TFF #006 - 3 Steps to Mastering Your Time - with Toggl

Read Time - 3.5 Mins

Hello,

Welcome to another edition of the Tech for Finance newsletter where we’re looking at the 3 Steps I use to Master my Time using Toggl for FREE (No affiliation).

Ever get to the end of the day thinking “I have literally no idea what I’ve done today…”

Me too, all the time!

But after going old school and reading The 1% Rule by Tommy Baker and High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard it re-enforced what I’ve always known:

“Whatever gets measured, gets managed”

How can you improve when you don’t have the data on the work you’ve done…

Enter Toggl

You can sign up for an individual account with Toggl and get unlimited use, they only charge when you move onto a team plan.

[Note - You can use any time tracking app by the way, Toggl’s just the best one I’ve used]

So what’s the best way to use it?

1/ By setting an intention

2/ By sticking to the timer

3/ By analysing your results

Unsure why it took you 5 days to produce that management report pack you normally smash in a few days?

Want to know how much time you spend with your head in spreadsheets?

Wanting to cut down on the amount of time you get distracted by e-mails?

No problem.

1/ Set your intentions

Before you start your timer, you need to have a plan for what you ACTUALLY want to get done.

So instead of just opening your computer, opening your e-mails and getting stuck in..

Pause.

What tasks do I want to block out today?

What high priority tasks do I want to get a good run at?

What other less important tasks can I batch?

You’ll never 100% stick to your schedule, but doing this at least improves the odds of you sticking to your plan…

2/ Sticking to the timer

Setting a timer is easy, sticking to it is difficult.

Toggl runs across all of your devices, and you’ve even got a browser plugin too.

As you can see, I’m using it right now.

You can also see that very few of my blocks are less than 30 minutes.

That’s because I set an intention beforehand, and don’t let myself stray once the timer’s running.

You’ll also see that I’ve set up Toggl to give a pomodoro break every 25 minutes.

Contrary to what you might think, having regular breaks actually INCREASES the span of time I can spend on one task WITHOUT getting distracted.

Providing I don’t get stuck at the office coffee machine of course…

3/ Analyzing your results

Once you can see your calendar blocked out it’s easy to start seeing percentage of time in each of your focus areas at a glance. This is especially useful mid-week if you can see your time drifting in the wrong direction.

Then you can use reports across longer spans of time to gain further insight, and you can even use tags if you’re wanting to get really specific.

This means:

You can continue to improve and spot wasted time you may not have even realised existed

It’ll be easier for you to build a business case for areas where you may need more support given your bandwidth

Simple

TL;DR

1/ Be intentional with your time instead of launching straight in

2/ Do one thing at a time and do it well. Don’t break your timer!

3/ Measure your results, I guarantee you’ll discover something new

4/ Sign up for Toggl (it’s FREE)

tech for finance