Apps for Leaders: Toggl

savingtime

Want to work out where your time goes? Toggl is what you need, writes Perry Timms

In a time-poor world, working out where time goes is both a fearful and an intriguing thing to do. Most project and productivity apps fail to capture it – some rely on labour-intensive data input, while others are glorified task lists that cannot calculate the time members of staff spend on each project.

Enter Toggl. An app across all platforms including web and Chrome browser extension, this is the clock-running, time-tracking app which can help you realize where your day goes, and where the time can be apportioned to projects, clients, corporate activities, learning, research, calls, travel and more.

With an application programme interface that includes Basecamp and Asana – and lots of other tools, apps and platforms – Toggl will link to your existing taskboards and allow you to log your time and activity via smartphone, tablet or desktop and synchronize to provide reports, billable data and analyse how much of your time is spent throughout the day.

Toggle is feature high but complexity low: Customisable setup across multiple operating systems, reports and analytics, automated tracking and reminders plus workspace and task allocation and sharing make Toggl way more than a spreadsheet.

Is it Big Brother-esque time and motion? Or is it simply a great tool to quantify where your time goes? In using Toggl, you can see where your demands lead you, where clients are getting their value from you and where you might look at estimating and planning your tasks and days with more insight than ever before.

 

Perry Timms is an independent HR/OD practitioner, speaker, writer and CIPD adviser on social media and engagement. Tweet him @Perry Timms