8 Time Management Tools for Employers To Keep Projects Flowing
Time management and profitability are so closely tied in business that they're virtually synonymous, hence the adage, 'time is money'. Unfortunately, time-wasting, interruptions, and distractions that hamper your workers' performance are just as prevalent during the modern workday.
As a business owner, it's up to you to provide the tools to ensure your employees make the most of every moment while at work. Solutions include time tracking, task management, and collaborative software to enhance employee accountability and performance.
These are the top time management tools of 2024 to help you maximize your employees' work hours.
1. Evernote Teams
Evernote Teams is a personal note-taking and task management software that has evolved into a team version. The new rendition offers all the benefits of the original in shared collaboration spaces.
These are the best features of Evernote Teams:
- Managing and delegating tasks via a task widget
- Creating schedules with preformatted documents
- The ability to save relevant webpages and files directly onto notes
- Integration with Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, Slack, and other popular platforms
- Organizing important documents in one place
The 'Spaces' feature allows team members to clearly define projects for each team and keep all the relevant information about the project in one place. In these spaces, team leaders can track progress, set due dates, and assign tasks to team members.
One disadvantage of Evernote Teams is that it can present a steep learning curve for those who are new to this type of software.
2. Hour Timesheet
Tardiness can have a major impact on productivity. A 1% increase in lateness or absenteeism can create a 2.3% downturn in sales.
Apart from establishing accountability amongst your workforce, time tracking is also vital for costing purposes. It helps you when calculating customer charges and pinpointing areas where you can streamline processes.
Hour Timesheet is one of the easiest time trackers for employees to master and is ideal for small businesses. It is DCAA compliant timekeeping software that offers additional benefits for managing remote teams.
3. ActiveCollab
ActiveCollab is project management and billing software that streamlines every project from conception to billing. Some of its most powerful features include:
- Comparing tracked time with the estimated time per project
- A variety of views to simplify the way you see information
- Easy team member collaboration
- Recurring task automation
- Updates deadlines on interlinked tasks automatically
- Tracks time manually or with a stopwatch
- Time reporting per employee, client, or project
ActiveCollab is among the most affordably priced software in this realm and offers a free 14-day trial.
4. ZoomShift
ZoomShift is another time-tacking and scheduling program that helps shift the focus from administrative tasks to productive work.
It's designed to simplify these functions and offers the following benefits:
- A simple drag-and-drop scheduling function
- Hourly scheduling templates
- Ability to communicate schedules with employees quickly
- Allow employees to manage their shifts independently
- Blocks early clock-ins and overtime to help control labor costs
- Simplified payroll reporting
- Automated time off requests
- Helps manage PTO balances
ZoomShift is compatible with iOS and Android and users can log in from anywhere on the web.
5. OneNote
OneNote is a popular digital note-taking app made by Microsoft, but it doubles as a project management and collaboration tool. With OneNote, team members can create notebooks and then divide them into sections and pages relevant to each project.
This simple tool offers the following benefits:
- You can type notes or write them with a stylus
- Syncs across devices in real-time
- Easy note-sharing between team members
- Creating to-do tags
- The ability to add videos, audio notes, and files
- Progress-tracking functionality as team members complete tasks
The free version of OneNote offers a generous array of features but users can only store data locally on Windows. The software does not offer geotagging and has limited OCR.
6. Trello
Trello works like a digital bulletin board for project management and collaboration. Teams can create boards for projects, share them, and delegate tasks to individuals.
Trello helps keep everyone on the same page by allowing team members to:
- Create one board and add tasks to it using cards
- Assign cards to individuals for simple collaboration
- Attach relevant links, images, and documents to cards
- Connect boards to email notifications and calendars
- Use hundreds of board templates
For added convenience, Trello integrates with Giphy, Google Drive, Slack, and other popular office software.
7. Monday.com
This is a cloud-based work operating system offering project management, task management, and time tracking. It also has marketing, HR, and operations capabilities.
Monday.com allows the project manager to centralize all their tools in one place and customize the workflow based on their needs.
This software's power lies in:
- Automation of repetitive tasks
- Creation of custom reports according to specific clients, projects, or tasks
- A mobile app for remote time tracking
- Ability to prioritize assigned tasks
Monday.com also easily integrates with other business tools like Dropbox, Slack, and Google.
8. Clockify
Clockify is a powerful time-tracking tool for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. It's ideal for maximizing productivity thanks to insightful analytics regarding team, individual, and business work habits.
With this software, team members can:
- Clock in from shared devices
- Enter time manually or use the stopwatch
- Export tracked time to analyze costs and profits based on activity
- Forecast project expenses
- Manage time-off requests and scheduling
- Create invoices according to tracked time
- Block time for tasks on the inbuilt calendar
With Clockify, team leadership can track employees' use of apps and websites to control time-wasting, and also track employee locations.
Time Management Tools Keep You Ahead of the Pack
Time management tools are the ultimate solution for every business owner who wants to maximize productivity, especially if they wish to adopt the cost-saving benefits of offering remote work. They help boost time efficiency and team morale by ensuring teams meet project milestones more easily.
If you're a forward-thinking and innovative business leader, you'll know that it's important to use every tool at your disposal to stay ahead in today's competitive environment.
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