Hi there,

This is the second of my 2 part blog post on useful and free productivity apps that I’ve discovered and integrated into my business systems over the last month.

In my last post (useful & free productivity apps!) I shared with you a great email add on application called “Rapportive” that you can use in your business as an excellent tool to help you know your customer at a glance and deliver better service and increase sales.

Today I’d like to share with you a second tool that I have found really valuable in increasing productivity in my work.

Free productivity tools to manage your time:

If your looking to make money online, grow a business or really if your looking to achieve any particular goal in your life then you will know how important time management is. It can be the difference between success and failure or at the very least it can be the difference between being able to live the lifestyle you choose or being tied to your tasks.

People who learn to properly manage their time can achieve financial stability, reduction of stress and an increase in productivity (you get a lot more done in a lot less time). Time management give you a greater chance of moving up the success ladder!

So I’d like to share with you to one app that has really helped me manage my time better!

Rescue time:

How many times have you been distracted from a task by an interesting news article, a picture, that flashing orange MSN message box, a Facebook update or a tweet? Before you know it you’re reading about African safari’s rather than the best bank account which is what you were originally searching for!

Time management is an integral part of business 101. Supposing each day that you work for 2 hours on productive tasks without distraction then in one week you could achieve more than someone who is not focused could in one month. In one month you could do more then they could in a year! No joke! What have you achieved in the last year? What has Bill Gates achieved in the last year?

Rescue time’s free time tracking software will help you see exactly where you are spending your time and attention and will help you spend your time more effectively. They have a comprehensive free for ever version (the one I use) and a paid version with added functionality. The functions I talk about below are all part of the free version.

Features:

• Background time tracking. Rescue time sits in the background and will track every thing you do – right down to specific websites (although you can opt out of that feature – for those of you that may be worried then let me ease your mind. It will not track adult websites unless you specifically opt in to that! hahah).

• Stops when you stop. Rather than having to start and stop the program it will realise when you’ve walked away from the computer and stop recording time spent working. You can even have it ask you what you were doing when you return (although I think this is part of the paid version). This is good for people who want to track time spent away from the computer on activities such as meetings. (Yes you can still turn the program off at any time if you want).

• Use it on multiple computers – one report. This is great if you work across more than one computer but want to track per user rather than per pc.

• Detailed web based reporting. Access up to the minute reports at any time. Reports are highly customisable so you can see productivity per hour or day and even lets you drill down to the types of activities you spent your time on. I found this particularly useful to work out what my most productive and least productive times are. Late afternoons were usually my least productive times so I factored in breaks around this time. I also became more aware of what I was doing in the afternoons and so I consciously became more focused.

• Daily and weekly efficiency email. This makes it easy to track your progress even if you forget to log into the website. It also shows you how you stack up to other people’s efficiency in general and I found myself wanting to better my own productivity score and be better than the average.

Benefits:

• Mindfulness & Productivity. For me the biggest benefit was becoming more mindful of what I was spending my time on. I was far less likely to go on link adventures all over the Internet, turned off my chat during work times, and stayed away from other more exciting media until I completed my tasks. The reports help categorise what you spend your time on (email, social networks, etc) and so you start to get a great idea of where your day goes. Being able to see where I wasted and made use of my time helped me identify what to do less of and I should do more of. I started to get a lot more done in less time.

• Estimate project times. If you want to set up a new Facebook fan page,  establish a new niche site, do some keyword research or write a new eBook you can use Rescue Time to help plan how long it will take to get your project to market based on historical data. This can be particularly useful if you outsource as then you know how long it will take to get a project up and running. Which leads me to another benefit I found:

• Monitor your workers productivity. As you know I’ve hired Megan who is working full time for me so I can expand my business. I asked Megan to install Rescue Time and each day she send me a copy of the report which shows how she spent her time. It can be used for billing (to track hours worked) and it can be used again to measure how long it will take to have your workers get a project to market. It also provides peace of mind knowing what work gets done.

If you’d like to see more about the product simply visit their website: Rescue Time

I hope you gain as much benefit from these 2 Useful & free Productivity apps that I have talked about here. I have come across plenty of programs and resources lately but these 2 have been a stand out for me.

Before you go please leave a comment about free tools you use in your business or about tools you wish you had to make your life easier!

See you online!

Nick.

This entry was posted on December 14, 2011 at 2:43 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Posted in 'How to...' Reviews by Nick 3 Comments