Do You Know Where Your Time Goes?

Salespeople have a lot on their plates. Strategic planning and execution, sales forecasting and budget reviews, meetings with co-workers and clients, the list goes on—all of which are paired with a constant stream of emails, text alerts, and phone calls that demand your attention. Amid all this noise, staying focused can be tough. But you can use the very tech that seems to zap your focus and interrupt your workflow to improve your focus and increase your  productivity. 

The first step to being more productive is to understand what you really spend your day doing. By charting the way you allocate your time, these apps can help you see patterns that pinpoint when you are most distracted. Armed with this knowledge, you can set goals, such as “spend only one hour checking email,” or create alarms to go off when you spend too much time on a particular task. Here are two tools that can help.

RescueTime tracks the time you spend on applications and websites, and then presents you with detailed, daily report and data based on your activity. A free version is available for both Mac and Android, or a pro version is available for $9 per month. Learn more at https://www.rescuetime.com.

Toggl is a great alternative to time-sheets if you need to track how much time you spend on different projects. This online time-tracking tool features one-click time tracking to help you see where your time goes. A free version is available for both Mac and Android, or a premium version is available for $14 per month. An enterprise version that the entire sales team can use is offered at $49 per year. Learn more at https://toggl.com.