Category: Productivity

Monitor Productivity Record with Keystrokes and Mouse clicks

To run a business efficiently, sheer productivity is required and there are many ways to asses it. Calculating your company’s revenue would be the most basic indicator of productivity. But when it comes to measuring the productivity of a single employee, owners need to resort to some specific ways. Besides Stafftimer, there are few employee time tracking apps that provide keystroke counts. 

But, if an employer wants to honestly judge how productive an employee is, only calculating keyboard and mouse activity will not give the whole picture. With Stafftimer, business owners get a statistical view of keystrokes combined with mouse activity, total progress, and idle time percentages. An employee engagement activity graph is also available. 

Difference between keylogger and keystroke counter  

Both keylogger and keystroke counter is based on the same working mechanism. But the main purpose of both tools is very different. The basic reason for developing these tools was to study human-computer interaction.

This software is legal but some people use it for malicious activities such as to steal passwords and confidential information. 

For the sole purpose of employee engagement activities, this tool was tweaked and been made more secure. Now it only counts the number of keystrokes along with mouseclicks without recording any text or work information.

Stafftimer Keystroke

There exists another type of keylogger called hardware keylogger. It is a small device used as a connector between computer and keyboard. Its design resembles an ordinary PS/2 connector or USB adapter. Making it easier for someone to monitor activities and stay unseen at the same time.   

How Stafftimer use keystroke counter

To best get an idea of employee engagement activities, Stafftimer integrates idle time, mouse clicks, and keystroke counts. It combines all peripheral uses and calculates an employee’s progress based on previous keystroke number over idle time. It does all this while still maintaining the transparent relation between an employer and an employee. 

In addition, Stafftimer allows even an employee to see his or her own progress and keystroke counts so that they may increase their productivity in the future.  

To have some statistical view, both employer and employee have a bar chart on their dashboard. This chart shows an employee’s history regarding active and inactive time, based on the use of keystrokes and mouse clicks. Employers can also view the progress of their employees on a daily and hourly bases. 

Other obscure uses of keyloggers

Both small and large companies ethically use keyloggers. Most companies have a system that can detect some particular keywords. 

Nowadays, there is a conspiracy floating around that suggests that Facebook is eavesdropping its users through their microphones. But that doesn’t seem likely. Facebook’s official statement reads, “Facebook does not use your phone’s microphones to inform ads or to change what you see in your newsfeed.”

But, why does it feel like Facebook and its advertisers are in the same room with you?

This is because they are so good at tracking you online and offline that it feels like they have access to your conversations. With a legal and ethical use of keystroke logging and AI algorithms, Facebook can track your interests and show you advertisements that might catch your attention. This article on the Wallstreet journal goes into the gritty details. 

There is a term called Corporate keylogging. It refers to tracking and recording the computer activities of employees and contractors for three purposes. 

Real-time monitoring and alerting

This is especially used for IT and security personal. Why? So that they can immediately notify any suspicious or dangerous behaviors and/or activity. 

After fact investigation

To help administrators investigate system failures and data breaches. Also used to look into malicious activity during root cause analysis.

Compliance auditing

To help auditors determine how well the company is complying with laws and regulations. It also helps identify violators.  

A corporate keylogger is not used manually. It is used to search for keywords and get real-time alerts. 

Like any other tool, keyloggers can be used for legal and illegal purposes. Many parents use it on their children’s smartphones for surveillance. Stafftimer also provides daily work videos. When an employee’s keystroke counter combines with video recordings, video quality dramatically increases.

4 Strategies to Improve Your Productivity as a Freelancer

There is no denying that the freelance market is appealing to many professionals all over the world. According to a 2019 study on a US-based independent workforce, the freelance market generates nearly $1 trillion in income. That’s almost 5% of the US GDP.

A 2018 Entrepreneur article reports that there are over 57 million Americans working as freelance professionals as of 2017. Considering the numerous advantages freelance employment brings to the table. That number will definitely rise in the future.

However, even the most hardworking and diligent freelance workers are not immune to procrastination and distractions. Poor productivity is a constant issue for many business organizations that employ freelance workers, mostly remote teams from all over the world. Missed deadlines and late submissions from your freelance workforce can set you back and even cost your business its precious clients and projects.

The good news is that productivity issues are easy to fix. With the following productivity strategies, you can expect your freelance workforce to deliver high-quality output at a productive rate.

