by: Michael Keenan
Entrepreneurship
November 26, 2021
15-minute read
Benefits of a Good Time Management App
You can certainly be productive without using a dedicated time management app, and many business owners start with nothing but guesswork. But as you grow and hire employees, you’ll face some challenges without an app to track time.
A specialized time management software helps you track remote work and improve overall communication between you and your employees. Here are several key ways it helps you run your online business profitably:
- Measuring time and productivity. With features like time tracking, built-in timers, detailed reports, and more, you can gain insight into how your team is working and eliminate time wastage. It also helps you resolve obstacles so teams can be more productive.
- Collaborative teamwork. Time management tools help prioritize tasks and work smarter. Features like Kanban-style workflows make it easy to coordinate tasks and teams. Everyone knows what tasks are in progress, what tasks are completed, and what tasks need to be done next.
- Better project cost estimation. Time tracking helps understand the actual costs of a project. You can see billable hours spent on the project and find areas for improvement. This also helps you prepare better estimates for future projects and save money.
- Understanding capacity. Your teams are likely working on multiple different projects at the same time. As you grow, you will need to understand capacity better and how long it takes to complete certain tasks. It shows you who is overworked and where managers can balance team efforts for future work.
Best Time Management Apps
To help you find the right tool, we have compiled a list of the top 14 time management tools and software. Since there are many different ways and approaches to time management, we’ve included a variety of tools. They range from standalone time trackers to comprehensive productivity solutions.
Clockify
Best time tracking software for companies with hybrid teams
Clockify is a time tracking software used by over two million people. It’s a popular time tracking and scheduling app that allows you to track work hours across projects. Clockify is available for an unlimited number of users for free. It works in your browser, but you can also install it on your mobile or desktop for convenience.
Everyone uses Clockify: small businesses, freelancers, creatives, NGOs, and Fortune 500 companies. If you want additional features like expenses, notifications, or timesheet reports, you can upgrade to the pro version for $7.99 per user per month, with annual billing.
Key Features:
- Unlimited team members and features for free
- Highly accurate timesheets with advanced features
- Reports and visualizations to understand data and insights
- Mobile app available for iOS and Android
- Browser extension with automatic start/stop, reminders, Pomodoro timer, and more for Google Chrome, Firefox, or Microsoft Edge
G2 Rating: 4.4 / 5 stars
Evernote
Best time management tool for note-taking
Evernote is the first (and perhaps the best) note-taking app out there. It helps you capture and manage ideas, examples, and to-do lists so you don’t miss anything. With Evernote, you can:
- Create notes
- Scan images
- Record voice notes
- Attach documents
- Clip web pages
Evernote helps you organize everything from personal moments to projects in one place. Its search function allows you to access all this information by recognizing words in handwritten notes or images or attachments. You can access it on your computer, tablet, or smartphone, even if you are offline.
Features
Home:
- The main dashboard allows you to view relevant content in a simple and organized way
- Create and organize tasks within notes to easily track to-do lists and items
- Integration with Google Calendar to display upcoming events and relevant notes
- Maximum note size of 200MB for storing high-resolution images and presentations
- Service support for troubleshooting
G2 Rating: 4.4 / 5 stars
Asana
The best time management software for task management
Productivity enthusiasts love Asana. It is one of the best collaboration tools to help companies manage various tasks. There is a bit of a learning curve, but it is worth the investment once you get used to it. It does not provide budgeting or expense tracking tools, but it excels at managing tasks, workflows, and different projects.
It’s really easy to create tasks and subtasks for projects, as well as assign them due dates and visually see the entire workflow. Asana also has a strong and active community that can troubleshoot issues or explain ways to use the software.
Main features:
- Fast, flexible, and modern design
- Organize work in collaborative projects as lists or Kanban boards
- Assign, track, and manage goals
- Create teams to organize projects and connect team members with a shared calendar and chat
- Integration with Slack to create, complete, and edit tasks directly from the messaging app
G2 Rating: 4.3 / 5 stars
Focus Booster
The best Pomodoro Technique timer app
Focus Booster is a free and lightweight app that helps you focus and overcome distractions. You can track 20 Pomodoro sessions per month with the free plan, which equals about 83 hours of time tracking in a month. Once you subscribe to a paid plan, you will receive a dashboard that helps you understand how you are spending your time. All sessions are recorded automatically so you can review your productivity and analyze your output.
Focus Booster offers two different plans: the free plan and the professional plan at a price of $4.99 per month.
