert}} desired amount of time here, this project would get done.”
HOWEVER, the data says, not only do you have the time, you aren’t using it the way you need to.
You simply haven’t executed on it.
Objectivity
You may be THINKING about a project for a long time, however, when you track your time you are looking at how much time your spending MOVING THE PROGRESS forward.
Momentum
As You track, you SEE momentum build!
Momentum leading to behavioral change (a la Tiny Habits).
Once you start tracking your time — You’ll be shocked!
“WOW! I worked on this idea for 20 uninterrupted minutes —look at how much I accomplished.”
You’ll even find yourself asking:
“I wonder what’ll happen IF I did more of this [Tracked my time], what would happen?”
For example, when I’m in a rut, I love cracking open Toggl and seeing I’ve spent 50 minutes on a post today.
It saves me from critical self.
Instead of saying
Hey I didn’t accomplish what I want this week. or ‘I didn’t get anything done today.
I find myself saying:
HEY! I’m so excited I got a chance to work on what I want to! I’m glad I’m making solid progress!
Why Does Time Tracking Help you get out of rut?
The simple action of tracking your time challenges you to the truth of where you are REALLY spending your time.
It doesn’t let your productivity mind play tricks on you.
Since, a lot of the times you don’t know how much time you’re spending on a project.
[Note: That’s EXACTLY why Peter Drucker recommends “Time Audits” in The Effective Executive]
Here’s an example Toggl Report.
I can see EXACTLY where I’m allocating my time.
No more walking around Feeling like you’ve got a Pinball in your head.
After time tracking, You have clarity!
Timing Tracking Calls You Out
Time tracking gets you out of a rut by determining whether you’re:
working or “pseduo-working.”
Pseduo-work (and the pseudo-worker) is defined by author Cal Newport In How to Be A Straight A Student as:
The pseudo-worker looks and feels like someone who is
working hard—he or she spends a long time in the
library and is not afraid to push on late into the night—
but, because of a lack of focus and concentration,
doesn’t actually accomplish much.The guy who brings three meals,
a blanket, and six-pack of Red Bull to the study lounge in
preparation for an all-day paper-writing marathon is also
pseudo-working.The result is fatigue headaches and lackluster
outcomesThe bigger problem here is that most students don’t
even realize that they’re pseudo-working.
By seeing the data of your time ON THE SCREEN, objectivity is unavoidable.
You can SEE how many days you did (or didn’t) spend working on a project.
It calls you out and says:
Hey! You aren’t spending your time the way you think you are.
Or
Great work! You are spending your time EXACTLY how you want. Well Done!
Time Tracking Causes a Paradigm Shift
Time tracking pushes on the belief you are “always working” and actually TRACKS that.
You realize:
That the task that you’ve been putting off FOR MONTHS actually took 23:19 Minutes.
Once you have a few of those:
“Wow! I really can’t believe it took that long” moments.”
You’ll have a massive paradigm shift in terms of how you look at your work.
You go from a place of “overwhelm” to “curiosity.”
It goes from:
“How am I ever going to get this done?”
To
“HUH. I wonder how long it’ll ACTUALLY take me to finish this task?
Because, the deafening insight that:
Thinking about working is not the same as doing the work— is hard to shake!
Note: This works in either direction.
The time you estimated takes WAY TOO LONG or it is WAY SHORTER THAN EXPECTED.
Fundamentally it exposes “planning bias” and roots it out of existing.
Over time, you’ll get better a predicting and planning. Simply because you’ll have REAL DATA!
Speaking of real data…
Time Tracking Shows You Real Data
With time tracking, You are using data to create your schedule.
It’s not:
I’m going to work at this time I am going to work at this time.
It’s:
“These are the times that I typically work on this.”
How do I recommend you track your time?
Track your time using Toggl Track.
Why?
- Easy to Use. Tracking your time can be a royal pain in the ass. (Sorry Meghan Markle.) Toggl made it extremely easy to track your time.
- Powerful Analytics. The analytics ALONE and the insights make Toggl worth using!
Here’s an example of the analytics.
The Implementation: Toggl
An in-depth tutorial of Toggl falls outside of the scope this article.
However, in order to have you up and running by the end of this post, here is a quick-and-dirty tutorial.
With the goal of having you track your first project in less than 5 Minutes.
[NOTE: Here is an in-depth resource from Toggl (Link)]
Step 1: Go to Toggl.com and/or Download the Toggl App.
Links
Step 2: Create an Account.
Step 3: Create a project.
Toggl has more detailed info on creating projects here.
Step 4: Track Your Time.
Hit the play button to track your time!
Done!
Objection: Do you need to track everything?
No, you don’t.
Surprisingly.
Through the lens of this article, Time Tracking ISN’T about mili-second precise data collection.
It’s about building Momentum!
To bust you through that rut of being “stuck in the mud” or “spinning your wheels.”
So you can make an accurate analysis based on data and have a powerful conversation with yourself.
A conversation like this:
“You know what I thought I was spending 10 hours a week on this project. After looking at Toggl, I’m only spending five. To get the results I want, I need to move some things around in the schedule to get me to 10 hours.”
Final thoughts
Time tracking is an easy piece of advice to dismiss.
Because it’s been beaten to death over and over again by management gurus.
However, here is a new spin on it:
This tool can be EXACTLY what you’re looking for to get unstuck from the muck of creative work.
In order to give you the jolt necessary and hard dose of reality you need to get the results that you want.
Try yourself and see the true power of time tracking!