Time log techniques. Time tracking with a time log shows the reality of wasted time

Time Log – Why To Keep It?

Keeping time log seems to be boring. But this exercise is extremely helpful for improving your time management skills. A few minutes of log keeping and analyzing will reveal to you some very interesting and surprising things. You will see how much time you waste every day in many unexpected ways and what your real labor capacity is. Also you will find out how much time some tasks take in real life. This clear picture of your time will help you to increase your personal productivity and save many hours of your valuable time.

How to Keep Time Log

1. You don’t need to keep writing time log every day for the rest of all your life. It is enough to do it for 3-7 days once in a 3-6 months.

2. You should write down this information for every thing you do:

• Its name
• Scheduled (Yes or No)
• Interrupted (Yes or No, at what time)
• Urgent (Yes or No)
• People Involved
• Estimated Time
• Actual Time

3. Continue with your usual routine activities. On the way, put entries into your time log. Don’t leave anything out. You can add new entries every time you switch to some new activities or at some definite intervals (e.g. 10 minutes).

4. Filling all fields is not obligatory, but try to fill them out where you find it relevant.

How to Analyze Time Log

You should systemize and analyze your time log information.

• Distribute your activities by categories, such as “Work”, “Family”, “Rest” – you can add any categories you like.
• Evaluate what percentage of your time is spent on each area of your life.
• Determine what percentage of your activities is important and what is urgent.
• What is the ratio between planned and unplanned activities?
• What are the main interrupters?
• What are the main time stealers?
• How much time do your usual tasks actually take? Was Do you think that your preliminary time estimating realistic?

Think over thing that you can change in your workflow. Perhaps, you can delegate or simplify some tasks. Maybe you can stop some useless and unproductive activities. Find how you can save your time by grouping some related and connected tasks.

How To Use VIP Software for Time Logging

VIP Software will simplify your time log keeping and analyzing.

You can easily add new item to your list just by pressing the Insert button. There are special fields for estimated and actual time in task properties. Full-featured notepad is integrated within, so you can make notes for each task separately. You can create different categories and distribute your activities between them. You can prioritize your list (six priority statuses are available). Though your time log may be rather large, you can easily filter and sort out its items and then even make search through them.

VIP Software for Time Logging

VIP Simple To Do List is the most easy-to-handle time management tool for a moderate price. VIP Organizer provides you with more advanced functions and features, e.g., you can add not only categories, but subcategories as well. VIP Team To Do List allows you to manage your own workflow and also create schedules for your team members and track their progress. VIP Software will help you to improve your time management skills and will allow you to be in control of your personal time.