time management posts

Filed under: Business, Utilities, Macintosh, Productivity, Freeware

Timeous: Simple Time Tracking in OS X

by Todd Ritter Dec 9th 2008

Timeous is a simple and effective time-tracking app for Mac OS 10.4 or later. It allows you to track time on multiple projects ("tabs") and set independent hourly rates and tax percentages. Each time you start the Timeous timer, an entry is created in your current project tab. These entries are then sorted by day and time. When you stop the timer, you will see the total time of that chunk of work, and you can add notes to the entry to explain what work was performed.

Data is automatically saved, and the program's status bar shows the total time and cost associated with the project. You can export the time entries to a text file (useful for providing to a client when you send them an invoice). Timeous is a free download and a Universal binary.

Tags: billing, time management, time tracking, TimeManagement, TimeTracking

Filed under: Office, Productivity, Web services

Intervals: web-based project management

by Todd Ritter Feb 27th 2008

Intervals is a web service for tracking time spent on projects and related tasks. It lets you add/manage tasks among team members, budget project costs, create invoices, share project-related documents, and create a variety of reports.

The service has four business plans (ranging from $20 to $175 a month), and an individual plan that is free (though limited). The top two plans offer SSL and significantly more storage space for documents. All plans support web timers (to track how long you spend on a given project), but you can also enter time manually if you hate working to a clock.

Intervals is offering a 30-day trial on it's business plans, and they don't ask for payment info until after your trial (so they won't do the devious automatic billing without you being well aware of what you're getting in to).

Tags: invoice, project management, ProjectManagement, task management, TaskManagement, time management, TimeManagement, timers

Filed under: Business, Design, Developer, Internet, Utilities, Web services

Project Time management online with timeXchange

by Chris Gilmer Feb 27th 2007

timeXchange is an online peer-to-peer application that lets users record and report time and expenses, collect and approve team reporting, and protect and control data online. Its important for any worker to keep track of time in order to ensure work schedule and budgets are met. There are many great time management solutions availble, from online solutions, desktop software, to the basic Excel Spreadsheet route but timeXchange has some interesting features that are worth taking a look at.

When setting up a new project, you can choose who gets reports. These reports get sent complete with your hours and tasks listed, making them easier to track and analyze data. timeXchange helps out with collecting and approving timesheets which can be then viewed and analyzed and data exported to other applications. Security is a big concern for timeXchange. Encrypted data and reporting are stored on secure servers, and only those with permissions can access it.

Like any new application, this one takes a while to get used to, and there is a ton to set up, but it seems like this could be a strong player in the time management arena. Other online time management applications are TaskAnyone, ProWorkflow, Tick, Zoho Projects and Basecamp.

[eHub]

Tags: management, project, time, time management, TimeManagement, timexchange

Filed under: Business, Design, Developer, Internet, Utilities, E-mail, Productivity, Web services, Social Software

Project time tracking by Tick

by Chris Gilmer Aug 10th 2006

Tick tracks project time. The best part? It's free! Tick is a simplistic approach to time management. The interface is extremely clean, easy to use, and straightforward which is a major plus, because who really likes spending their time fiddling with entering time? Not me.

Through Tick, you can create projects, assign the projects to a specific client, name the project, and give the specific hourly budget for the project. When this is set, you can create specific tasks for the job, and assign each task with a time limit. When items change in the project, or when time is entered in the reporting section, email notifications are sent. Reporting is laid out by client, with a breakdown of time entered for each specific client project. Filling out time for projects is simple. Choose your date, select your client and specific job you were working on, and drop your time in. Tick also generates a nice little progress bar that graphically displays how much time has been spent on the project in total, and how much time is left from your set hourly budget for the project.

All in all, Tick is a very useful time tracking application. It is a very simple and easy to use online tool used to keep track of your project time, to make sure budgets are hit. Integration through Basecamp is available through the Basecamp API's, which easily link up the two applications. Upon the launch of Tick, packages will be available from free to $79, and will be announced when it is completely launched.

[via Solutionwatch]

Tags: budget, email notifications, EmailNotifications, free application, FreeApplication, hot budgets, HotBudgets, job tasks, JobTasks, online application, OnlineApplication, peoject tracker, PeojectTracker, project budget, ProjectBudget, task application, TaskApplication, tick, time, time management, time tracker, TimeManagement, TimeTracker, track time, TrackTime

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Freeware

Procrastination Hack: Instant Boss

by Grant Robertson Aug 1st 2006

Face it, many of us are overloaded. We've got a million things to do, and no time to do them. How do you chip away at that ridiculous to-do list, without getting side-tracked and losing your momentum? 43folders says the answer just might lie in tiny slices of time.

Taking an hour and shattering it into 5 periods of 10 minutes, with 2 minute breaks between, hence "(10+2)*5" (yes, we're math geeks too and we know the "*" is redundant.. but it looks pretty). The idea is to work in small sprints, giving 100% + for short bursts of time and then taking a micro-break. The rigid definition is supposed to whip even the most diligent of procrastinators right into submission. My limited trial of the technique was inconclusive, but its worked wonders for some.

Instant Boss aims to be the clockwatcher for all us procrastinating brainy-types. A simple hack designed around the original 43folders concept counts the work sprints and breaks for you, with a programmable number of repetitions. The timer features a large display, and keeps track of the total number of minutes worked over all your sprints.

[Thanks Mouser!]

Tags: 43folders, donationcoder, hacks, productivity, time management, TimeManagement

Filed under: Developer, Text, Utilities, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, E-mail, Productivity, Freeware

Voo2do - online to do list and more

by Victor Agreda, Jr. Apr 6th 2006

I don't know how we missed this, but Voo2do is a very cool web-based time management spreadsheet, also known as a to do list. Well, it's more than that, obviously. And while it doesn't have all the yummy features of something like Backpack, it is pretty nice. There's something to be said for simplicity, at least. Most important, Voo2do added some features yesterday that really make it worth using. The ability to edit notes, for instance, might have been a deal-breaker for some. That's fixed. There's nascent support for group work too, which is very nice (I'd like to see this improved upon for sure). For those of you wanting more, Voo2do also has an API. Thanks Todd!

Tags: api, backpack, collaboration, gtd, spreadsheet, time management, TimeManagement, to do, ToDo, voo2do

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