How to Track Time Spent on Tasks: An In-Depth Step-by-Step Guide

Are you always wondering where your day went? Feeling like you never get enough done? 

You’re not the only one. 

Many people have a hard time keeping track of how long tasks really take. This can lead to missed deadlines and a lot of stress. 

But don’t worry: there’s a simple fix. 

By tracking your time, you can figure out where you’re spending (or wasting) your hours. This helps you work smarter, not harder. 

In this post, we’ll show you

• Easy ways to track your time
• Why it matters so much,
• And how some cool tools can make it a breeze.

Get ready to take charge of your day and get more done without the constant stress.  

How to track time spent on tasks

There are many ways to keep tabs on your time, from old-school pen and paper to high-tech apps.

Each method has its upsides and downsides.

What works best for you depends on what you need and how much you’re willing to spend.

Let’s look at some popular options.  

Tracking time using paper timesheets

If you’re going old-school, you might use timesheets.

Timesheets are summarized reports of employee work hours during a specific period of time.

Picture a sheet with days of the week across the top and your tasks down the side. You’d jot down how many hours you spend on each task daily.

It’s simple, but it gets the job done.

Here’s what a basic weekly timesheet might look like: 

Check out our free timesheet templates if you want to skip the timesheet creation process. 

Pros:

• Manually tracking time doesn’t require additional tools or software, so it’s inexpensive. 
• It has no learning curve and requires no training. 

Cons: 

• Manually adding task durations is time-consuming and can interrupt workflows. 
• Like any manual input, this type of time tracking is prone to human error and can be inaccurate. 
• Compared to automated systems, manual time tracking is limited when analyzing data for patterns or trends. 
• Paper logs mean a higher risk of losing data if physical records are misplaced or damaged. 

How to create a paper timesheet

Here’s a quick step-by-step guide on tracking time spent on tasks using the most straightforward manual method: the paper technique. 

Grab a paper and a pen, then follow the steps below:

1. Create a table on the paper with columns for the task name, start and end time, and total time.
2. List the tasks you plan to complete for the day.
3. When you begin working on a task, note the start time.
4. Add the start and end times of any break you take. 
5. When you finish the task, add the end time. 
6. Calculate the total time spent on the task by subtracting the start time from the end time.
7. Repeat this process for each task you have. 

Tracking time using spreadsheets

Using spreadsheets to track time is a step up from paper timesheets.

It’s still straightforward but offers the following benefits:

• Calculate work hours faster
• Keep your data neat and tidy
• Spot patterns in how employees spend their work hours
• Reduce the risk of losing time data or messing up calculations

It has all the pros parts of paper tracking but with a few additional advantages.  

Pros:

• Spreadsheet time tracking is cost-effective. You can use Excel or Google Sheets to track your time at no extra cost if they are already part of your tech stack. 
• Spreadsheets can automatically calculate total hours worked, billable time, and more. 
• For better management, you can easily sort, organize, and filter data with spreadsheet tracking. 

Cons: 

• Spreadsheets may have a bit of a learning curve as they require a basic understanding of spreadsheet functions and formulas. 
• The initial setup of a time tracking spreadsheet is time-consuming.
• Spreadsheets still require you to enter and compile data manually.  

You can create a timesheet in Excel or use the steps below to track time on specific tasks using Google Sheets:

1. Open Google Sheets and create a new spreadsheet. 
2. Name the sheet by the date so you keep track of your time tracking records more easily. 

3. Create your list of tasks for the workday. It can look something like this:

4. Start working on your first task, turn on the stopwatch, and note the start time. Below your list of daily tasks, you can create a table similar to the one below to manage time tracking data better. 

5. Stop the watch and add the end and total time to your table when you finish the task. 
6. Don’t forget to add your breaks to the table. 
7. Complete this process for every task throughout your day. Here’s how your table should look at the end of the day:

Spreadsheet time tracking is more efficient than the pen-and-paper method, but what if we told you there’s an even easier way?

Track time using time tracking software

The time tracking software industry is booming.

In 2023, it was worth a whopping $5.23 billion, and experts think it’ll hit $12.3 billion by 2030.

Why? Because time tracking tools are very effective at tracking work hours accurately.

So, what exactly is a time tracker?

It’s a software tool that records how long you spend on tasks and projects.

Everyone from freelancers to big companies uses these apps to make timekeeping a breeze.

With a good time tracker, logging your work hours becomes accurate and easy. Plus, when tracking time is this simple, employees are more likely to stick with it and make it a habit.  

Pros:

• Time tracking software can record time automatically in the background, with a start and stop timer, or manually.
• Time trackers record time on multiple devices and keep time records accurate and synchronized.
• Most time tracking comes with reports to analyze your team’s time data to gain productivity insights. 

Cons: 

• Time trackers have subscription fees, but many come with generous free pricing plans (like Toggl Track).
• Some tools may have a steep learning curve and take time to learn, but others, like Toggl Track, are easy to use from day one.
• Time tracking tools with employee monitoring features might raise privacy concerns. 

