What can help you make more productive use of your working time?

Software for tracking work time and increasing productivity

How are you managing self-discipline when the summer sun beckons you to drop everything and head outdoors? Are you able to start working without a special effort or ritual when outside your usual work environment, and stay on track until the end of the workday?

The three-month period of remote work, which some companies have extended until autumn, has allowed everyone to better understand themselves and assess their level of independence. Even if you are personally well-organized, that does not guarantee smooth teamwork. Remote work not only requires more independence but also more often leaves you alone with challenges—without a colleague's strong shoulder to lean on during difficult moments.

Tildes Jumis conducted a survey in the spring, the results of which show that 22% of respondents find concentration problems the most difficult to deal with. Approximately 15% of respondents admit that it is difficult to define the start and end of the workday when working remotely. It is also not easy for a manager to mobilize a distributed team. This is where technology can help.

Who is doing what?

Many companies use time-tracking systems to mobilize both office and remote employees. Their main goal is to reduce wasted time and help employees understand what they have managed to accomplish during the day, week, or month.

For managers, such systems help keep a finger on the pulse of every project. They can see progress in real-time and more accurately predict whether all tasks will be completed on time. There is no need to ask subordinates what has been done every day; everything is visible in the reports.

Work monitoring systems vary. Both free and paid options are available. Among the most recognized are Wrike, JIRA and Asana – universal, feature-rich platforms where you can unite the entire team, create new projects, delegate tasks to different employees, and track their progress. The team has its own communication space and the ability to ask colleagues for help or take over someone else's work if their own is already finished. Brief reports must be provided for completed work, which can ultimately be used to generate illustrative infographics on each person's contribution.

Among simpler solutions, it is worth mentioning the free system ClickUp, where you can delegate duties and mark tasks as complete with just a few clicks, as well as the task planner GanttPRO. The latter is particularly useful for remote workers to understand how much time is spent on each task and how much can be allocated to the next ones.

Every minute counts

There are many other solutions available for tracking productive and unproductive time, each with its own advantages. RescueTime measures exactly how many minutes and hours are truly dedicated to work, Engross divides the day into 25-minute productivity intervals, encouraging focus solely on the most important task at hand. WorkiQ analyzes user behavior during work hours. It tracks how much time is spent on actual duties versus how many minutes or hours are wasted on aimless web browsing or unrelated activities. DeskTime reveals unproductive employee habits through daily, weekly, or monthly reports, while its built-in Pomodoro timer sends a reminder for a short break every 52 minutes. The software also calculates the cost of each project based on the time invested in it.

To improve discipline, one can use the StayFocusedsystem, which tracks the websites visited, applications used, and the time dedicated to each specific task and accomplishment. With such statistics, it is quite easy to identify and neutralize major distractions, as the system allows you to block access to selected websites for a set period.

Several Latvian IT companies have developed time-tracking solutions, resulting in a wide range of available options. At Tilde we use our own internally developed software for tracking working hours — Tildes Jumis Time Tracking, and we plan to offer it to other companies starting this autumn. This solution is suitable for all types of businesses, regardless of their size, and stands out for its extensive customization options. For example, Tildes Jumis Time Tracking can monitor shift workers specifically during their scheduled working hours or track the time employees spend on individual projects.

Keeping a close watch

Authoritarian managers often resort to using software like Time Doctor, which is far from popular among employees. However, to discipline seasoned masters of procrastination, it is sometimes necessary to use such a "whip." Time Doctor takes a screenshot of the computer screen every three minutes so that the manager can verify that the employee is actually working. All working time is spent on productive tasks. The program also calculates the employee's productivity based on the time spent on non-work-related activities.

A less radical option is the free tool TMetric Time Tracker, which tracks the time spent on each project with minute-by-minute precision. A valuable feature is the ability to set a time limit for a project. Once the limit is reached, the program sends a notification to the manager, who can then decide whether to allow the employee to continue working on the task or reassign it to a more efficient colleague.