Use Time Trackers

Time Tracking Software and apps are not new. However, they are still highly effective tools to keep productivity up in the workplace. The same can be said for professional freelancers and remote teams.

Many companies require their independent workers to install a time tracker on their devices. Many solutions provide a customizable freelance time tracking template that managers can configure so it tracks or records specific information such as hours worked, time spent on breaks, and averages.

Workers log in before their designated work schedule or project-related tasks. They then log out after their shift or once their tasks are accomplished.

Many time trackers are built to document not just hours but record the time spent on work down to the last second or minute. This is an effective productivity strategy especially if your organization bill your workers by the hour.

Activate Random Screen Capture

You can’t monitor your freelance worker’s progress all the time. Yet you want to make sure he or she is spending working hours on actual work. That’s understandable. Your company doesn’t want to pay for unproductive hours.

One way of ensuring your freelance employees are indeed working during their supposed working hours is to capture images of their screens at random times. It helps identify who is working and who is spending their hours doing something else. Such a feature empowers your workers to devote all their billable time to work, driving productivity up.

You may settle for a free time tracking software for freelancers. However, if you want this feature, you may have to invest in premium productivity and time tracking suite.

Give Your Best Tasks and Projects to Top Performing Freelancers

You can create and cultivate a productive environment for your independent workers if you include a gamification element to your approach. Instead of just assigning tasks and projects to the next available worker, you can send your most critical and high-paying jobs to your best freelancers.

Publishing their names as well as their earnings on a leaderboard will definitely entice your freelance employees to perform better and turn in great results to rise up the ladder. Aside from boosting their performance and productivity, your freelance workers become more engaged and dynamic.

By adding an element of competition, you can empower your freelance workforce to prove their worth, which then translates to better results and improved productivity.

Limit or Block Access to Certain Sites and Social Media

There are numerous productivity apps for PC and mobile devices that can track time and capture screenshots at random moments. On top of that, you also want your productivity apps to limit or block your freelance workers’ access to specific websites and social media sites that cause distraction and fuel procrastination.

Such capability is quite useful, especially when social media sites have proven to take much from a worker’s productivity. That said, not all social media is bad for work. Some employees spend their break watching funny cat videos. Others use social media and other sites for research, communication, and collaboration purposes.

Companies should establish guidelines on social media usage by their freelance workers. Many of today’s work processes are built on online connectivity and access to the Internet. That means the complete banning of social media is not a viable option. While social media can be detrimental to a worker’s efficiency and productivity, it can also be a huge asset when utilized properly.

Automation, Collaboration, and Communication are Key

If you want to have a highly effective and productive team of freelancers, you need to put them in an environment that fosters effortless and painless automation, communication, and collaboration.

Your freelance employees don’t want to spend time typing their credentials whenever they open devices and log in to their respective accounts. Many productivity apps automate the logging in of multiple systems and different credentials.

Communication between and among your freelance employees should be instant and smooth. Instead of relying on lengthy email threads, replace them with real-time communication tools and task management platforms for faster and more effective communication, instruction, and deployment.

By centralizing tasks, information, contacts, and more, you can maximize your freelancers’ capabilities and talents, optimize processes, and deliver desired results.

Best Time Management Techniques for Busy People

Time management is a real challenge. There is a lot of information available on the internet to teach us how to manage time. But most of the time the article itself is so much time consuming that it seems to negate the whole purpose of time management itself.

We would like to keep it brief so the attention span of the reader remains constant. Time is to work what oxygen is to the body. Squandering it into unnecessary diversions can act as a productivity killer. Let’s examine a few techniques that we can adopt to keep us on track.

Planning a day in advance keeps you organised

Use a proper planner or something like that to keep you on track to plan a day ahead in a coherent manner. Simple planning in the head won’t suffice. It has to be properly updated and maintained as a task manual for yourself. So you can check your progress.

Start from the most daunting task

There is a famous quote by Mark Twain:

“If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” 

Precisely what it means is to execute your most challenging work assignment as the first thing in the morning. You may find yourself short of energy later in the day to handle it more productively. It can be something that was the most time-consuming task. So having a feeling that you are done with some hefty portion of your day’s assignment can make you feel relieved. Thus, you feel more energetic and productive for the rest of the day.

Also eating the biggest frog of the two can mean that if you are facing the situation to deal with two assignments that will consume most of your time. Then first get done with the biggest or the lengthy one. But frog doesn’t imply that you ought to do the thing you abhor.

