How to Make Time Tracking a Habit

In previous blogs, we’ve often discussed the importance of tracking your time. Recording your hours is crucial for understanding how much time you actually spend working and on which tasks or activities. However, if you’re just starting out, tracking your hours may take some getting used to. It’s rare for someone to start perfectly tracking all of their hours overnight. Thankfully, with the tips in this blog, you can turn time tracking into a habit.

Developing a New Habit

The primary characteristic of a habit is that it becomes automatic – you don’t need to think about it. But automating a new habit doesn’t happen instantly. First, you need to establish the new behavior as a habit. When developing a new habit, it’s important to define your end goal clearly. In this case, the goal is to keep track of your work hours. When do you want to achieve this goal? Within a week? A month? Three months? Write it down and then break it down into smaller steps.

An interesting book that delves into habit formation is The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.

Step-by-Step Time Tracking

Start on day one by tracking just one hour of your work – for instance, your first activity of the day. If you manage to record your first task and its duration for three days in a row, move on to the next step. Then, track both your first and last task of the workday. You could fully master tracking your hours within a week. If you prefer a slower pace, you can progress by adding a step each week, allowing you to fully establish your time-tracking habit within a month.

If you leave a timer running in Keeping for too long, we’ll send you a helpful reminder to turn it off.

Staying Motivated

It’s natural to occasionally forget to log a task or even skip a day. That’s perfectly okay! Missing a day doesn’t mean you’ve failed, so don’t let it discourage you from continuing. Many people see one lapse as a complete failure and decide not to continue tracking their time. But there’s no need for that! Mistakes happen, and they’re easy to correct. It takes time to master a habit, and that process involves trial and error.

Whether you track your hours by calculating them in Excel, logging them in a calendar, or using an app, it takes time for time tracking to become second nature. Once you make time tracking a habit, you’ll likely notice yourself working more efficiently and getting more out of your day.

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