Toggl your way to ease and efficiency

Managing our time can feel like juggling an incredible amount of flotsam jetsam, while our feet are on fire, while our neck is sore from whipping our attention between our goals and dreams, with the zillion shiny objects around us fighting for your attention.

Am I right or am I right?!

I recently wrote about how important breaks are.  Like really important. Extended sitting, especially for women, can trigger 30 diseases.  Eesh. So I created a resource to help you take breaks; Twenty-Four little cards to rejuvenate you and your day. 

Now that you have your breaks under control, it’s time for time.

Do you know how you spend your time? I mean like REALLY know how you spend it, with 100% confidence?  If time was a vault where you deposited different coloured chips for different projects, would you know how big each pile of chips was?  In other words, would you know the categories of where you’re spending your time and how much time you’re spending on each?

I’m guessing not.

Now before visions of complicated algebraic formulas hit your noggin and you’re jumping ahead to groaning about complicated spreadsheets that take more time to fill in than they’re worth…..

Breathe.

Relax.

I’ve got your back 

How ever you’re spending your time, here’s seven reasons why tracking your time is Critical with a capital C.

1. Time is one of the only resources we can’t make more of.  It’s one of our most important resources so don’t you want to know where it’s going so you can make the most of it? 
2. How you manage your time has far-reaching consequences.  It can be a detriment OR help to your health. 
3. Tracking your time gives you a realistic picture of where you’re spending your time as opposed to guessing or having wildly wrong ideas about both where you’re spending your time and how much time you’re spending..
4. Time tracking is a reality-based temperature check.  You might think you’re spending x amount of time on social for example, but really, after a week of tracking, it’s x to the power of 4.
5. Once you have an objective, reality-based picture of where you’re spending your time, you’ve got a  huge gift. You’ve got priceless information you can make decisions based on.
6. Those decisions you’re proactively making, based on time tracking, will help you gain control of your day, your week, and your life.  That’s some serious power.
7. Most importantly, with that plan in place,  you’ll be able to spend your time the way you really want to. 

Convinced?

Great!

I’ve got your back and so does Toggl.

Here’s a super easy, painless way to track your time so you can make 1-7 come true for you. 

Enter Toggl.

Toggle is a free app you can install on your browser and/or your phone to easily track your time.  The keyword being easy. Plus it could not be simpler to produce, with a snap of your superpower cape, a daily, weekly, and/or monthly report of where your time is going.

It’s so easy you can be up and running in just a few minutes (or kicking back relaxing while you feed yourself bonbons and congratulate yourself on an excellent, easy job of time tracking).

Here’s your path to trouble-free time tracking.

1. Download the app
2. Create an account
3. Set up projects.  These will be the categories that you’ll track. For example, some of mine are Admin (for things like email), Client work, Finances, Client getting activities, and Social (writing blog posts, newsletters, etc.).
4. Set up tags if you want to get even more specific.  You can attach tags to projects to get a more precise, detailed report. For example for my Social project, I have these tags: newsletter, blog, scheduling.  Pro tip: I have a tag called “delegate” which I attach to tasks that, you guessed it, I want to delegate. It’s a big motivator when I see how much time I could save each week when those “delegate” hours get added up. 
5. Start tracking.  Track your time using Toggl and the projects and tags you’ve set up.
6. Check your reports.  Keep a watch on your eyebrows as they just might try to jump off your face in surprise at what you find.
7. Adjust accordingly.  Et voila; take back control of your days, weeks, months and years.

Don’t forget to celebrate your newfound wizardry and insight.   Those spinning plates and flotsam jetsam will soon be a thing of the past.

Now go on and learn, laugh and lead.

Learn

• Give it a go – Toggl your way to ease and efficiency.

Laugh

• Stop going around and around in circles with your time and tasks. Are you dizzy yet?

Lead

• You just learned about a powerful, simple tool.  Have you crafted an overall learning plan for yourself for 2020?  No? Help is at hand. Please join us online or in-person, February 21, 2020, for my monthly Learning and Development Roundtable where I’ll lead a session on how to create a learning plan for you and/or your team that rocks.