Most of us delude ourselves about time. Our planning is wishful and then we get anxious and frustrated because everything takes longer. My Time Card is a cure for this universal malaise. It’s a great little piece of software available for PC and Mac.
I use it to track all my time, from the moment I sit down to my computer to when I stop. I give each project or activity its own “job” designation, including breaks and chores. I simply choose the job and hit “start” till I change. Then I hit “stop” and switch to another job. It’s a discipline, of course, to maintain that practice. But after a while the power of habit makes it easy. And if I mess up I can easily go back and edit the record.
The payoff is huge. With a few clicks I can generate Excel spreadsheets and total my time on different jobs, or groups of activities — by the week, month or whatever period I like. This amounts to a really powerful reality check.
The software cost me around $20. It’s saving my sanity.