Paula Engebretson is a certified life coach and host of the podcast, I’m Busy Being Awesome. Supporting adults with ADHD, she empowers them to let go of perfectionism, take decisive action, and work with their ADHD to achieve their goals. Through personalized one-on-one coaching and small group sessions, Paula collaborates with her clients, helping them embrace their strengths and thrive.

“One of the many things I love about Timeular is that when I go into hyper-focus and experience time blindness, I don’t know whether it’s been five minutes or five hours. Timeular helps me keep track of this.”

Paula Engebretson, certified life coach and host of the podcast, I’m Busy Being Awesome

The challenge: battling burnout

Paula was struggling with burnout and was working all the time with no idea where all of her time was going. She needed a way to keep track of her time so that she could be intentional with how she spent it.

The solution: using Timeular to be intentional with time

Paula tracks her time using activities including: podcasting, creative work, email, client work, admin, self coaching. Paula uses Timeular with the time management cube to accurately track how long it takes her to complete a task. She creates her schedule around this and finds that Timeular helps give her structure.

She explains that the Tracker helps her because: “it’s great for an ADHD brain. I can see it so I can turn it.”

Paula tends to do lots of batch work so she allocates podcasts to Mondays, calls and admin to Tuesdays and then she coaches her clients on Wednesday and Thursday. She finds that this approach helps her maintain focus as less context switching is favorable for her brain. She breaks her tasks into really small activities so that she doesn’t procrastinate.

“Timeular helps highlight where the time is actually going, where energy leaks happen, and identify patterns in productivity peaks and valleys to create a more effective schedule.“

Paula emphasizes the importance of taking breaks between activities to allow the brain time for transition. She explains that breaks are restorative and important when maintaining productivity: “we are humans and not robots.”

Timeular has helped Paula identify tasks that are taking up a lot of her time and she makes the data-informed decision to delegate based on the insights and hire a freelancer. A task that was taking her 90 minutes could take a freelancer 25 minutes, freeing up more time for Paula.

Paula makes decisions to delegate tasks based on the insights that Timeular provides.

“I knew I needed to hire a virtual assistant to help with designing my social media posts and inbox management. The data in Timeular helped inform which type of virtual assistant I needed as I could see that I was spending a lot of time responding to emails and in Slack. I was able to identify what sort of assistant I needed and for how many hours.”

She reviews her data on a Friday using David Allen’s approach. At the end of the month she maps out goals using the data from Timeular to inform what she does next.

The outcome: surprising insights 

Paula has been surprised by some of Timeular’s insights. She admits that she puts off writing emails as she thinks they will take lots of time. When she then commits to the task, she finds that the email takes three minutes of her time. At the other end of the scale, she starts a design task that she thinks will take no time at all and 40 minutes later she finds that she is still looking for a specific color.

“Timeular is supportive in allowing me to be intentional with my time.”

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“Timeular takes care of time which is so much better than time taking care of you! Don’t overthink how to use it, focus on the headlines, the bigger picture.”

Glen, Owner of GJ Stats

The challenge: not knowing where the time goes

For Glen, it’s important to be able to understand where time is spent as this informs all aspects of his business.

Having made the switch to working from home, Glen was looking for a solution that provided him with the insight he needed and also helped him better manage his time and maintain the right work life balance.

The solution: powering up Timeular using integrations

Glen’s day-to-day work revolves around a core set of tasks that he assigns to his time tracking cube. Flipping the dice each time he changes activities, data is automatically recorded in the time tracking app. Yes, it’s an automated time tracker.

If Glen is in the midst of deep work, he uses the QuickTrack desktop shortcut feature of the app, allowing him to track unlimited activities and add notes to entries with the minimum effort and interruption.

“I tend to work in short sharp sessions of around 60-90 minutes. Everything is a balance between client meetings, development work, dealing with support requests, and developing new business opportunities.”

