Knowing how you spend your time is incredibly helpful, especially if you struggle with "time blindness" and even more so when you "feel" it takes far longer than it actually does.

There are lots of amazing tools out there, like Toggl Track, Clockify, and more, but they all have one small problem for me; they require my input and I have to interrupt my day by clicking a button (or hitting a shortcut) and although I can "make a new habit" I'd rather stack my habits rather than focus on "learning how to effectively click a button" each time...

I knew I would never do it... so I found a solution that worked for me.

Episode Link: https://simplicityspecialist.captivate.fm/episode/timetracking

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Jonathan Stewart: 00:00:00

It feels like I'm spending all of my time.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:00:03

In these books.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:00:05

It takes.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:00:06

Uh, forever.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:00:08

I don't want to be doing this.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:00:09

I could be spending way more time doing things that are far better.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:00:14

Getting clients, bringing my message to the world.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:00:18

Instead I'm spending hours and hours setting up these books

Jonathan Stewart: 00:00:23

and filling in the numbers.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:00:26

This just takes.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:00:28

Forever.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:00:29

If you're anything like me and your struggle with things like timing and

Jonathan Stewart: 00:00:34

how much time things take it could be really easy to think something

Jonathan Stewart: 00:00:38

you don't enjoy doing takes forever.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:00:41

I can't stand doing the books.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:00:45

I can't stand copying and pasting the numbers from a spreadsheet

Jonathan Stewart: 00:00:51

into another spreadsheet.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:00:54

Spreadsheet work is boring.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:00:55

I have way more fun talking to amazing humans like the people listening to

Jonathan Stewart: 00:01:00

this however, it's something that needs to be done bookkeeping is one

Jonathan Stewart: 00:01:05

of those tasks that are integral to running a sustainable business.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:01:10

so I want to make it as easy as possible.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:01:13

And so I did.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:01:13

That's why I created this system to make it easy as possible for me

Jonathan Stewart: 00:01:16

to do the books and then move on.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:01:18

However there was one big problem still.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:01:21

It was taking me forever.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:01:23

Or so I thought

Jonathan Stewart: 00:01:25

. Time blindness is something

Jonathan Stewart: 00:01:28

I cannot keep track of how long things actually take me and so I have

Jonathan Stewart: 00:01:33

been looking for a number of years to be able to actually track my time

Jonathan Stewart: 00:01:37

effectively, to being able to see how much time things actually take.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:01:43

It helps with invoicing and figuring how much to charge alongside

Jonathan Stewart: 00:01:47

a whole host of other things.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:01:50

But the software like toggle track and other apps of that

Jonathan Stewart: 00:01:53

sort involve some form of input.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:01:55

I've got to remember to press the button and then press the

Jonathan Stewart: 00:01:58

button again to stop and start.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:02:01

And that's fine for stuff.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:02:02

I really enjoy.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:02:04

To start it, but when it comes to stopping it and I'm enjoying stuff and

Jonathan Stewart: 00:02:07

I'm taking the time and stuff comes up in the day and I have to step away for

Jonathan Stewart: 00:02:12

my kids and lots of different little pieces happen, it becomes really bloody

Jonathan Stewart: 00:02:15

difficult and gets harder for me to remember to turn it off and on and

Jonathan Stewart: 00:02:20

then I just get frustrated because I forgot to turn it off or I forgot to

Jonathan Stewart: 00:02:23

turn it on, then I'm back to guessing.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:02:25

and it is just annoying.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:02:29

It was frustrating and this is something that I've heard from a lot of clients

Jonathan Stewart: 00:02:34

who are experiencing the same thing.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:02:36

And what I see is people go, well, you just need to practice.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:02:40

You just need to build a new habit and get used to it and remind

Jonathan Stewart: 00:02:44

yourself and do this and do that.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:02:46

You need to improve yourself to do that, which is fine to a certain

Jonathan Stewart: 00:02:52

degree, but the problem is I have a very limited amount of time and of

Jonathan Stewart: 00:02:58

all the habits that I want to build being able to turn on and off a button.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:03:04

Honestly.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:03:05

Isn't one that I'm interested in building and motivation plays

Jonathan Stewart: 00:03:10

a big part in habit building.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:03:14

And i don't have the greatest motivation for something like

Jonathan Stewart: 00:03:18

pressing on and off on a timer

Jonathan Stewart: 00:03:21

What I really needed wasn't to build a habit it was to

Jonathan Stewart: 00:03:23

find something that fit me.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:03:27

And the reality of what i wanted to achieve especially

Jonathan Stewart: 00:03:31

when it came to the books.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:03:33

I know that bookkeeping is important.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:03:36

As a business owner, being able to see what your money is doing,

Jonathan Stewart: 00:03:41

that's important and integral to running a sustainable business.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:03:45

However.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:03:46

I for some reason, kept getting blocked and just found it really hard work and

Jonathan Stewart: 00:03:54

yes, there will be a time to hustle, but for me, I was not interested in hustling.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:03:59

I wanted to get what I needed to get done.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:04:01

Done.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:04:02

There was always stuff you're going to hate doing and find it boring and dull.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:04:06

But knowing how little time it actually takes is one of those final things

Jonathan Stewart: 00:04:11

that stops me from getting stuck.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:04:13

