Time management is an essential skill to master if your business wishes to accomplish its goals within, if not earlier, in the timeframe you’ve established. While freelancing and remote working opportunities have literally exploded in modern times, with great power comes great responsibility, they say, and the onus is on us to ensure we use our time well.
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A survey revealed how an average individual remains productive only for 2.5 hours on any day unless there’s something to prevent him from getting distracted often.
Time management apps can help us maintain optimal productivity levels all day long. How do these apps work? Simply put, these apps will track your time usage and show where exactly you’ve been spending time. This is a great way to develop a laser focus during work hours. We’ve handpicked 10 best time management apps for you to use and see the difference for yourself.
1. Time Doctor
Time Doctor helps you manage your time in the most productive manner possible. You stay in control of where your time is spent over the course of the day and can discover important insights about work.
Features
Chat Monitoring
One of the most unique features of Time Doctor is chat monitoring which allows you to see the time spent by the team in chatting and on calls. You can also see whom the team members have been in touch with and for how long. Modern teams increasingly spend a lot of time on calls and chats and at least some of that could be put to better use. That’s where Time Doctor comes in.
App and Web Tracking
You can use Time Doctor to track the use of a specific app or URL as well. This is a great way to minimize the time spent on websites that are known to distract during working hours. Whether it is social media or video streaming sites, Time Doctor helps you cut down on non-productive tasks.
Break Tracking
Let’s face it: breaks are unavoidable and, in fact, to a certain degree, essential for staying focused and productive. Time Doctor tracks your breaks too while you’re away from your system. This helps prevent unnecessary time wastage where it can be prevented.
Pricing
Time Doctor is very affordably priced and features a simple and elegant pricing plan. You won’t find complex pricing tiers like other time management apps. Time Doctor costs $9.99 per month per user.
2. Clockify
If you’re on the lookout for a reasonably powerful time management app but have a very limited budget for goal tracking, Clockify might be the way to go.
Features
Automated and Manual Entries
You need to just start the timer and Clockify will do the rest. Time entries are all logged automatically. You can also manually add entries if you forgot to start the timer or even otherwise.
Detailed Reports
Clockify empowers users with very detailed time usage reports. You can organize time entries by filters. You can see every entry and also edit them within the app as required.
Team Management
Clockify lets you add team members and see all time entries in your dashboard at a glance. You can also specify and enter the hourly rates for each team member.
Pricing
Clockify is free for use for any project and team size. You can add an unlimited number of users and track with Clockify.
3. RescueTime
RescueTime is not your average time tracking app. It packs in a number of useful features including goal tracking and alerts which help you take your productivity goals to the next level.
Features
Goals and Alerts
You can use RescueTime to specify goals and alerts for you and your team. Once you’ve discovered where your time goes each day, it is easy to reinforce productivity by programming the app to help you spend less time on non-work related tasks such as social media.
Work Reports and Trends
RescueTime generates comprehensive work reports that are laden with a number of useful insights to help you improve time management. Reports can be generated weekly; you can also see useful trends.
Offline Time
RescueTime can help you see how much time is spent on calls and meetings. You can also track breaks using the app.
Pricing
The RescueTime Lite app is free to use while the Premium app costs $6 per month.
4. Be Focused Timer
This is an Apple ecosystem app that helps users stay focused at work and track their progress in real-time. The app can be installed on an iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple Watch.
Features
Customization
Be Focused lends itself to easy customization. You can enter work and break intervals and configure sounds and notifications as well.
Easy Cross-Platform Syncing
You can use the Be Focused timer to sync all data seamlessly between an iPhone, an Apple Watch and a Mac. This makes time tracking on the go super easy.
Pricing
Be Focused is free to use on iOS but has certain limitations in the free version wherein no cross-platform syncing is supported. The pro version starts at $0.99.
5. Toggl
Toggl is a time management app known for its simple user interface. If you’ve never used a time tracker before, Toggl helps you get started within a few minutes.
Features
One-Click Tracking
You can use the Toggl app to track time with one simple click. No complicated menus or navigating through options to start the timer! Toggl is time tracking made easy.
App Integrations
Toggl supports 100+ app integrations which means you can use it with your existing project and task management tools. Once the integration is successful, you will see the Toggl button inside the apps.
Pricing
The Starter plan is priced at $10 per month per user while the Premium app costs $20 per user per month.
6. Tomato Timer
The Tomato Timer uses the Pomodoro technique of time tracking that is based on bursts of work followed by frequent breaks to help you stay refreshed and productive. While the app lacks advanced features, it is useful for simple time management.
Features
Simple Time Tracking
You can start the timer with one click by visiting the Tomato Timer website. You’ll see a large timer button that facilitates seamless time tracking. Both long and short time breaks can be configured.
Easy Customization
The web app can be easily customized by configuring all timer parameters. You can also set the sound tone and volume.
Pricing
Tomato Timer is free to use: it’s a simple web-based app that can be used by individuals and teams alike to manage their time well.
7. Focus Booster
Focus Booster is another Pomodoro timer app that helps you overcome procrastination and boost productivity levels.
Features
Recorded Sessions
The Pomodoro sessions on Focus Booster are recorded automatically for users to be able to reference data later.
Deep Insights
The app presents the users with detailed time usage statistics in the form of reports. You can see where your time went each day and work towards managing it more efficiently.
Pricing
Focus Booster offers a Starter plan which is free to use. The plan supports 20 sessions every month but lacks the report export feature. The Premium plans start at $2.99 per month.
8. Calendar
Calendar helps you manage your time by capturing and presenting time analytics to help you focus on increased productivity levels. Calendar takes a unique approach with time management by inculcating your work calendar into the equation.
Features
Scheduling Meets Time Tracking
Calendar combines several common calendar functions into one. It allows your clients and teammates to schedule meetings with you. You can access your calendar and that of your colleagues as well to see who’s doing what.
Visual Dashboard
Calendar features a rich visual dashboard that has color-coded projects and tasks to present information in the most appealing manner possible.
Pricing
Calendar offers a Basic plan which is free to use. The Pro plan starts at $10 per month and comes with a free 30-day trial for you to test all features.
9. Roadmap
Roadmap is a time management utility that helps businesses stay on top of their time usage trends. You can see the time data of all remote workers in your team and schedule work accordingly.
Features
Easy Integrations
Roadmap integrates with the standard project management tools and software including Jira, GitHub, and Basecamp, to name just a few.
Insightful Dashboard
Roadmap shows you the bigger picture and creates powerful charts and graphs that summarize key productivity analytics. You can also share these insights with your colleagues easily.
Pricing
The Roadmap Basic plan is priced at $82 per month and supports up to 25 projects.
10. DeskTime
DeskTime is a strong contender in our list of the 10 best time management apps. The software allows teams to track time in an automated manner and claims to boost productivity by 30%.
Features
Automated Tracking
One of the best features of the DeskTime app is that it begins tracking time from the moment the system is switched on and continues until the time it is switched off.
App and URL Tracking
DeskTime’s employee monitoring feature shows you which apps and URLs the users ending up using and for how long. You can categorize the apps into different labels and monitor usage at a granular level.
Pricing
DeskTime offers a lite version that is free to use but has several limitations in terms of the features it supports. The Pro version is priced at $95 per month with a per-user charge of $5.94.
Final Words
The best time management apps help you to stay focused and boost productivity levels while preventing burnout and maintaining a healthy work-rest balance. When choosing an app for your time management endeavors, ensure that it has all the features you need and if it supports mobile tracking.
Each app on our list has its own pros and cons and you should carefully weigh them all with respect to your specific business needs to narrow down on the right choice.