Are you keeping accurate time or making rough estimates? Because we lead busy lives today, managing your time is now necessary, not just nice to have. Improving daily work is easier when you have a good approach to Hours tracking, no matter if you’re a freelancer, team leader, or want a better balance between home and office.
Categories of Hours tracking serve as subfolders within your time. Without these steps, you are earning hours with no real idea of what you’re working on. When you sort your hours properly, you may observe trends, see hazards, and plan how to use your valuable time wisely.
While it’s common to track work hours, many fail to see the bigger pattern. They don’t know which projects bring in cash, which burn through valuable energy, or how to save time spent on top-priority work. The best Hours tracking categories take your basic hours and make them into useful data that guides you in your work.
You will find here 13 main Hours tracking categories used by professionals to manage their work better, improve client interactions, and enjoy a better life balance. You will discover what these categories involve and how you can use them to help you reach your targets.
Why Categories of Hours Tracking Should Matter to You
Excessively mixing up your time causes real challenges that can become even bigger with time. According to studies, the average worker glances at email every 6 minutes and changes apps about 1,100 times each day; even so, most don’t know where all their time is spent because their routine is not well organized.
Auditing your time dependably cannot be done if your tracking system is not properly organized. If every moment at work is called “work time,” you won’t discover which tasks bring in the most cash or take too much time. Because of this, your project estimates will be inaccurate, client payment issues may arise, and you will miss opportunities to enhance your approach.
There are serious mental consequences as well. When you don’t notice how you are spending your time, you feel stressed and tired. Studies point out that using specific kinds of Hours tracking for work can reduce stress by 23% since you can better control what you prioritize.
For instance, Sarah was a marketing consultant, and her time was only separated into “client projects” and “admin” time. She wasn’t sure why some clients spent much less and others spent more. After using specific categories for strategy, making content, making revisions, and communicating, she realized that revisions were costing her four out of ten billable hours with a certain group of clients. As a result of her findings, she restyled the agreements and costs, which raised the company’s profits by 35% despite cutting down her efforts.
How to Structure 13 Types of Hours Tracking
1. Billable Time
Billable time is the time you can charge clients for the work you do. Service providers here make most of their earnings from this category. Out of all your timesheet types, you must be most careful with billable time since it is important for your income and relations with clients.
It is important to go further than just writing down the hours you bill. It allows you to record the specific way you added value during each period, such as client meetings, making strategies, or creating deliverables. The difficulty is figuring out how to separate what can be billed from what is considered overhead.
Time spent on most types of client work, client meetings, or services requested by the clients can be billed. How you set up your business model can make the time you spend on proposals, consultations, or coordination fall into different classifications.
Most consultants face difficulties with billable Hours tracking since they switch between paid and unpaid tasks a lot. It’s important to set firm rules and use resources that make sorting and switching jobs uncomplicated.
2. Non-Billable Time
Time spent on tasks that bring no client money but support the business is called non-billable time. Though this section on Hours tracking can get ignored, it is necessary to see the true cost of your business and set good price points.
These activities are usually non-billable: business development, proposal writing, meetings inside the organization, professional development, administrative work, and working on client relationships. Although these activities don’t generate income immediately, they provide a path to billing in the future.
It becomes obvious how important non-billable time is once you compare the ratio of billable and non-billable hours in your work. The majority of successful service providers work on bills 60-75% of the time and spend 25-40% of their working time on important tasks that aren’t billed.
Properly using timesheets can reveal the overhead work that provides the greatest benefit. It’s possible that content marketing brings in leads who will become clients, so you can use the extra time in more useful ways.
3. Project-Based Time
Tracking time for projects means organizing hours by what you are working on, rather than by who the client is or the task itself. These types of time management methods give useful information for project management and estimating future projects.
Unlike client-based tracking, project-based classifications illustrate the whole journey of an initiative from its start to its completion. It is helpful when multiple people are involved in a project that lasts several months.
We see the benefits of project-based tracking when making estimates for similar future work. Useful data reveals it usually takes 15% more time and effort than expected, so you can set good expectations with your clients.
Tracking a project well depends on having clear definitions and breaking it down into phases. It helps to use clear codes for projects that reveal the kind of work being done, which stage it is at, and what should be delivered.
