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Be More Productive With OfficeTime

One of my recent writing gigs introduced me to a new piece of software – and now I don’t know how I ever lived without it. It’s called OfficeTime and it’s a time tracking application. There are dozens of time trackers around. In the past I have tried RescueTime, which was great for showing me where I spent most time online, and Slife, which showed me which desktop applications I used most. OfficeTime is different – this shows me how much time I am spending on actual, billable work – and it has a number of features which make it a real boon for freelancers.

 

No Learning Curve

Chief of these is that there is no learning curve. If like me you already have too many ways to spend your time, then you will be pleased to know that once you install OfficeTime you can start using it right away. Click on the greyed out play button in your taskbar to start timing, click again to pause or stop. But the question is – what are you timing?

Setting Up OfficeTime

That’s where it’s worth spending five or ten minutes to set it up.  OfficeTime works with projects and categories, and here’s how I use those to keep track of productivity. I have created several new categories for the activities I do most: writing, blogging, promotion, talking to clients on the phone and bidding. For each category I can add an hourly rate. I also created a project for each client. Now, when I am ready to start a project, I click on the client’s name, make sure the category is correct and leave the timer running. It’s fun to see the money adding up – and it also makes me more aware of non-billable time.

Killer Feature

Another killer feature is that the program detects if you have left your computer for a while and keeps track of how long that’s for. When you return, you get the option of subtracting that time automatically from the current timer. And if you start doing a job but forget to start the timer, you can edit the time easily from within the same mini window. And there’s more – you can also add notes which will help you to remember exactly what you were doing – great if you want to note down an article title, for example.

Reporting Functions

I love stats and reports and OfficeTime provides plenty. A click of a button allows me to see recent activity (by day week or month) segmented by project or category. Another click lets me summarise activity into a Word invoice (and you can edit the template if you need to). The default template isn’t particularly attractive, but it does the job.

The Verdict

There really isn’t anything I would change about this application, though one addition would be useful – the ability to mark time as unbilled. When I was writing this review, I created an invoice to check the functions and forgot to check the box which would allow me to keep it unbilled – now I can’t find a way to fix it. I know it’s my own fault, but it should be easier, I think. That aside, I love OfficeTime. Though it’s a bit pricey at $47 (especially with all the free timers out there), it has a lot of useful functionality.

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