It simply alludes towards the fact that we usually don’t hate the task itself but the time and energy consumption associated with it. So devour it first so you can add some sweet delights to your taste buds in the form of lighter tasks for the rest of the day. Especially when you feel least productive. 

Time tracking tools: acting as the savior for disorganized people

Yes, you always felt confused about calculating the time mentally that you spent on various tasks. Knowing how much was consumed in each task?  Seem bothersome right. But it’s no longer the case with the advent of Staff time tracking software.

These time management tools help save a lot of time with automated time tracking rather than old redundant ways of writing manually or taking help of guesswork. You can always know which task consumed most of your time and which one is a light one.

Therefore you can always manage accordingly to deliver more in less time. You will feel deterred from wasting time knowing its being tracked. So subscribe to a good time tracking software and get rid of all the trouble of manual time tracking. 

Control your social media habits

It doesn’t mean you stop using social media for life. It merely means keeping it away from your work life. Whether you admit it or not its the biggest ever distraction if we want to do anything productive.

 

 

A constant urge to checking your messenger or social media accounts can divert your attention from your work even after you turn off the phone. Because the content of your interaction shall keep hovering inside your head. You may find your work boring or lacking vitality. So turn off the Wifi or better keep the phone at a place like a locker or something. Where you find it bothersome to go and access. 

Learn to say no

Warren Buffet once said,

“The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.” 

Yes, it might happen at the workplace that you encounter colleagues trying to overload you. Know that your one straight no can save you from the hassle of wasting your productive time on uncalled for tasks.

Take breaks to refresh yourself

Use the Pomodoro technique to take a short 5-minute break after every half an hour. And take a longer one after two hours. It can make you fresh in a way you refresh your computer’s screen after every while. Humans inherently seek variety and start feeling bored from the monotony of routine. So a tiny break doesn’t hurt and helps you recollect energy to resume working. It’s better you spend few minutes in a break rather than procrastinating from the boredom of routine. 

Eisenhower Matrix serves as a beacon of light to keep the useless stuff away

Basically Eisenhower matrix is distributed into four quadrants. 

  1. The first one is about doing the thing on foremost priority which is both urgent and important. Obviously there are things that you need to execute on time to meet deadlines and they are important too. So keep them on the top. 
  2. The second quadrant is there for an important task which isn’t urgent than plan for it. Organize structure on how to deliver it and when. But you are in no hurry for doing it now. So timely planning shall help when you actually be doing it. But for now, just defer and focus on what’s urgent and important both.
  3. Third one asks to delegate the task. Well, it’s a kind of work which is urgent but not important. Therefore you can always ask a relevant person to do it if you are busy with something urgent/important. 
  4. The fourth and last quadrant is which is neither important nor urgent just delete it. Throw this task away. It serves no good. 

Conclusion

Being busy is a lot easier than being productive. And productivity demands smartly crafted time management techniques. Which if followed religiously, they can help one progress significantly in lesser time.

5 proven ways to boost Productivity with Stafftimer App

It’s an age of real-time monitoring!

Gone are the days of manually developing timesheets. Now we have time monitoring tools –  another blissful innovation of modern technology. No business or organizational setup can succeed without tactful time management as it’s an essence of productivity. 

Stafftimer App stands out as a system offering real-time monitoring alone with no confusion. This software is developed from a blend of artificial intelligence, and machine learning that is not only easy to use but at the same time immaculately intelligent. There are many similar systems available in the tech world but none is parallel to efficiency and sophistication of this one. 

Tracking your time in an offline mode.

Weak internet connection? Stafftimer app provides you with a solution that works in an offline mode. If an employer has assigned an employee with a task that demands fieldwork, Stafftimer will remain active in outdoors even without little to no network access. That could be the real challenge for many time trackers as to how to carry out staff monitoring when there is no internet connection. 

For instance, a freelancer who is traveling could make an excuse for interrupting internet coverage in some remote areas. Stafftimer carved out a solution for that too, which makes it unique among its competitors. It will keep saving screenshots and upload it on the web once the connection is restored.

Quick estimates of productivity.

Never before you were able to remember or keep track of how much time you were spending in actual. Real-time tracking made it readily available to view how much time you are spending to complete a certain task.