The ability to integrate his Timeular account with Toggl means Glen can sync accurate timesheet data effortlessly. Timeular’s integration with Zapier also allows him to connect his other apps including QuickBooks, ClickUp, and Slack.

The outcome: seamless reporting and better transparency

Glen’s time tracking journey with Timeular has transformed his approach to work. Updating clients on the progress of projects is now seamless. With insights at his fingertips, he can focus on the aspects of the business that need it the most. His billing process has become more accurate and seamless too, with time reports exportable in one click.

P.s. check out our working from home tips

Our remote working guide is full of working from home tips including how to plan your day and ensure smooth virtual meetings.

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“I just wish I knew about Timeular before now. It’s such a powerful tool and would have spared me unnecessary fatigue and hours wasted on pointless conversations with managers/leaders who didn’t have knowledge of the impact and reach of small HR teams.”

Tiffany, Owner of Pitch HR

The challenge: getting visibility into how time is being spent

Many of the business leaders that Tiffany works alongside are keen to gain broader insights into employee focuses to help them understand where time is spent. “Transparency is a major part of many company cultures and Timeular helps provide an easy-to-implement solution”, she says.

There are roles in any company where it’s easy to ascertain an individual’s level of productivity as there is easy visibility when assessing it in connection to a project or presentation as visibility is easy.

The variety of tasks facing HR management teams means it’s not so simple. This can be frustrating, particularly when departments question where time has gone and you don’t have a clear record of your activities.

Tiffany’s role includes providing human resource management and services like resume crafting and interview coaching and she was struggling to get a clear picture of where her time was going.

The solution: increasing transparency

Before using Timeular, Tiffany attempted to track her time by adding time blocks to her Google Calendar. She found this time-consuming and harder to provide insights for the week. By tracking each activity with her Tracker, she can now show exactly how much time is spent working on the different companies she supports. For Tiffany, tracking time has lots of benefits.

“Using Timeular means I can keep my work hours in check for a better work-life balance. In a previous role, I worked continuously for 50 to 70 hours sometimes and at the end of the week had no idea where my time went. Now, I can monitor and cap myself when needed. I can also force myself to unplug for breaks and be at peace knowing that I can review the time I actually spent being productive and dedicated to clients needs.”

On a personal level, time tracking has reassured Tiffany on the days when she has worked less than eight hours as she can see that there are other days when she has clocked up 12 hours to offset the difference.

The data from Timeular makes it easy for HR management teams to build trust and transparency.

The result: no energy wasted on trying to prove things

Introducing Timeular into her working life has had a transformational effect upon how Tiffany works.

“Timeular is a game-changer. Timeular has so easily become ingrained in my routine. With just a flip of the Tracker I can switch gears and prove I’m bringing value to any organization and maintaining productivity levels. I don’t need to take notes and prove that I’m working. For anyone who works for a micromanager, this will make life so much easier. Make the small investment for a big return!”

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The post How Timeular helps an HR business owner optimise management processes appeared first on Timeular.

“Timeular protects time from its worst enemy in the shape of time-wasting and lack of focus”

Richard Taylor, owner of Graphic Strategy

Challenge: finding out where time goes

Like many small businesses owners, Richard Taylor always found more things to do in any given time than he could necessarily manage. He realised that it was critical for him to be able to see how much time went on which task and where he had wasted any time so that he could increase efficiency.

Solution: effectively prioritising tasks

Richard started using Timeular to help him identify where all of his time was going. He found Timeular easy to use: “I wish I’d started earlier. It’s so easy and quick to set up that I didn’t really need much in the way of guidance.”

It was the Covid-19 outbreak that led him to take a closer look at his working patterns when he was forced to work from home. Facing the challenge of staying productive in a home environment made him understand the importance of time management.

Richard is using the Outlook function to build automatic buffers into meetings and conference calls, helping him declutter and ensuring he doesn’t stay in front of the hardware for extended periods of time.