Main features:
- Track all your completed tasks in a simple task list
- Simplified Pomodoro timer
- Track Pomodoro sessions across devices, even if you are offline
G2 Rating: 4.4 / 5 stars
Dropbox
The best time management tools for file storage and sharing
Dropbox is a simple and reliable file storage service with advanced collaboration features. It is more expensive than similar offerings like Google Drive, but it has many integrations to work with your existing tools. All files are stored in the cloud.
Dropbox also offers synchronized desktop folders so you can access files from anywhere. The company is always adding new services like digital signing and integrations to help you work better. The free version provides 2GB of storage. If you need more space, you can purchase a paid plan to get up to 2TB of space.
Main features:
- Manage and access documents in one place to stay organized
- Share updates on documents in real-time and connect with your teams and tools
- Password protect files, set permissions, and restore important edits
G2 Rating: 4.3 / 5 stars
LastPass
The best password protection manager
If you run an online business, chances are you use many different tools and services. Each has its own login data. It is impossible to remember every password, and it is known that using the same password for all services is a risk.
LastPass solves this problem. There is no longer a need to manage passwords manually. LastPass provides you with a secure way to create, manage, and store your passwords so you never have to click “Forgot Password?” again. With the LastPass browser extension, you will automatically fill in passwords when they are saved in your vault.
Main features:
- Easy to use, from secure encryption to password sharing and autofill information
- Password protection
- Save time by remembering login details from every company account
your work data and employee data from breaches
G2 Rating: 4.4 / 5 stars
Toggl
The best app for automatically tracking time and viewing billable hours
Toggl is an app you can use to track the time spent on tasks, as well as manually add entries. Organize your entries by team, client, project, or tag. Add notes to the description so you can remember what you were doing later.
If you’re managing a team, you can invite them to your project and keep everyone’s time record in one place. Detailed reports will show you where you spend most of your time. Paid users also get detailed insights from Toggl on how to improve their time based on their history.
Toggl is available on iOS and Android, as well as MacOS. There’s a free version, or you can upgrade to a Starter account ($9 per user per month), Premium ($18 per user per month), or Enterprise account (custom pricing).
Key features:
- Know who is spending time doing what and find ways to improve the time spent on those tasks
- Review your week, month, or even year to see what weighs you down for long periods
- Track everything everywhere using mobile apps, desktop apps, and browser extensions that let you sync Toggl across devices
G2 Rating: 4.6 / 5 stars
RescueTime
The best software for measuring and tracking productivity
RescueTime is a time tracking application that records how and where you spend your time online. This productivity app analyzes everything you do throughout the day, from other applications you use to the amount of time you spend on your favorite websites.
If you want to eliminate distractions in your life and get work done faster, RescueTime is a great way to discover behaviors that are hindering your progress. To help you focus on achieving your goals, RescueTime Premium can temporarily block online shopping sites that distract you from work.
RescueTime is available for iOS, Android, OS X, Windows, and Linux. RescueTime Lite is free, or you can pay $9 per month (or $72 for the year upfront) for access to premium features.
Key features:
- Prevents you from wasting time, with reminders alerting you when you spend too long on a particular task
- Helps you understand how you spent your day by providing detailed reports and daily highlights
- Helps you complete tasks faster by discovering new ways to organize your day and spend your time wisely
G2 Rating: 4.2 / 5 stars
Trello
The best Kanban board software for task management
Trello is a flexible web-based project management app that allows you to easily sort tasks and collaborate with your team members. Instead of getting lost in a large volume of emails or a confusing spreadsheet, Trello visualizes your projects as lists pinned on digital boards.
Each list consists of individual entries called cards, which can represent anything from tasks to ideas to goals. Team members can add comments, attachments, checklists, and custom labels to the cards, keeping everyone on the same page.
Whether you’re looking for a way to track progress on large projects or organize a recent brainstorming session, Trello can be customized to fit your team.
Trello is available on iOS and Android, as well as Mac and Windows. There’s a free version, or you can upgrade for more features with a Business Class or Enterprise account.
Key features:
- Trello is fully customizable: every company is different and Trello adapts to your needs, whatever they may be
- Keeps
“`html- Organize yourself by gathering all your projects and team communications in one environment
- Makes projects easy to follow and allows you to view the entire workflow at a glance
G2 Rating: 4.4 / 5 stars
MyLifeOrganized
Best personal life organizer and task manager
MyLifeOrganized is more than just a to-do list. Use the daily planner app to drag and drop, highlight, and organize tasks in a simple and sleek interface. If one of your tasks is so big that it feels overwhelming, use the app to create sub-tasks to help motivate you to make progress.
Some of the paid features in MyLifeOrganized include automated smart lists – practically, the app uses deadlines, tasks, and priorities you’ve entered to identify items that need your immediate attention. You can also use it to set location-based reminders, so you’ll be alerted when you’re near one of your defined locations.