Humans have a tendency to work more diligently under scrutiny. This way, employees would be aware that they can’t misuse their working hours for their own leisure activities like using facebook, or Netflix. 

Employee productivity through visual insights.

Stafftimer App also provides daily work video to give a quick review of how your work was coordinated. This video can be then reviewed by an employer or team leaders too so they have an exact picture of what’s happening. Not only that Stafftimer app captures screenshots every minute. 

Real-time monitoring helps you to understand which of your employees is actually putting hard labor, and need incentives. And who is lagging behind and needs further training and guidance? 

Now complete your projects in much lesser time as initially anticipated, along with the use of minimum resources. Towards the end of the day, it provides an intelligent report of everyday tasks and its downloadable as well. It saves money and enhances productivity, what else an investor can ask for? 

StaffTimerApp doesn’t violate privacy.

Even if you mistakenly opened your personal social media account or any other non-work-related window. You can always delete that screenshot from your Back-office. But wait, it doesn’t mean you can cheat on time, the stafftimer app will also deduct that one minute per screenshot from your time as well.

This software is built to protect an employee’s privacy without killing its objective of time reporting. 

No limits imposed and affordable rates!

Many apps limit the number of users, projects or companies. But this software doesn’t enact any such bars. The employers can track as many staff members as they like, and it won’t restrict the number of users you can invite. 

There is an unlimited number of projects that an employer can create through their dashboard, without any hindrance of confining it to just a few. We strongly believe that it is hard to assess the actual productivity levels correctly with such restrictions. 

It offers a 7-day full-featured trial followed by an affordable monthly subscription if you feel satisfied. Afterward, yearly subscription rates are much lower than many of its market competitors. With so many benefits and little price, it’s worth a try.

Managing the communication gap with voice notes.

Stafftimer app offers the feature of assigning tasks with voice clips and adding comments to it. It used to be challenging for employers to micromanage their workforce and communicate their desired goals via written instructions. It can be a real hassle if each and individual employee seeks further clarification on the task assigned. 

Employers or team lead would find it mind-boggling to extract time for such written communications from their busy schedule. The reason why voice clips can quickly deliver feedback and further comments if needed, thus providing clarity to employees.

With the communication barrier it’s highly likely that a staff member might not understand the task correctly, and mismanage it. It can cost the company time and resources. 

Time is money!

Financial productivity builds businesses, transform them into empires, bring in huge revenue for states and so on. So benefits associated with real-time monitoring apps are beyond the scope of any short write up.

Especially when it comes to a unique real-time monitor tool as Stafftimer, it can’t do justice with words but the experience. 

Break these 5 bad habits that hinder Employee Productivity in the workplace

Do you often find yourself getting distracted? Do you find social- media at work more enticing? Do you find working for longer hours, near to impossible? Are these bad habits hindering your productivity at work?

You are not alone!

Believe it or not, we all are guilty of doing things that we regret every single day. Say, procrastination, for example, that is constantly hurting our performance and in return, making us less productive.

We all agree that maintaining productivity at the workplace is not that easy, it takes effort to stay away from our worst distractions. But it doesn’t have to be this way. All it takes is a little pinch of responsibility, proactiveness, and awareness to make things better again, to make things happen.

Let’s have a look at some of these ‘bad habits’ that affects your work negatively and a way around them:

Multitasking: Good or bad for productivity?

It has been argued upon, time and again, whether multitasking is good or bad for productivity? Some say, juggling through things at the same time is an art while some say it destroys productivity and the remaining one percent, rather keep their views to themselves.

A number of researches have been conducted to determine the impact of multitasking, not only on productivity but on our brains. According to a Stanford University study from Clifford Nass found that heavy multitaskers probably think that they are good at balancing the act. However, not as effective as they think they are. 

In another study by Bryan College, handling more than one task at a time actually hinders employee performance. Also, that lack of productivity due to multitasking equates to global losses of $450 billion, annually. So, reality or myth? Here lies your answer!

Here’s what you should do:
  • Create a list of tasks, in order of priority
  • Schedule time to complete each task
  • Keep yourself away from distractions, switch off your cellphones, stay focused
  • Avoid switching back and forth between tasks, complete the task at hand before you shift your focus to another and take notes
  • Better yet, use a time tracking tool such as Stafftimer App. 
  • If you are an employer, encourage your employees to take breaks throughout the day

At the end of the day, it may be unrealistic for employers to think that they can eliminate multitasking completely. But they can always promote and adopt approaches that are not impulsive rather the opposite.

