Why Toggl.com gets two big thumbs up from this geek
I’ve begun working for (other) clients for the first time in years. When I mean ‘other’, I mean no one I’ve been affiliated in business with before, not working for myself or on my own sites (with the exception of this minor little post), and I’m not working (as much) for free for friends/family.
Thanks to early internet marketing successes, I became a sometimes lazy but very attention deficited geek person scattered with ideas and half-done projects. So how am I about to handle working for other people and billing for it wisely?
There are options out there where you can freelance and be logged into a system and timed although I wasn’t too hot on that idea at all, especially in the beginning as I ramp up the work I’m doing into full time.
And that’s where Toggl.com came in… as suggested by a friend.
Since I’m not always the guy that RTFM (read’s the friendly manual in case there’s a non-geek reading this), I did have a question come up that I thought was important. I noticed I was timing some tasks, and the time would disappear all of a sudden! It was driving me nuts because I loved how intuitive this online system felt from the get go.
I suppose a description of toggl is in order so I’ll just grab it from the front page:
Time management you enjoy
Helps you see how you really spend your day
Makes every second count
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1-click time tracking. Toggl Timer is highly optimized for fast time management. Lose no extra seconds while tracking time. |
Not only, did the 1-click time tracking concept caught my attention but also the fact their sign-up procedure was fast and easy with an existing google/gmail account. Developers beware: having a portable sign-up process in this new age of social media is going to prove to be vital if you want to increase your audience. I wanted toggl or some form of time management system to work in conjunction with iGoogle/gmail as I am continually seeking ways to make many programs, products and work developement reside virtually for me in my quest to be ‘machine free’ .
I didn’t RTFM at all nor follow their tutorial nor checked any knowledge bases or FAQ’s. I suppose I was initially passionate for this they deserved to have my feedback. I received help right away, and after some discussion I realized that the task timer rolls over on the following day and is reset to zero. No wonder! Recall that I’m scattered right? I can work on a task for 13 minutes, the next moment it might be 10 seconds. sometimes it’s just simply ongoing. I was thinking from a per task format in my head, not considering a rollover with the task timer. I knew the reports showed my complete time there, so I was kinda stuck a bit on that one non-intuitive issue. I’d like to file that under a ‘personal issue’ though because since that feedback to my feedback, I’ve been sailing away, toggling the heck outta my time online. Thanks to toggl, I’ve realized that if I want to put in an 8 hour billable day, it’s more like 12 or 16 because of the time waste from chatting, checkin out facebook, etc. Since I can’t justifiable do that on my client’s dime, I toggl my way 100 times a day easily.
Oh did I mention toggl has various programs to time yourself? They have toggl nano, toggl timer, widgets, and even a standalone offline desktop module. After the kind of development day I’ve had, where I’m thinking about more than one project and more than one client, I decided to dig a little and check out who developed this brilliant product and what they were all about.
I took a look at their work principles and their location: Estonia of all places! Seeing that was neat if not downright refreshing. I love the internet for that. Apprise is a small little development company of 15 people. It’s possible this product could get absorbed into the google fold and perhaps *should* because it’s highly effective for those of us obsessed with efficiency.
I’m so impressed with this product, that not only am I writing about it and praising it with no affiliate coding and no ‘kick backs’, I’m going to do myself a favour and pay them for their premium version. $5.00/month is worth the price to uh, stay on task.
Well done Toggl team!