Richard tries to plan his day in detail at “close of business” the previous day. He assigns Outlook slots to all the things he needs to get done and then works out his priorities (Richard is a fan of time blocking). His clients are in many different time zones, and he knows that when he shuts down in the evening, there will be a surge of late-night needs coming in from the US and also an early morning surge from Asia. This means that from about 5:30am when he starts work, he needs to reschedule a couple of tasks to fit his clients’ needs.

In client discussions he found it helpful to have a documented timeline of “what happened with whom and when”, allowing him to offer maximum transparency to customers.

Outcome: more accountability and transparency

With the time he is saving each day thanks to Timeular’s insights, Richard is able to assign time to practice mindfulness in the form of a forest trail run or a dog walk.

“Timeular is a superb extension to this and also a reality check. I’ve subscribed to my Timeular feed in Outlook on all devices, so I have now my plan but also my reality, which not only helps me make sure I’m spending appropriate amounts of time on individual projects but also gives me a correlation of what needs to be done and what took up how much time.”

Since using Timeular, Richard has noticed a massive boost in terms of time accountability and effective transparency. It helps him optimise his invoicing cycle and gives him more confidence in the way he structures projects. His billing process now takes 30 minutes less per client: “a huge productivity bonus that gives me time for more effective administration work.” This also provides his clients a better sense of deliverable timing.

For Richard, finding the right tool has been something that he has put time into choosing: “I’d often researched systems – I think I get on better with Timeular not only because of what it offers but also because it’s fun to work with. I had looked at alternatives and I’m very happy to have chosen this system.”

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The post How Timeular helps a technology and strategy consulting company spot wasted time appeared first on Timeular.

“If I schedule anything in my calendar, I use Timeular to see if I actually followed through with my existing plan.”

Kasia Tang, Independent Consultant

Challenge: not knowing where the time goes

As an independent and in-demand consultant, Kasia was keen to understand exactly how she spends her time – and on what activities – in order to help plan future work. Kasia struggled when a day slipped by that felt unproductive and she didn’t know where the time had gone.

“I felt like I wasn’t productive at all. It was very easy to get sucked in by social media instead of doing any meaningful work. I couldn’t recall later what I was doing. My calendar was technically filled in, but I knew that often it wasn’t actually the true representation of what I ended up doing.”

Solution: better planning based on time entries

Thanks to Timeular, Kasia is able to clearly see where her time goes and is better prepared when it comes to planning. She can use her previous time entries to be confident about how long it will take her to prepare for a conference. Kasia has a good understanding of the relationship between personal and professional development and time she spends delivering training. “This will allow me to chose the right deals and events in the future, where the ROI is high”, she says. Kasia tracks time using the Tracker, which helps her stay focused on the task at hand and stops her from getting distracted by things such as looking at her phone.

Kasia assigns activities to her Tracker including blogging, personal development, conference work and preparing training materials. She marks activities as billable so that she knows exactly how much to charge at the end of the month. Thanks to time tracking, Kasia knows how many hours a day is optimum for her work and this allows her to remain productive and stay focused throughout the day.

The outcome: increased profitability and productivity

Kasia has noticed that she is more profitable now that she uses Timeular as she is capturing all of the billable work she is doing and she can use the insights provided by Timeular to prioritize projects with the highest ROI.

Kasia has the following tips for effective time tracking:

1. Make sure you’re tracking the right activities (Kasia keeps them high level and uses tags and notes to add granularity)
2. Use the Tracker so that you don’t get distracted by your phone
3. Set aside 5-10 minutes every day to see how you did and think what you could do tomorrow to be more productive
4. Analyze time spent on activities vs the output (to really help boost productivity)

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“Tracking my time is crucial to see how many of my working hours were ‘productive’ and how much time I spend on the more creative and administrative parts of my business.”

Isabel Sacher, business coach and founder of a Isabel Sacher Business Coaching

The challenge: keeping track of projects for all clients

Seeing a growing pattern of her working ever longer hours in the office, Isabel knew that she needed to invest in time analysis to take back control of her time. Isabel was charging her clients based on estimations of how long each project was taking and she knew that she was undercharging based on the amount of work she was creating.

