Providing great project management to your team is an exercise in applying a number of different management skills to the specific context of your project. Perhaps the most important skill we can have as workers is excellent time management – knowing how to best spend your work time will help you and your team to stay on track and on schedule for any given project you may embark upon.
Regardless of what industry you might be in, your work is highly likely to have a time-sensitive aspect to it. Furthermore, it can be all too easy to lose track of time – how much time did you spend on task A? How much time do you have left in your budget? How much will you need to assign to each of your remaining tasks? Your time is a critical resource, and how you manage it will have a big impact on the success of your project. Accurate time tracking is the answer!
Understanding the Link Between Time Management and Project Management
The essence of good project management might be described as good resource management. While any given project might have an array of material and/or human resources to allocate, every project will have a limited time resource, so effective management of your time is critical to the success of your team. Understanding the time requirements of a given task will allow you to better plan out your project and manage the expectations of your client about the time frame you will need to complete the work.
Part of project management is having an accurate plan, and understanding time requirements can be an inaccurate process. This is where strong time management will help – your time management skill used in tandem with time tracking data will let you increase the accuracy of your time estimates.
How Does Time Tracking Improve Time Management?
The best time tracking apps will give you all the data you need about how you spend your time to make your workflow more efficient and to allow you to make accurate estimates about time requirements for your projects. The data you gather by tracking your work will allow you to see trends in how you work, including the general expected time period certain tasks will take you, as well as whether you may be spending too much time in the wrong areas. You can set time targets for your team to aim for, with time tracking allowing you to accurately see whether you are on track for your goals, while also allowing you to see where adjustments might need to be made to your plans if something is taking longer than expected.
Picking the Right Time Tracking App
Time tracking is not a one size fits all game – the right time tracking app for you will depend on the unique requirements of your work. You may simply need a timesheet solution which allows your team to clock in and out, or you may want to be able to record time against specific aspects of your work, or against a specific client in the case where you are working with a number of clients over a given period. You might need to record time with a live timer rather than entering your time after you finish a work session – you may need to record time in specific increments, for example if you were to charge your work in 15 minute units. Doing the appropriate research and finding a time tracking app to cater to your needs will help you to get the best value out of the tools you are using.
MinuteDock is a service catered towards professional services to provide the best time tracking for bookkeepers, accountants, and similar industries. This kind of focused approach allows targeting the specific needs of certain industries,and is the type of research you should look to do. If your project is a construction effort, you are likely to have differing needs and will want to find a solution which is targeted to meet those needs. A little research now will save you time at the back end and set you up for future success.