9 Ridiculously Useful Time Management Tools Every Smart Manager Must Know About

Use these top-rated time management tools to minimize time wastage and produce desired results.

“It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?” — Henry David Thoreau

Managers often have the heaviest workload; meetings, interviews, hiring, creating and maintaining budgets, planning and promoting daily schedules of employees, performance evaluation, reporting to senior Management, the list of things-to-do can go on and on.

Since managers have so much to do, one skill they must have in today’s fast and hectic work environment is to be a smart time manager. That said, time-wasting by employees in the office is one of the most common reasons for causing headaches to many managers. Without the right time management tools, the life of a manager can be pretty messed up.

As the Chief Marketing Officer at ProofHub, I faced the same problem not very long ago. Senior management noted that many employees were not delivering certain output that was expected of them. It didn’t take long for us to find out that the inefficient utilization of time efficiently was the main culprit.

I observed that some employees could not maintain a smooth workflow because of regular interruptions in the form of:

• Frequent casual team discussions (not related to work),
• Browsing social media,
• Checking their phones too often,
• Procrastination,
• Taking lengthy phone calls during work
• Multitasking

You Can Be A Master In Time Management Too!

There’s no reason why you shouldn’t use a top-rated time management Tool. If you’re constantly juggling deadlines, deliverables, and resources, then you need to track everything and save a lot of precious time.

I have rested and reviewed nine of the best time management tools that can help to keep you and your team on the right track. Read on to know more about it.

1. ProofHub

ProofHub is a versatile, all-in-one project management and team collaboration tool that is packed with all powerful features that can be of great use to managers leading a team of any size, from any industry.

Used by prestigious organizations like NASA, Disney, Netflix, Trip advisor, and many more, ProofHub boasts of a useful time tracking software to help you bring all your time data at one central place.

Managers do not need to invest in a separate time management tool as they can use ProofHub for project management, team collaboration, online proofing, create reports, manage tasks, manage time, scheduling, organizing, and much more.

Top Features of ProofHub’s Time Tracking Software

• Timesheets — You can add multiple timesheets to record time data. Use them for payroll, client billing, estimation, tracking, and even time management.
• Set Time Estimates — Set time estimates for different tasks and find out if the time taken to perform a task is completed within the set time frame, or exceeds the estimated time.
• Bird’s Eye View — Managers can have a comprehensive view of all time data across all projects billable or non-billable, project progress, and status without the need to jump through projects.
• Track Time Manually or Using Timers — You can manually track time spent on billable or non-billable hours, or use timers to record the time it takes to get work done.
• Time Reports — Create custom time reports of people and projects. See logged hours from your timesheets to calculate billable, billed, and non-billable hours.
• Mark Timesheets As Private — Limit visibility of timesheets only to the people you want. Control the accessibility of your timesheets whenever you want.

Pricing — Ultimate Control plan is priced at $89 per month, billed annually. Limited time offer, save 10%+30%.

2. Scoro

Scoro is a comprehensive business management software that gives you all the tools you need for efficient time management. including time tracking, billing, work reporting, project & task management.

Scoro offers one holistic toolset to simplify project management. What makes this tool flexible is that it combines time tracking with project management and CRM, which results in enhanced collaboration and easy management of business processes in one place.

Top Features:

• Track both actual and billable time and transfer the hours to an invoice
• Deliver assignments on time using interlinked tools, like calendars, task lists, timesheets, and built-in time tracker.
• Automate late invoice reminders, scheduled and recurring invoicing
• Manage your team’s workload efficiently by using customizable task bundles, Kanban task board, a drag-and-drop planner
• Easily monitor billable and non-billable hours and see your team’s performance in real-time
• Extensive project, task, and client management

Pricing — Essential plan starts at $26 user/month

“Start your FREE trial NOW with ProofHub and bring all your time data in one place.”

3. Asana

Asana is a popular project management software available on the market. It can be used for both personal and teamwork planning. This tool helps your teams to get organized by planning and structuring work in a way that suits you most.

You can set priorities and deadlines, share details, and assign tasks. Managers can follow projects and tasks through every stage to keep everyone aligned on goals, all the while seeing the bigger picture.

Top Features:

• Divide your tasks into subtasks and assign them to team members
• Tracks tasks and add followers
• Create custom calendars and views
• Use project dashboards to get a quick overview
• Review milestones, and check your team’s progress
• See team members’ tasks and priorities
• Get notified about project updates

Pricing — Free for up to 15 members, Premium from $10.99 user/month

3. Trello

Trello is a project management app that is known for visualizing tasks on a dashboard that is quite effective for managing short and quick assignments. The app utilized Kanban boards, cards, and lists to move tasks in real-time.

The app lets you handle multiple projects at the same time through visual ticklers. Managers can track the entire project from start to finish. Trello’s highly visual approach simplifies project management and improves your productivity with features that make work simpler and enjoyable.