4. Task-Based Time
When using task-based Hours tracking, you pay attention to tasks and not to projects or who your client is. This detailed system within Hours tracking makes your patterns at work clear to you, so you can see the tasks you work on the most and how much time they take.
Examples of typical task types are research, writing, design, coding, attending meetings, using email, talking on the phone, reviewing documents, and making plans. When you keep time records by task, you can find out when you are most productive and arrange your schedule best.
It becomes clear from this approach that each shift to a new task has a hidden expense. If you realize your focus gets interrupted by email, you know you should set specific periods for certain jobs or safeguard longer timeframes for work.
Finding the right balance between information and simplicity is tough. When there are too many types of tasks, tracking them can be hard, but when there are few, you won’t get enough insight. The main work activities of most professionals can be managed using about 8-12 main task categories, without adding too many administrative tasks.
5. Client-Based Time
With client Hours tracking, each customer’s hours are organized separately, allowing managers to understand how good their relationships are and their profits from multiple clients. For those who manage work for several clients, this group of Hours tracking systems ensures they know how much and how valuable each project is.
More than simple hour logging, tracking clients shows trends in how they behave, the details of their projects, and the type of communication they require. Talent management varies because some clients want a lot of support, but others want less contact. Looking at Hours tracking for each client helps you tell which clients bring in the most business and which may need you to make changes to your services.
The data from Hours tracking can be very important when main clients are being contacted about renewing deals or setting new rates. When it becomes clear that a client always needs 20% more time for their projects since they keep revising, you have a reason to either propose updated pricing or recommend new work methods.
Using this way of thinking, people are better able to manage resources and their teams. Should some clients prefer senior consultants, plan early and let junior staff members spend time with other clients first.
6. Team time
With team Hours tracking, you focus on the combined time spent on projects involving your team. This form of monitoring helps managers and collaborators see how groups affect the way work gets done.
Participation in team meetings, group work, reviews with peers, mentoring tasks, and shared projects is all considered in team-based tracking. It allows you to check if your team’s efforts lead to reasonable results and helps you gauge what those activities really cost.
Information on team Hours tracking supports decisions about meeting schedules, the number of workers, and which tools to use. Sometimes you might realize that it takes excessive effort for big teams to coordinate, and hence some decisions are more easily reached in messages sent individually.
In addition, this category makes it possible to notice the different ways team members take part and support one another. Certain people are good at organizing talks, while others provide information best when they work by themselves, and the team evaluates their contributions.
7. Administrative staff time is used for these duties.
Business housekeeping, not related to clients, is called administrative and internal time in an agency. Although this form of Hours tracking is frequently ignored, it is important for finding out where resources are spent and improving efficiency.
Typical admin activities are filing expenses, processing invoices, arranging files, maintaining systems, ensuring compliance, and making internal records. Because they do not earn money, these tasks prevent expensive issues and preserve professionalism.
Identifying areas in admin where activities can be made more efficient, automated, or passed to someone else is the main idea of tracking hours. If you invest five hours per week on tasks that a virtual assistant can do for less than you charge, it’s obvious you could benefit from hiring one.
8. Time Off
Managing breaks may sound strange, but this time-tracking section gives key information on energy levels and safe working habits. How and when you relax affect your performance in periods when you are active.
Good break tracking has short work breaks, taking lunch, resting for a longer time, and little breaks for stretching and mental relaxation. These data allow you to work with your body’s natural rhythms and enhance your chances of working effectively throughout the day.
Twisting and bending every hour should remind you how important it is for your productivity. Evidence reveals that good timing of breaks can make you more focused, creative, and able to make good decisions. You can learn your ideal resting routine by noticing how much you get done between rests.
In addition, this category points out how to distinguish the necessary breaks from the form of procrastination and how too little downtime can result in burnout. Evidence from the data suggests that focusing on rest as a strategy is more productive than seeing rest as wasteful time.
9. How We Help People Develop.
During professional development time, people learn skills that are useful in their field and follow the latest trends. Because it affects future profits, this Hours tracking category should be followed and assessed carefully.
Training opportunities include online courses, webinars, conferences, reading related publications, practicing what you know, and earning certificates. Although it doesn’t bring in profits right away, it allows professionals to charge higher fees and get more appealing work.
Recording development time shows what works best in learning.