Lack of planning or planning poorly!

Planning tasks in advance are actually the most powerful tool for overcoming procrastination and boosting your productivity. However, lack of planning or planning poor is one of the reasons that lead to productivity deficiency. Not only this, it is one of the fatal reasons why projects fail. Our advice: Avoid project failure at all costs!

Planning is actually the foundation on which you base your overall productivity. And without productivity, the project is more likely to collapse. 

Here’s what you should do:
  • Set realistic goals
  • make a list of every step you will have to complete to finish a project
  • Layout the project, you can see every step and task, avoid redundancy
  • Identify KPIs and monitor them
  • Plan properly and take action so to avoid redundancy
  • Ensure that resources are ideally utilized

If you are motivated to improve your productivity levels, contribute to the overall success of the company by planning ahead.

Trying to put up a ‘One-Man’ show

It totally makes sense to rely on oneself and be independent but sometimes it’s better not to do all by yourself especially when you are working in a team. It’s perfectly normal to ask for help, at times. Not only can it improve relationships but also you can get more done in less time. 

Being a perfectionist is also one of the biggest offenders to productivity. When you feel like you have high work standards, and it’s against your principles to ask for outside help. Sometimes, it’s healthy to get out of your bubble, set your ego aside and seek help whenever needed!

Here’s, what you should do:

Rely on coworkers when you need to and we are sure they’d be happy to help. It’s that simple! 

Procrastination is a productivity killer

There would be no exaggeration to say that we all procrastinate from time to time. Either it’s working from home or working on a full-time job. Random emails, social media, cellphones keep you distracted. 

According to The Procrastination Equation, about 95% of people admit to putting off work. It not only keeps people from completing otherwise important tasks but also makes you fall behind on your schedule. 

 

Truth be told, there are no positive impacts of procrastination, only negative. Such as, low project performance, declining physical and mental health, high level of stress that can be avoided otherwise, only if we never let procrastination breach your productivity.

Here’s what you should actually do:
  • Do you have this bad habit of procrastinating often? Step back and ask yourself this, just once. Why are you doing, what you are doing and see yourself falling back in line! 
  • Try an app like the Stafftimer app to help keep you organized. For companies: it gives employee productivity a boost throughout the day.

Being a ‘YES SIR’, all the time!

Most of the time at work, we find our selves saying ‘YES’ to almost everything. You may ask yourself ‘If this is something you can do? Yes, sir. Is it something you want to do? No, thank you.

We understand, at work, we are bound to do what we are told and that’s fair. But sometimes, if you feel like, you are asked to do something that you probably can not pull off before the deadline or something that you don’t excel at. Just don’t take it! We know the idea of accomplishing everything at once sounds mesmerizing but greatly unrealistic. 

Speaking of which, here’s what you should do instead:

Be sure you’re only working on tasks you know you can. If you don’t see yourself pulling off something or have other tasks that need your attention on priority, politely let your supervisor know that you won’t be able to work on it.

Can you think of any other habits that hinder your productivity? Feel free to share.

5 Simple ways you can Empower Employees at the workplace!

Do you know with great leadership comes great responsibility?  Well, of course, you do!

And one of these responsibilities is giving your employees the autonomy to work, to take initiatives and encouraging them to be the best versions of themselves. We admit, being a leader is not easy, but it is your duty to help your employees without constant micromanagement. Looking beyond employee benefits, there’s a lot that the organizations can do to best support their employees at the workplace.

In rather fancier terms, Empower them! By employee empowerment, you are giving them a chance to make certain decisions on their own, giving them a chance to work independently and most of all giving them a chance to learn and grow! Bottom line is, empowering employees can have ginormous benefits not only to the team but to the company as a whole; it improves accountability, job satisfaction and helps you in finding the solution to all your problems, collectively.

Harvard Business Review conducted a meta-analysis of all available field experiments on leaders empowering subordinates – examining the results of 105 studies, which included data from more than 30,000 employees from 30 countries.

Their study showed that empowering leadership can motivate employees and also, fuels workplace creativity. Empowered employees are happy employees and happy employees are more productive.

Are you interested in the empowerment of your employees? Follow these 5 simple tips and transform your work culture:

Must Believe in Your Employees

According to Steve Jobs  – a force behind leading Apple to corporate success:

“It’s not the tools you have faith in–tools are just tools–they work, or they don’t work. It’s the people you have faith in or not.”