MyLifeOrganized is available for iOS, Android, and Windows operating systems. There are many pricing options available, ranging from the free version to $59.95.
Key features:
- Let MyLifeOrganized keep you on task. Instead of tracking your own progress, the app breaks large projects into smaller, more manageable steps and tells you when you should do something right away
- Quickly add new tasks without entering the app. Email MyLifeOrganized, and the app will take care of the rest
- Stay on task across devices. Paid subscribers also get access to cloud-based task lists
G2 Rating: Not available
Focus@will
Best productivity app that combines neuroscience and music to enhance focus
Focus@will is a unique time management app that helps you utilize your time better. The app plays soothing music and sounds that are scientifically proven to enhance productivity and focus.
Choose playlists based on what you are doing (entrepreneur vs. student) or the type of learner and worker you are (creative vs. logical). According to the company, there is a specific type of music for everyone that puts them in a “flow state.” By entering some information about yourself, Focus@will will choose the optimized music for you. Then hit play and get to work!
Currently, Focus@will is available for Android, MacOS, and iOS. You can subscribe to an individual account for $7.49 a month if you pay for the whole year, or $9.99 a month if billed monthly. Team accounts are also available.
Key features:
- Perfectly tailored to your unique productivity style. Find the music and sounds that make you work your best
- Focus@will reads studies and conducts some studies of its own, such as this study. The common conclusion is that you can increase your productivity by four times
- Use Focus@will seamlessly across devices. Whether you are working from home or listening through headphones at the office, you can resume work from where you left off
G2 Rating: Not available
Todoist
Best task management app for keeping tasks organized and achieving goals
Todoist is another task management and organization app that can help you stay on top of everything that needs to be done. You can also use the calendar view for an overview of your upcoming week or month.
Add in daily habits, recurring tasks, and deadlines so you don’t have to input recurring tasks manually each time. Use color-coding to prioritize and get satisfaction from seeing your progress in completing tasks.
Todoist is available on Android and iOS and Mac and Windows and Apple Watch and browser extensions. Like many of these time management apps, Todoist has free and paid options. Todoist Premium starts at $3 per month for individual accounts, and business accounts start at $5 per user per month.
Key features:
“`
Homepage:
- Integrates with hundreds of apps so you can stay on top of everything you’re doing
- Lighten some tasks with the task delegation features in Todoist
- Todoist has many templates to choose from so you don’t have to start from scratch when creating your task board
G2 Rating: 4.4 / 5 Stars
Remember the Milk
The best time management app for students and personal life
Have you ever gone to the grocery store to buy milk and ended up buying everything but the milk? That’s the premise behind Remember the Milk, which has expanded beyond just grocery shopping lists. This time management app helps you stay on top of milk and so much more.
Remember the Milk is a task list app that allows you to organize tasks using color-coded tags, as well as break down larger projects into subtasks. Attach files from Google Drive or Dropbox and share your lists with others to keep everyone on the same page. The app can send reminders via email, text, instant messaging, and even Twitter.
Remember the Milk is available for Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, and browser extensions. There’s a free version available, with paid access starting from $40 per year.
Main features:
- Organize multiple task lists and use the smart lists feature to create new lists based on searches
- Stay connected even when you are offline: Remember the Milk syncs across all your devices, even when you’re offline
- Don’t stop creating lists: Remember the Milk lets you create an unlimited number of lists, so go wild
G2 Rating: 4.5 / 5 Stars
Harvest
The best time tracking app for growing businesses
Harvest is a time and expense tracking app that can help you change your mindset and start thinking of time as a limited resource. The app has powerful time tracking features and provides easy-to-understand visual reports on how you’re spending your time and your team’s time.
The app integrates with many other tools like Asana, Trello, GitHub, and more. Additionally, it can help you track billable time to ensure you’re accounting for every minute.
You can download Harvest on iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows devices. There are also several browser extensions available. Harvest costs $12 per user per month.
Main features:
- Help get your money by tracking billable time and creating instant invoices to send to clients
- Plan for the future using the forecasting feature, ensuring you and your team have enough time to complete all planned projects
- Check if projects are on budget at a glance
G2 Rating: 4.3 / 5 Stars
Time Management is Everything
Spending your time effectively is not just the key to a more productive life; it’s also the secret to a happier life.
It’s easy to get caught up in work, especially if you’re not managing your time effectively. It’s one of the challenges entrepreneurs face. You can miss opportunities to spend quality time with your friends and family. Maintaining the right balance between work and personal life is at the heart of personal and professional success, so you should make better use of your time at every opportunity.
With these time management apps in your toolkit, you’ll be better equipped to streamline your life for more productivity and less stress.
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