10. Having Long-Focus or Meaningful Focus Time
Focused, intellectual work where your undivided attention is needed for a long period is called creative and deep work time. People whose expertise is in thinking, problem-solving, and creative work benefit the most from this time-tracking section.
Deep work is about developing strategies, solving detailed issues, creating writing, developing designs, and analyzing. They tend to produce the highest value in an hour, but are at greatest risk of being halted.
The quality of ideas usually trumps the number of ideas you produce in creative work. Concentrated writing during an hour might lead to better results than trying for three uninterrupted hours. With a record of both time invested and best working conditions, you can make work schedules that help you be most creative.
Knowing creative patterns helps you to better communicate and organize projects with your clients. When you work best in the morning, you can plan tasks that don’t need your mental focus for other times of the day.
11. Group Meetings
All group activities with people both inside and outside your company are grouped as meeting and collaboration time. Because collaboration often consists of meetings that make up a huge part of the job, this section is vital for professional workers’ Hours tracking.
The purpose of a meeting differs depending on its type, so different meetings require you to invest different amounts of time. Talking with a client about a project might earn billable hours and bring in money, but time spent on internal meetings is work that pays nothing. When you group meetings by type, you can see which ones produce the best benefits.
Observing times in meetings usually brings up some interesting patterns. Researchers find that people are in meetings about 30-50% of the day, and many say they do not have adequate focused time to work. This information allows us to skip unnecessary meetings or promote different forms of communication.
A meeting should be properly tracked by preparing and reviewing the results afterward. It’s possible that a one-hour meeting, including preparation, going, and things done afterward, will take two hours. Finding out how much time the meeting takes really helps plan its structure.
12. Time Spent on Tools/Apps
Technology time measures the amount of time spent studying, setting up, fixing problems, and working inside software applications. Because people in the industry use so many different tools, this group of features has grown more vital.
When tools are involved, the time adds up with setup, learning, support activities, data import, and unresolved troubles. Even as technology makes us more efficient, it sometimes leads to changes that add time without our noticing.
Using the time data from tracking tools can influence major choices regarding buying new software, training employees, and optimizing processes. If people in your team spend five hours each week battling a project management tool, this gives you an excuse to explore other possibilities or arrange training.
You can also find out where working with automation is an option. When you notice that someone is doing the same job several times, you can work on getting automated solutions to handle these chores instead.
13. Managing Time for Personal Life
It is understood by personal Hours tracking that balancing work time with personal time can lead someone to include personal activities at their job. This portion of the Hours tracking makes sure you can take care of your own needs while still being accountable at work.
Examples of personal time during work hours are looking after family, keeping up with your own appointments, getting minor exercise, or taking care of tasks needed outside your usual schedule. Since many professionals often have caring duties for family members, they need to schedule some personal time into their workday.
If you track your time effectively, you make sure your fun activities do not distract from your tasks at work. You may have to book time for yourself in advance or ensure clients know when you are available.
How Can You Select the Best Hours Tracking Categories
- Choosing which Hours tracking categories to use is informed by your goals, your job, and the understanding you aim to gain. The point is to select options that supply helpful news, but without requiring lots of upkeep. A lot of professionals do well with categories that combine fine-tuned focus and everyday application.
- Client and billable time, along with project spotlighting, are common needs for freelancers and consultants. You should follow reports on business growth, the costs of administration and support for your team’s professional advancement. The purpose is to understand the activities that create earnings and those that support them.
- Team leaders should give importance to the time set aside for meetings, team projects, and each person’s growth. Doing these roles well means ensuring your tasks get done and the team performs well, so you need to watch both your own work and team productivity.
- Select what needs to be optimized based on your top optimization needs. If you don’t have a good work-life balance, it helps to have clear personal time and break categories. For higher profitability, it is essential to separate what your employees bill for from what they do not bill for. Your Hours tracking system should help you achieve your business improvement.
Some Tools Can Help With Many Kinds of Hours Tracking
Advanced Hours tracking solutions today allow users to choose between multiple Hours tracking categories. Ideally, such tools enable the stacking of classifications, letting users group time by clients, projects, and tasks in the same place.
With Toggl, you can use the project and tag system to track several categories of time. It is possible for users to build projects involving clients, with tasks classified by their type, billing status, or assigned team. People and small groups find Toggl simple to use and effective.