Let’s look at a brief example of how time can be tracked using time tracking software like Toggl Track. 

With Toggl Track, you can create a time entry in the following ways:

• Using automatic time tracking on desktop apps
• Using the start/stop timer
• Using Manual Mode
• In Calendar view
• Continuing a previous time entry
• Inputting a duration
• Using the Favorites bar

We’ll show in detail how to track time with the timer and using manual mode. 

To track your hours with the start and stop timer:

1. Enter the Timer mode by clicking the pink clock icon on the Timer page in the top right corner.

2. Click the pink play icon or type N on your keyboard to start the timer.
3. Once it starts, fill in the task description, project, client, and billable status. 
4. Stop the timer by clicking the red stop icon or typing S on the keyboard.

To track time using Toggl Track’s Manual mode:

1. Enter Manual Mode by clicking the plus icon underneath the play icon. 

2. Add your task details: title, project, duration, and mark it as billable if applicable. 

After you’ve started tracking your time easily and accurately with Toggl Track, you can use your time data to analyze productivity, spot negative work habits, and improve workflows.

Why is it important to track time spent on tasks?

Time tracking is a popular tool for improving workflows and team time management. 

Here are a few key reasons why tracking time spent on tasks is important:

Increased productivity

Tracking your time daily gives you a clear overview of your work habits.

It shows you where your hours go, not just where you think they’re going. This can be eye-opening–tasks you thought were quick might, in reality, be time hogs.

By seeing your day clearly, you can spot bottlenecks and fix what’s slowing you down.

It’s a simple way to boost productivity and focus on what matters most.  

Top tip: Consistent time tracking and productivity measurement are much easier with a time tracking app like Toggl Track. It tracks time on multiple devices, lets you create tasks with drag-and-drop, and generates insightful time data reports with billable/non-billable hours and more.

Improved project management

Tracking time helps you build a time database of projects and tasks.

It helps you become a pro at planning future projects. With this database, you can better estimate how long tasks will take and what resources you’ll need to complete them.

This means you can set deadlines that make sense and avoid the stress of rushing at the last minute.

It’s also great for keeping projects on track. If you’re in charge, you can see how everyone’s doing in real-time and make quick changes when things fall behind.

Plus, it’s like an early warning system for problems.

You can spot and fix issues before they become big headaches.

As a bonus, when everyone tracks their time, it builds a culture of accountability where people take pride in their work and how they use their hours.  

Accurate billing

Time tracking is like having a detailed business log.

It records exactly how long your team spends on each client task. For example, if your designers spend 3.5 hours on a logo and 2 hours on a brochure, that’s what you’ll bill for—not a rough estimate.

This detailed record is super handy if a client ever questions an invoice. You can show them a breakdown of every task and how long it took.

Similarly, time data is also great for payroll.

If an employee worked 38.5 hours this week, including two overtime hours on Thursday, you’ll have that information ready.

No more guesswork or debates about hours worked.   

Otherwise, you still risk losing money. 

Agencies lose around $60,000 a year by not tracking their billable hours accurately.

To avoid this money drain, you need to watch your billable and non-billable hours like a hawk and ensure you’re charging the right rates.

Trying to do all this with a pen and paper or even a spreadsheet can be a real headache. It’s like trying to count grains of sand on a beach.

But here’s the good news:

Time tracking software makes this process easy. It’s like having a smart assistant that does all the tracking for you so you can focus on the work that makes you money.   

Toggl Track, for example, has features that help you:

• Easily track billable and non-billable hours online and offline across platforms and devices. 
• Set flexible billable rates for the entire workspace, a project, a team member, or a task.
• Change billable rates while keeping historical rates and reports accurate.
• Generate invoices from tracked time and share them with clients for billing transparency.

Data-driven decision-making

Time tracking gives project managers a clear picture of how their team uses their hours. It’s like having a real-time map of everyone’s capacity, utilization, and workload.

Here’s how it could help in real life:

Say you’re managing a marketing campaign. You check the time data and see that design tasks took twice as long as planned. 

Looking closer, you realize your design team is overworked and understaffed.

With this information, you can present a solid case to management for hiring another designer. You’re not guessing—you have data to support your request. 

This could keep future projects on track and help your design team balance workload better.   

Better work-life balance

Time tracking helps you understand how much time you spend on work-related activities versus personal time. 

When things become unbalanced, you can easily identify this and take measures to fix it. 

You’ll know when to reinforce boundaries between work and personal life to prevent burnout, increase job satisfaction, and safeguard your mental and physical health. 

Imagine you are a designer from our previous example.  You’ve started to feel burnt out and unhappy in your job because of the workload, and when you look at the hours you’ve tracked you can quickly see why – you worked on average 10 hours more per week than you should.

With this information—and the data to back it up—you can speak to your team and management about the workload and ways to resolve it.

How time tracking tools make task time tracking easier

As you’ve already seen, time tracking tools are the most reliable and easiest method to track time spent on tasks. 

Let’s explore some features that streamline task time tracking and make it more accessible. 

