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If you’re running your own small business, you’re probably not just in it for the money. Most freelancers and solopreneurs are either starting up their dream business, or enjoying the benefits of being able to set their own work hours, work from anywhere in the world, and dedicate more time to their real passions.
But all too often, you might find that your work hours are taking over more and more of your day. It can creep up on you without you really noticing, until one day you realize that you’re spending a lot more time at work than you’d ever intended.
If you need to rediscover your work-life balance, or you’ve already found it but you’re concerned about preventing it from slipping away, you need to find and use the right tools to pin it down. Time tracking is one simple, accessible tool that can make a big difference to your ability to make your work hours more productive and your non-work time more enjoyable.
Here are just some of the benefits of using time tracking tools as a way to rebalance your work and playtime.
Minimize ‘time-suck’ tasks
You have no choice but to carry out jobs like calculating how many hours you worked on a project and issuing invoices and receipts, but they take you away from revenue-generating tasks and force you to spend more total time at work. Fortunately, time tracking software can help here too.
Cloud-based tools produce a precise record of your work hours, so you won’t risk over- or under-charging for projects or have to waste time manually totting up your time. Some sync with accounting tools and pull in mileage expenses to automate expense records and invoice and receipt generation. Others automatically suggest tracking time when they detect certain actions, like joining a Zoom call, so you won’t have to try to remember how long it lasted after.
“The more minutes you can free up during the workday, the more time you’ll have to focus on getting the job done,” says Ryan Sundling, a Group Marketing Manager at Cardinal Group Management. “If you can take your 11-hour workday down to 8 hours, you’ll have extra hours each day that you can enjoy at home.”
Examining your timesheets also helps you discover which tasks suck up a disproportionate amount of your time and would be worth paying someone else to do for you, or paying for cloud software to automate the task.
Stop wasting time
You might think that you’re making the most of your work time, but are you really? Sometimes we trick ourselves into thinking that we’re working hard, when we’re actually wasting time, or filling it up with busywork. Procrastination is a serious temptation, especially when there’s an unpleasant task ahead of you.
Better time tracker software gives you a record in black and white of how much time you spent on work tasks each day. In his guide to time tracking apps, Neil Patel notes that with the right tools, “Users can better understand their work habits and where they are losing time. It really helps people hold themselves accountable.”
You can’t hide your own inefficiencies from yourself when you’re bound to time tracking data. “Between the automation and the robust monitoring, everyone is reminded of how they are spending their time,” says Patel. The knowledge might be uncomfortable, but once you discover where your time is going, you’ll be better able to find ways to focus and use your time more efficiently.
Plan your day for maximum productivity
The ideal work-life balance comes when you master the art of working smarter, not working longer. Everyone has natural times in the day when they are more productive, and times when their focus ebbs away.
“Your most meaningful and important work should align with when you feel like you are most productive in the day,” emphasizes Kevin Payne, marketer and business coach, in one recent advice post. “Working longer doesn’t mean you were productive,” he points out.
When you analyze a few weeks of time tracking data, you should be able to spot the times when you can concentrate effortlessly and work flows smoothly, and then plan your work hours around your natural rhythm. For some people, it’s early in the morning; for others, it’s late at night; for some, it’s just after lunch. There’s no right or wrong, only what’s right or wrong for you, and time tracking can help you identify it.
Prove when it’s time to expand
Plenty of solopreneurs find it hard to be sure when it’s time to expand by hiring another employee. It can be difficult to justify spending some of your income on paying a salary, but at the same time, you can tell that you are getting overstretched.
Time tracking records help you prove to yourself and your bank manager that you’re being as efficient as possible with your time.
This way, you’ll feel confident that it really is valid to hire an assistant and expand your business.
Choose the most valuable projects
Even within your field, you’ll find that there are some types of assignments that you can complete quickly and efficiently, and others that seem to stretch on forever, taking up more and more of your time.
Time tracking analysis helps you to calculate your income in relation to time spent on a project, so you can distinguish between those that drive revenue and profit, and the ones that eat up too much energy and work hours to be worth it.
Once you know how to recognize your most profitable projects, you can focus on your goals by accepting those assignments and passing on the others.
Time tracking can put you back in control of your life
Succeeding as a freelancer or solopreneur means making the most of your work time so that you can enjoy your time with family, friends, and/or on your real passions. By helping you to choose the most rewarding projects and most productive work hours, to stop wasting time on procrastination or on time-consuming tasks that can be automated, and to prove to yourself when it’s time to expand, time tracking tools can improve your work-life balance and help enjoy your life.
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This content made possible by site supporter IJMA Deere Holdings.
Photo: Shutterstock
