This is a simple concept but for some reason so many of us do not do this. We believe it is because without a good online tool, it makes it hard to keep track of time spent on different tasks. Imagine if you just started on your next Monday, and tracked 5 full days of work. A few things might happen when you put the data in front of you. I think most people will be very surprised and if you have a sharp business sense, something will click and you will see opportunity! Did I catch your attention yet?
Finding the opportunities and improving on them will make you closer and closer to your goals of success.
Time tracking and tasks go hand in hand when it comes to running a successful business. Let’s do an exercise together get you ready to successfully start time tracking your tasks.
Write down on a piece of paper a list of to do’s for tomorrow. I will make a fictitious example below:
- Send Contract To Jimmy
- Call with AppGroup Inc 11am
- Brainstorm/Research Product Positioning/Pricing
- Follow Up on Pending Invoices from Clients
- Research for Strategic Marketing Page Built on Website
Wow! I got a packed day tomorrow. But I actually start to feel a bit relieved that I know what I am suppose to do tomorrow, and what I would consider an accomplished today. Writing down tasks the night before has been preached by some of the best entrepreneurs of our day. This is really good practice as now it frees up our minds from burning energy about what I need to do tomorrow, but actually gives me space to enjoy the other fruits of life.
Now, let’s start the fun part. You wake up in the morning excited to knock out your tasks you have written down. Drink your cup of coffee, walk your dog, read the paper, and make your way to your office to start cranking out your to do list!
Good thing you joined Minterapp! 🙂 You can also use Basecamp for creating your to do lists if you are working on projects. We integrate with Basecamp to track time on projects as well!
Now open up the platform and start working on your tasks. At the end of the day you will get this detailed report that you can export. This has all the time spent on various tasks. Feel free to add some tasks in your day into Minterapp that were not on your list. Do this for the next 5 business days.
Data is king. Let’s change that, Big Data is King and that is because you can make educated decisions based on the information you have just learned.
Here are your findings after one week.
- You spend too long building out contracts: Solution – Try to automate your contracts with a template
- Finding Documents is taking too long: Solution – Improve your organization
These are just some examples. Happy time tracking and invoicing everyone!