The solution: better price calculations and time analysis

Isabel’s husband gifted her a Timeular Tracker to start her time tracking journey. She uses the Tracker when in the office and the mobile app while she is on outside appointments or working from a cafe. Isobel finds the Tracker to be particularly helpful when time tracking: “the Tracker reminds me to stay focused. It’s easy to use and intuitive.”

At the beginning of the day, she sets out her goals, ideas and priorities and finishes with a list of important things she needs to do that day.

She tracks Client Calls, 1:1 Sessions, Emails, Marketing, Maintenance, Creating and Writing. To optimise her insights, she uses #tags to assign the tracked entry to the specific client.

At the end of the week, Isabel reviews her insights to see how many hours she worked. Isabel keeps an eye on the ratio of non-productive and productive work because its important for her price calculations to know how many hours actually go into marketing/acquiring new clients compared to productive client work. She is able to easily see how much time she has spent on each client project, an insight she found hard to keep track of before using Timeular.

Seeing how much time she spends on each task informs her decisions about when to outsource work. For example, Isabel used to maintain her website but when Timeular highlighted how many hours she was spending on this, she made the decision to hire someone to take over the responsibility.

The outcome: charging clients according to the output

“Tracking your time is very important, especially when you are the owner of your business. Nobody else is in charge of your working hours and, even more important, your health. Small business owners tend to feel overwhelmed and burned out quickly and Timeular is such an important tool to help keep track of your working hours and prevent that.”

Thanks to Timeular, Isabel is able to maintain focus on her work and by looking at her insights, she is able to identify when she is over-servicing a client, which informs her decisions to increase how much she charges them. Isabel was able to add €15K more to her revenue over two weeks once she realised that she was undercharging her clients for the amount of work she was undertaking.

Isabel has also managed to reduce her working hours as Timeular has helped her understand where she is losing time and where she can be more efficient with batch work. Now she plans her social media posts in advance in order to reduce the amount of small interruptions these were creating between her focused work.

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The post How a founder and business coach used Timeular to increase revenue by €15K appeared first on Timeular.

“It’s important for the team to see how we can better prioritise our time and be more efficient. Timeular is the best thing since sliced bread.”

Warren Laine-Nada, Owner of Warren Laine-Naida Digital Consulting

The challenge: keeping track of time without spending more time

As a business owner, Warren has many different responsibilities which he needs to track and he needed to find a seamless and low effort way of managing this. He found he was spending a lot of time trying to keep track of his activities and he needed to find a solution that meant he wasn’t constantly looking at the clock.

“I also wanted to be fair to myself and clients that it was 45 minutes and not an hour.”

The solution: analysing meetings to optimise efficiency

Warren and his team use a combination of the Tracker and also make use of the mobile app when they’re on the go.

Warren tracks all aspects of his business by assigning each to an activity. These include the activities: meetings, individual projects, design, programming, measurement, travel and research. Meetings are what he pays a lot of attention to and tracks more in detail using the tags feature. For the purpose of the meetings Warren uses tags like #brand-A, #campaign-idea, #campaign-design and for the quality of the meeting he uses e.g. #good, #zoom, #too-many-peeps.

If he has the same sort of meeting (e.g. for an online campaign) for two different brands, he then compares them. Did one take longer than another? How many people attended? Is there something we should take into consideration when planning the next meeting?

The outcome: efficient time tracking and more visibility into where time goes

Before Warren and his team were tracking time, they were spending 30 minutes a day trying to keep a log of where their time was going. The team has now reduced this down to less than 10 minutes a day, which saves them at least an hour and a half per week.

Thanks to the insights that Timeular has provided, Warren and his team are able to optimise their meetings in order to be more productive: “meetings are probably one of the biggest consumers of our time – and if we are to increase velocity we need to look where we may be spending too much time for example, in our ideas and design sessions.”

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The post How a consulting firm is efficient with time and meetings appeared first on Timeular.