Building trust in your workforce is one of the key factors. Successful business relationships are founded on the sacred principles of trust, and respect.

Without this, the ability to overcome challenges and workplace issues is greatly compromised. There are many reasons why you can not afford to not trust your employees. Trust inspires confidence and confidence leads to success, which helps employees to further their own career and growth. It will make employees more inclined towards taking on new challenges and pushing themselves beyond limits to achieve the best, not only for them but for their organization.

In short, believe in your employees and encourage them to do the same, others will follow.

Inspire Creativity

Do you feel that your employees are not creative enough at work? What are you doing wrong? Business creativity starts with employee creativity! Well, that’s a given. There are many reasons why employees lose their creativity for example not enough resources, lack of autonomy, lack of recognition, so on and so forth.  Now, what you can do to stop that?

Start by accepting their ideas and inputs. Make them a part of an active decision making or even goal-setting. At first, they might face difficulty and hesitation while making a decision on behalf of your team but you learn as you live.

Additionally, it’s not just about decision making, its’ also about finding better ways to accomplishing a task and solving problems, rather than using the same age-old techniques. Encourage your employees to bring creative ideas to the table. Not only, will it help empower your employees, it can also open up doors for many new and innovative ideas that might have the power to lead your company to greatness.

Makes sense, right?

A little appreciation can go a long way!

You have to admit, that we all crave appreciation and recognition in one way or the other. Either it’s work, or not, it’s always helpful to receive some applaud.

Have you ever noticed that we human beings have a tendency to repeat behaviors, good or bad? Similarly, positive feedback reinforces a spark in employees. Showing employees the appreciation for their work well done makes it even more likely that they will continue to be creative, and innovative.

It ensures continued high-quality work in the future as well.

Whether it’s a goal they have achieved before time or a report that was presented flawlessly, let them know when they have done a good job! It doesn’t cost anything.

Autonomy, give your Employees Autonomy!

Do not let your employees view their jobs as simply ‘work for pay’, and nothing more, nothing less.

Employee autonomy is crucial for learning. As a leader, yes it is your job to manage your employees, but instead of worrying about the small details, direct your focus on the goals and strategic objectives of each individual team member. Let them exercise choice and take care of the minute details. Rather than micromanaging, communicate the end-result and then help them build on that.

Bonus: Granting autonomy to employees improves workplace retention!

Have an Open-door Policy

Well-defined open door policy is what every workplace should have and need. No, it doesn’t mean it gives employees an opportunity for continuous complaining and nagging, No.

Maintaining an open line of positive communication with your team is an important aspect of running a successful business venture. It leads to higher job satisfaction and shows employees that you care about what they think. In order to truly empower your employees, carefully listen to their opinions and let them know that they are valued. It will enable them to play an active part in your company.

A simple gesture as this can do wonders!

And the list continues…

The success of organizations depends on the success of its’ employees.

Managers need to understand that empowering employees in the workplace is crucial for companies to thrive.    

The bottom line is, empowering employees at the workplace is about accountability and trust. However, if you follow the ways outlined above, you’ll be able to achieve a healthy workplace.

What have you done in your workplace to empower your employees?

Boost Productivity With Top 4 Employee Monitoring Tools

Ever been torn between the ultimate choice of Employee Monitoring Tool for boosting productivity?

This article is definitely going to help you out and decide which one is the best tool for you. Some of the primary factors, that we will be looking at for the purpose of this article are:

  • Affordability
  • Features
  • Services
  • Ease of Use

1. Hubstaff

Hubstaff is currently the industry leader in when it comes to remote monitoring, time tracking, invoicing and billing solutions. Founded in 2012, Hubstaff since then has seen an upward growth trend in terms of the services being offered as well as the customer base.

There are a total of 3 pricing plans offered by Hubstaff – Free, Basic and Premium. The Basic Plan starts at $5 per user per month and goes up to $10 per user in the Premium Plan.

Hubstaff is not just a timekeeping software but has expanded its features to become versatile. Also, include online timesheets, employee scheduling, payroll software, and employee monitoring. Followed by productivity measurement, GPS tracking, online invoicing and project budgeting.

They offer a wide range of features, which can be overwhelming for people who just wish to use a few of those many features. Many people have faced issues with their timekeeping functions and how it relates to the payroll system.