You can sort your work in Clockify using clients, projects, tasks, and your custom tags. If you are short on funds and still need professional Hours tracking, Dateworld’s free version gives you almost everything you’d need. It is most powerful for teams who might need to track or approve tasks together.
Time and productivity are both monitored by Tivazo, which also includes sections for tracking both tasks and how productive they are. It’s a good approach for teams that want to learn not only how time is spent, but also how much effort goes into it.
Picking tools that suit your process works better than forcing your process to match a tool’s structure. Tracking progress can be done using elementary tools and spreadsheets, while many others prefer expanding their project with specialized management software.
Examples of How Businesses Use Hours Tracking Categories
- Many agencies in digital marketing rely on clear time trackers that divide work into strategy, creating posts, running campaigns, and reviewing results. By doing this, companies can find out what earns the most money and which services take too much time from staff.
- Development teams in software typically categorize the use of time as coding, testing, debugging, participating in meetings, and documenting. Here, we find that dev cost is more than the programmers’ and their hours. Because debugging takes 30-40% of a team’s time, more effort is given to reviewing code and making sure it meets quality criteria.
- To stay profitable and serve customers well, freelance consultants depend on detailed Hours tracking categories. A consultant in management might monitor research, analysis tasks, face-to-face meetings with clients, document reporting, and make presentations. In most cases, I find that the time spent on preparation and follow-up outweighs the time spent speaking with my clients.
- Time categorization helps lawyers and law firms keep their billing and office operations correct. Besides dividing time into fee-paying and free, lawyers monitor their efforts based on practicing area, contacting clients, studying, and appearing in court.
We can discuss Hours tracking by categories vs. Hours tracking by methods.
- Always remember the differences between various Hours tracking methods to get the most out of Hours tracking. Categories divide your time into types and methods, and tell you how to record those types.
- Hours tracking categories tell you “What project was I working on?” They use the classification method that gives time data in useful forms. Whatever kind of time you are tracking—billable hours, creative projects, meetings, or administrative duties—assigning them to categories will help you arrange them sensibly.
- These tools help you ask and answer, “How can I gather this important data?” Researchers may use either a log, an automated record, the Pomodoro method, time blocking, or enter data at the time or later. Choosing a method won’t change the insights you get, but it can affect how accurate and administratively difficult the data is.
- Effective systems use careful classification as well as the right ways to gather data. It’s possible to use automatic tracking with computer tasks, but manage the logging of meetings and trips manually. Hours tracking can use different methods, but the groups are still always the same.
- Some companies obsess over data from tracking, but spend little time on designing what they sell. But if the categories are out of sync with the company’s optimization goals, tracking will be meaningless.
Advantages of Creating a Faithful List of Task Types
- Properly set categories for Hours tracking can convert simple time data into critical information helpful for making decisions about productivity and profits. The most significant help is being able to see how your team spends its time, which may not be clear otherwise.
- You get fast financial gains when you use detailed time-tracking categories for client projects. With proper categorization, your invoices are correct, invoice disputes are minimized, and you have data to help set the best prices. A lot of people find they have been charging less than they should for particular work.
- Streamlining, automating, or getting rid of long-lasting activities is how you can improve operational efficiency. If you discover that a quarter of your time is spent on administration, it is possible to focus on improvements that will release some of that work.
Conclusion
Learning and practicing the best ways to track time is a powerful approach to increasing one’s professional efficiency today. The framework from the 13 categories allows you to arrange your time data to help with decisions, boost profits, and balance work and personal life.
Going from just tracking your time to strategic time categories will at first take some work, but it results in better understanding, fairer resource usage, and data-guided choices. With the right way of tracking time, whether you’re a freelancer or a team leader, you use time awareness to give your business an edge.
Effective professionals understand that their use of time categories needs to change as their roles and needs change. The categories you use should fit your present plans and be flexible as your business develops.
Try setting up a simple method this week for grouping your activities by where your time goes. To begin, focus on a few core areas of Hours tracking that support immediate improvement, then increase them when you’re used to tracking your time every day. Just one week of careful organization will help build a system of improvements that increase as time goes on.
Do you want to move your time logging from ordinary to highly effective? Begin working on your visibility now so you can decide how best to use your most important asset.