Start/stop timers

Time tracking apps like Toggl Track have start and stop timers that track task time in just a few clicks. 

After pressing start, the timer automatically tracks the duration of your tasks, allowing you to focus fully on important work. No more manual calculations and inaccurate time entries. 

Built-in timers are incredibly simple to use, but employees may sometimes forget to start or stop them. Toggl Track’s reminder features help—gently reminding employees to track their time.

Automatic tracking

The automatic time tracking feature records the time spent on tasks without the need for manual input. 

Some tools start tracking time when you open your computer or the time tracking app. 

A drawback of automatic time tracking is that it can raise privacy concerns. Employees may feel uncomfortable and feel that management is spying on them. 

To avoid employee surveillance, Toggl Track has a non-intrusive, 100% private Timeline feature. It records the time activity privately on the employee’s computer. Whenever the employee is ready to share the recorded activities, they can copy selected activities as time entries.

To access this feature, go to the Timer page, click View > Extra Visualizations > Activity Timeline. 

When enabled, this feature automatically records your computer activity (each website and program you view for over 10 seconds) and stops recording when your computer goes into Sleep mode. 

All timeline data recorded in Toggl Track’s Desktop app (Windows, macOS, Linux) is account-specific, which means other workspace users or admins don’t have access to it. Each user chooses what they want to share with others. 

Task categorization

Taking the time to categorize your tasks pays off in the long term, as your reports will be more accurate and your tracked work organized. 

Knowing exactly how much time you spend on a task category gives you deeper insights into your work day. You can reap the benefits of time tracking by focusing on task categories where you spend the most time.

In Toggl Track, assigning tasks to different projects or clients is straightforward. Plus, you can also assign tags to categorize tasks.

Every time you create a new time entry, Toggl Track lets you add the following information to your tasks:

• Start time 
• Duration 
• Stop time
• Description
• One or more tags
• Billable flag

Time entry descriptions also offer a valuable method for categorizing work, in addition to projects, tasks, and clients.

This is because the Summary Report can organize time entries by the descriptions provided when the second level under “Group by” is set to “Time Entry.”

Calendar & task management software integrations

Integrations with third-party apps are another feature of timesheet apps that simplify and streamline workflows.

You may wonder how.

Well, integrations with calendar and task management software let users track task time directly from their calendars or other tools, making time tracking a quick and easy addition to the start of the work routine.

The workflow is simpler, there’s less chance of manual entry errors, and users can easily synchronize their tasks and schedules. 

Toggl Track integrates with over 100 popular project and task management software, productivity, and calendar apps. These tools include Toggl Plan, Asana, Google Calendar, Outlook, Todoist, Trello, and more. 

Detailed reports & analytics

Let’s be honest. 

Manually recorded time data lacks depth and precision. You get incomplete data, human errors, and cumbersome analysis processes.

But with time tracking software, reporting and analyzing time data is flexible and easy. 

Let’s take Toggl Track’s reporting capabilities as an example. These include:

• Summary, Detailed, and Weekly reports that analyze and show time data as needed. 

• Fully customizable charts and dashboards that help you get more value from your time tracking data. 

• The Project Dashboard, which helps you analyze project performance 

• The Insights feature analyzes team and project profitability. 

Accurate invoicing and billing

When you consistently track work hours, your invoices and billing process improve. 

Why?

Because you have all your billable hours accurately tracked. 

This is a huge motivation for using time tracking tools, as many, including Toggl Track, automatically turn billable time into ready-to-share invoices. 

You can rest assured that every billable hour is accounted for and your clients know exactly what they are paying for.

Toggl Track also integrates with QuickBooks Online, which means you can send invoices generated in Toggl Track directly to QuickBooks. 

To create an invoice in Toggl Track, go to the Reports (Summary or Detailed) > Create Invoice in the top right corner of the page. 

After the app has generated the invoice based on your tracked time, you can customize it to match your needs. The screenshot below highlights all the sections and fields you can edit. 

Mobile compatibility

Tracking time on the go with a mobile app adds an extra layer of convenience, and most time tracking apps offer this in the mobile digital era. 

Time trackers like Toggl Track are available for iOS and Android devices with many time tracking features that make it easy to track time on the go, including:

• A QR code scanner that lets you create and share personalized QR codes for time entries, complete with pre-set descriptions, project names, and client information.
• Suggestions for time entries based on your time tracking habits. You can also hide suggestions.

• A built-in Pomodoro timer that lets you work productively in focus sessions. 

• Widgets that you can use to view and manage time entries from your home screen.

It’s up to you now

The value of time tracking can’t be denied. It makes teams and individuals more productive, brings more money in, and improves overall team management. 

The question is—do you want to do it the hard way or the easy way?

As you’ve already seen, time tracking software like Toggl Track simplifies and amplifies the time tracking process by:

• Tracking billable tasks as well as non-billable ones
• Generating detailed time reports with productivity and billing data
• And much more!

👉Sign up for a free Toggl Track account to discover all it can do for your time tracking routine.