2. TimeDoctor

TimeDoctor is one of the leading timekeeping software(s) that helps employees monitor their team’s productivity. It helps them boost the numbers by tracking time and progress. It was established in 2012. Since then has expanded operations to over 23 countries and works fully remotely.

With the pricing of TimeDoctor starting at $5.00 per month per user and going up to $9.99 per user per month, it’s pricing is not very different from Hubstaff.

TimeDoctor offers a number of features like time tracking, screenshots, powerful reporting, billing, off-track reminders and even tracking breaks.
It is yet to add integration with mobile phones, which would really boost the ease of use of the application.

3. StaffTimerApp

Staff Timer Tracking software is an AI-driven time tracking solution that uses artificial intelligence to assist employers with real-time team monitoring. It also offers advanced and intelligent reporting and task assignment via voice clips. Staff Timer Application is a relatively young one into the market but has caught on to the ongoing trends quite quickly.

When it comes to the affordability factor, they offer its basic plan from just £2.99 per month per member and goes up to just £5.00 per month per member. It’s the most inexpensive of all the time tracking solutions in the industry. It’s a perfect fit for freelancers, small, mid-sized and large teams.
They offer four main features that include:

  • Real-time reporting
  • Voice recording tasks
  • Image and video proofs
  • Screenshots after every minute, and
  • Daily work videos, created from all the recorded screenshots.

Staff Timer App is simple and easy to use with the option to manage multiple companies and projects using a single platform. With a lot of upcoming features like invoicing, task-wise billing, payroll management, etc. It sure is a promising app in the market.

4. Toggl

Toggle is one of the rising stars in the time tracking industry. It allows people to manage their teams and track productivity. It was founded in 2007 and has made considerable progress since then.

With an affordability score of around 3 on 5, Toggl offers 3 pricing plans. The first of which is the free plan with limited usability. The paid plans start from $5 per user per month and go up to $49 per user per month. With this pricing,

Toggl ranks more expensive than the two industry giants, Hubstaff and TimeDoctor.

The services offered by Toggl include time tracking, flexible and sound reporting, automatic timesheet management and business intelligence reports. Although a bit pricey, Toggl supports integrations with most devices (laptops, tablets, phones, etc.).

10 Habits to Adopt to Master Productivity

The focus in today’s world has shifted from counting the number of tasks completed, to the productivity levels, in a day. If the productivity is high, the number of tasks achieved is automatically high and the work quality is as per industry standards or higher as well. If the productivity is low, the rate of procrastination is high and the work produced is less in number and lower in quality, i.e. barely meeting the standards.

One cannot be productive 100% of the time during the work hours. However, there are some habits that if adopted by people, can help them become more active and productive in a day.

Many people are of the view that productivity is not something that can be controlled. Whereas, we believe that one can be highly productive or not productive at all based on their work demeanors and habits. Here are a few ways to master productivity in the workplace.

10. Discipline yourself to increase productivity.

There lies an incredible power in the discipline.

The human body is an intelligent machine that learns quickly and expects (and even works on) a routine. Our body functions in a circadian rhythm, the 24-hour cycle. If that’s disturbed, our body starts to retaliate as its something that goes against nature.

When you discipline yourself and schedule your daily activities, you can train your mind and body to be highly productive during work. Here’s what you can do:

  1. Wake up on a set time
  2. Regularly exercise
  3. Have a healthy breakfast
  4. Go to work 
  5. Check off all work tasks in order
  6. Leave work on time
  7. Go to bed on a fixed time

All this will help you be more active during work hours, helping you put your best foot forward.

9. Make a plan before you have to implement it.

Plan for the day ahead, a day before.

Schedule the work to be done on Monday on Friday of the previous week, so you don’t have to spend time figuring out where to start on a Monday.

This would save you a lot of time. You can just dive in and start completing the work that’s already in the queue. This will save you invisible minutes – namely, the time that just ‘flies by’ and you don’t even know where it went and what you achieved in it.

Make the schedule for Tuesday on Monday, and Wednesday on Tuesday, and so on. This way you will have tasks planned have deadlines for yourself and you will get things done much faster and right on schedule.

8. “Think you can do it, and you’re halfway there!”

Mindset is everything!