Top Features:

• Simple task management on a cardboard
• Image and file sharing
• Built-in workflow automation
• Activity log
• Checklists, with a progress meter
• Organizing lists by date or priority
• Quick overview on front and back of cards

Pricing — Free for personal use, $9.99 user/month for Business Class plan

“Frustrated with inability to meet deadlines consistently? Switch to ProofHub today and get things done one time, everytime!”

4. Toggl

Toggl is simple yet powerful time management and tracking software that is a great tool for managers who want to accurately track the number of hours spent by their employees on certain projects and tasks.

A timer runs unobtrusively in the background to record how much time is spent working on a task. Once you’re done with your task, you will need to turn the timer off. The tool can be used both online and offline. You can also create estimated timelines and budgets.

Top Features:

• Reports featuring team progress
• Online and offline time tracking
• Charts
• A handy overview of time spent
• Tracking reminders
• One-click tracking
• Project dashboard
• Scheduled alerts

Pricing — Starter plan is priced at $9 per user/month

5. Clarizen

Clarizen is a cloud-based collaborative work management tool that enables users to manage projects collaboratively and automate workflow. Clarizen allows managers and their teams to have real-time visibility into all their workstreams.

It is a powerful tool to help agile teams meet their goals. Clarizen supports different workstyles and hybrid methodologies across the enterprise to provide autonomy & empowerment.

Top Features:

• Budget tracking and expense management
• Workforce Management
• Role and Assignment per project
• Executive dashboards
• Automated and repeatable processes, alerts and workflows
• Project hierarchy
• Scheduling

Pricing — Pricing available on quote

6. Time Doctor

Time Doctor is an accurate employee tracking solution with advanced attendance and time tracking features. It’s ideal for managers and business owners who want to monitor activities of their in-office or remote workforce.

You can view sites visited by your employees within working hours. Exact and specific data gathered by Time Doctor can be used for billing clients with recorded proof of services rendered.

Top Features:

• Accurate time tracking
• Reporting and Analytics
• Website and App monitoring
• Optional payroll feature
• Data encryption
• Productivity evaluation
• GPS tracking

Pricing — Paid plan starts at $10 per user/month

7. Replicon

Replicon is an employee time tracking software based on the time intelligence principle, which enables businesses to relate time spent to results produced. The software allows managers to harvest time on any device, from any location.

Replicon enables businesses to track project time to the last minute and bill their clients for finished projects. You can manage your employees more efficiently with its versatile client management and business features.

Top features:

• Time tracking and timesheets
• Analytics on time usage
• Cloud clock
• Payroll management
• Automated vacation management
• Email reminder
• Cost control

Pricing — Quick Start Package is priced at $19 per user/month

8. DeskTime

DeskTime is a 100% automatic time tracking and productivity software that can help managers keep projects on track. This simple and secure application starts tracking your time as you start working on tasks and picks out productive vs unproductive URLs and apps you’ve been using.

DeskTime automatically calculates how productive and efficient you’ve been throughout the day. The app has been known to boost productivity by over 30%. Businesses can save valuable financial resources by ensuring that workers are making good use of the working time.

Top Features:

• Automatic time tracking
• Screenshots
• Pomodoro timer
• Shift scheduling
• Project tracking
• Absence calendar
• Cost calculation
• Private time option

Pricing — Pricing plans start at $5.94/user

“Identify which tasks are taking more than expected time with ProofHub. Sign up for the Ultimate Control Plan and SAVE upto 40%. LIMITED TIME OFFER.”

Distractions Are Natural, They Happen, But Need To Be Cut Down

I understand that some distractions are part and parcel of any work culture. We are humans and we do need short breaks at work to get our minds off the task. However, you can’t let such distractions ruin your productivity and take over our lives.

For example, only 37% of teams in the UK always or mostly manage to finish their projects on time, poor management being one of the reasons for that.

Coming back to identifying (and quashing) time wasters in our office, I embraced the latest technology (time management tool) to cut down wastage of time at work.

Results exceeded our expectations as there was a significant improvement in productivity and overall office discipline.

Using these best time management tools will help managers and business owners to avoid time wastage by employees at work as well as bring better organization and scheduling of work to get desired results.

Using these tools efficiently, you will notice that you not only have improved productivity, but are also able to get a clear distribution of responsibilities, feel you have more time than before and a sharp drop in work-related stress.

So, are you ready to bring these tools into action?

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Read More:

1. Humor At Work — Why It Needs To Be A Part of The Work Culture
2. How to Choose The Right Time Management Technique for You
3. Time Management: Five Tips That Successful People Do In the First Working Hours

Time Management Problems? Use These Tools To Make Every Minute Count! was originally published in ProofHub Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.