For years, I’ve searched for a way to track how I spend my time. I have a wandering mind and as an independent, freelance musician that works from home, days can disappear if I’m not careful.
I tried using a hourly planner, coloring blocks of time per activity. Promptly forgotten. I tried using an invoicing app, and while the project timer was handy, it still didn’t display the tracked info in a useful way.
Early in the week, I stumbled upon a time tracking app for Mac/iOS called Timelime.
You can add tasks, each with it’s own timer. You control the timers via a quick access menu on the top bar. The tracked info can be displayed as a list, calendar, pie chart, and more.
What I love about the calendar display is that you can see color coded dots that show you what you worked on, and on what days.
This is a great way to honestly gage how much time and energy I actually devote to an activity. I suspect I spend more time thinking about doing things, than it actually takes me to get them done.
I’m super excited about this. I’ll check back with you in a month or two to let you know how it goes!
Do you have a favorite productivity tool? Let me know!
Thanks for reading,
Malu
9 Comments
I tried several productivity tools, but the overhead of actually using them always put me off. A simple todo list in a text file or a Trello board together with eliminating distractions while working on something is my current strategy for productivity.
August 10, 2018 at 5:22 pmThis reminds me of how I tried so many fancy planners and in the end, realized that the to do lists that most help me are the ones written on a cheap small notebook that I don’t feel bad about scrawling things on and scratching them off. For me, though, to do lists HAVE to be paper and pen. The digital ones don’t seem real enough to take action. I’m still trying to get used to Trello. I love the idea of it, but I haven’t yet managed to make it a constant part of my life. Thanks for reading, Tommy!
August 11, 2018 at 4:58 pmWho can be this organized!?!
August 10, 2018 at 8:43 pmI’m lucky if i can remember my own Birthday!!
You are one of a kind, Malu.
Hahaha! Well, we’ll see if I can be organized. hahahaha! So far, it’s working out super well. I hope the novelty of the app doesn’t die out. hahaha! 😀
August 11, 2018 at 4:55 pmI don’t need to organize my time. My life is very simple 😀
August 12, 2018 at 7:04 ameat – work – eat – fun – eat – sleep
Haha, It sounds almost like a schedule for Thor.
But otherwise, I use a simple calendar on my iPhone 🙂
August 12, 2018 at 7:10 amThat’s all 🙂
Hahaha! It’s quite a nice schedule 😀
August 14, 2018 at 2:29 amI’m still searching for organizing things linked to my projects however I have found a wonderful app (web, the mobile is still is development AFAIK) that is called Monica (https://www.monicahq.com) for all things related to people like birthday, relationships between people and other. I know it’s not really about what you are talking in the post but I think it can be useful for more people to know about it ^^’
August 22, 2018 at 10:27 amEmilien! Thank you so much for sharing this link. I didn’t know this app and it seems pretty cool! And if you happen to find anything other cool apps for organizing, do share them with us! <3
September 9, 2018 at 4:59 pm