When you’re assigned a task by your team lead, and it is a big, important task, don’t freak out. If you panic and think that the task is well above your position and will take up a lot of time, or is difficult and beyond your skillset. Then there is no way that you’ll be able to complete it.

If you approach every task with a ‘can-do’ attitude, learn new things in the process, expand and improve your skillset and deliver the task, then you’ll be successful. Taking every task as a challenge you can beat is something that will result in your success within the company as well as wherever you go beyond that.

7. Prioritize tasks according to importance and relevance also increases productivity

Prioritize tasks to stay productive!

It is highly important to know which tasks are important and which can be delayed for a while and it will not matter much.

For example, if there is are two tasks: first, to post a social media update and second, deliver the monthly performance report to your supervisor. It is obvious which task holds more importance, definitely the latter. It varies from situation to situation, but being able to judge that for every situation is a skill that will allow you to be more productive.

Similarly, one must be able to judge the likelihood of completion of tasks throughout the day. If a task requires you to liaise with other departments to complete it, and they are busy, then it is better to complete the tasks that you can complete independently, in the meanwhile.

This will save the ‘waiting’ time and helps you achieve more in the same time.

6. Divide one task into small chunks to achieve it

A mountain cannot be crossed with one step or a huge jump.
It is impossible. However, if that mountain is crossed by traveling small distances at a time and with rests in between, it is completely doable.

The same is the case with being assigned large projects. You are not expected to deliver results in a day. The way to excel at those projects is by dividing the tasks into smaller chunks and working on those chunks, one at a time.

Soon, you will see that the project is reaching its milestones. The small chunks are coming together to form a complete solution for the project.

When you cut down the work pressure into chunks and deal with one thing at a time, you can get more work done. Then if you have this huge ball of pressure on you for completing one huge task.

In the latter case, most of your time will be spent worrying about the things that are yet to be done and you’ll end up achieving little to nothing.

5. Multitask to get things done on schedule increase productivity

Work on multiple things at a time.

It is a common myth that women are better at multitasking than men. However, there is no evidence to prove that. This means, men and women, both can multitask and achieve higher levels of productivity.

How to work on multiple tasks at a time? It is fairly simple. For example, you are asked to maintain an excel sheet for records and work on say, marketing tasks simultaneously. So you can go ahead with marketing tasks and switch tabs to enter records, and then switch back. Allocate 15 minutes to each task, alternating regularly.

This will improve your skills of thinking on-spot and switching between multiple tasks at a time.

4. Keep the goals in sight and work accordingly.

Can you throw a dart without the target in sight? NO! 

Always make sure that you know what you are working for and what you have to achieve through a certain task. Once you have a goal in sight, you will plan accordingly, set your schedule accordingly, and work harder and in the right direction to achieve that.

Once you know how the end-product should look, you will work on tasks to get that end-product. Instead of working blindly and without any idea of what and why you’re doing.

3. Technology is your friend, use it to excel.

Work smart, not hard.

Technology, in this day and age, is your friend and you can use it to make tasks and projects easier for yourself. You can use time tracking software like StaffTimerApp. Simply log your tasks, keep a track of where your time goes with written logs, image, and video proofs.

This will help you save invisible minutes, know what took up most of your time and know where the most unproductive time was spent. Using these insights, you can manage your time better. Remove wasted minutes from your workday and ensure that maximum productivity is achieved.

Automate the tasks that take up a lot of time in manual entries and extra, unnecessary work and redistribute your resources so as to fully utilize them.

2. Have the cushion time period in your schedule.

“Always keep room for dessert!”

Many a times, it happens so that priority tasks come up and urgent work is required on those. These aren’t the tasks that you can place on the back burner while you work on your routine tasks.

To ensure that your schedule can accommodate such tasks and still be on schedule, completing your routine tasks, you always need to keep a cushion time period on your schedule.

These are few minutes of ‘free time’ in each hour so even if you are working on side tasks, your own schedule isn’t disturbed.

1. Allow your brain to rest periodically.

Work using the Pomodoro technique.

Work uninterrupted for 50 minutes, take a 10-minute break. If you work like that, you will have higher productivity, with an active mind throughout the day.
That essential period of rest after 50 minutes will allow you to reassess your task plate. Reorganize to include any change required in the schedule. It will be like a reset period for your brain before getting to work again.

Remember, your brain is like any other machine as well. If it gets overworked and overheated, you will face burnout. Hence, reduced productivity due to exhaustion.