If I know it's only going to take me say half an hour, when really,

Jonathan Stewart: 00:04:17

I thought it took three then I'm going to take away that final block

Jonathan Stewart: 00:04:22

in starting and get on with it.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:04:25

What I needed was a solution that did it all for me so that I could

Jonathan Stewart: 00:04:28

actually see how much time I was spending without having to spend

Jonathan Stewart: 00:04:32

time figuring out how much time.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:04:35

I was spending.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:04:35

And thankfully I managed to find a solution that worked for me.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:04:39

There are a number of different platforms that do something similar

Jonathan Stewart: 00:04:43

even toggle track has their own time tracking automatic thing, but I

Jonathan Stewart: 00:04:48

never found it worked enough for me.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:04:52

So I stopped using toggle track and I started looking

Jonathan Stewart: 00:04:54

around for other solutions.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:04:56

One of the solutions I found was timing, which is a fantastic tool and it does

Jonathan Stewart: 00:05:01

do some auto tracking for you, but you've got to set up projects and have

Jonathan Stewart: 00:05:05

it all set up as part of a project.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:05:07

And.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:05:08

And a task and it was a little bit more than I wanted.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:05:11

What I wanted was something that was completely and utterly invisible.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:05:16

What I meant by invisible.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:05:17

I don't have to touch it.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:05:19

I can just go in, see how much time I'm spending doing something.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:05:23

And then get out.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:05:24

I don't want to think about what I'm doing.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:05:28

I just want to focus on the task at hand.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:05:31

And thankfully I found a solution that fit me.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:05:34

Rise.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:05:35

Rise is a time-tracking tool with a slight difference.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:05:38

It does it all for me, it pre categorizes everything, and it has

Jonathan Stewart: 00:05:42

a very nice, minimal and attractive dashboard that does it for me.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:05:48

I have a little timer in the bottom right-hand corner.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:05:50

As I'm recording this it's actually going up, but it says I have been

Jonathan Stewart: 00:05:53

working for a one hour and 26 minutes, 18% of the day has gone.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:05:57

And it has been an hour and 12 minutes since my last break.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:06:01

All of that is shown in a tiny little screen.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:06:04

And that for me is delightful.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:06:06

Another thing with my time tracking is when I get started on work.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:06:10

I don't stop.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:06:12

I often can completely forget the day and just hyper-focus for those

Jonathan Stewart: 00:06:17

neurodivergent individuals you'll know exactly what that feels like.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:06:21

Either you will hyperfocus or hyper not.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:06:23

And for me, the 45 minute reminder that I have set myself, allows me

Jonathan Stewart: 00:06:27

to see when I haven't had a break.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:06:29

Now, will I always listen to the 45 minute reminder to take a break?

Jonathan Stewart: 00:06:33

No, of course not.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:06:35

But it's that.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:06:36

And it helps me to really see, and that's how I found out that actually I don't

Jonathan Stewart: 00:06:41

take three, four hours to do my books.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:06:44

It's about an hour and 45 minutes.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:06:46

In the world of business, there are those who love tech and those who really don't.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:06:51

The people who love tech are always talking about the solutions that fit them

Jonathan Stewart: 00:06:56

without sharing the context behind it.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:06:58

And what led to those decisions as part of this new section on the

Jonathan Stewart: 00:07:04

podcast, I'm going to be talking.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:07:05

About why the tools I choose fit the way I work, but I don't

Jonathan Stewart: 00:07:10

want to just hear from me.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:07:13

If you are running a business and you have a tool that is helping you.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:07:18

I invite you to reach out to me.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:07:19

There will be a link in the description of this podcast where you can have a chat

Jonathan Stewart: 00:07:23

with me, and we can have a talk about the context around the tools that you use.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:07:29

Because outsourcing the way that you work to other people without context.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:07:34

Is how tools become more than a pain.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:07:38

They become a hindrance.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:07:41

And instead of talking about habits that we need to build or things

Jonathan Stewart: 00:07:44

we need to fix about ourselves.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:07:46

I want to extend the conversation to.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:07:49

Why the tools work for you.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:07:50

And so that people, if you're listening.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:07:53

And your audience and people around you who can hear you talking

Jonathan Stewart: 00:07:56

about why you use their tools.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:07:58

And they'll have a better idea of like, oh, that's definitely not for me.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:08:04

I can't use the tool like that.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:08:06

I need a tool that does this.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:08:07

So, if you're interested in coming on and talking about a piece of

Jonathan Stewart: 00:08:10

software that you use, that you have in your business, that is.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:08:14

Absolutely life changing and you want to share the context

Jonathan Stewart: 00:08:17

around it and how it helps you.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:08:20

To help your clients, or you do the best of your work.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:08:25

Reach out to me in the link below.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:08:26

I look forward to chatting to you.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:08:28

About the tools.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:08:29

That work for you don't try to force yourself to use a tool just because

Jonathan Stewart: 00:08:34

it's popular or recommended or everybody else is using it, or your

Jonathan Stewart: 00:08:37

best business buddy is using it.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:08:39

It's about finding what works for you.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:08:41

If you are someone who is really happy to learn, how to build a habit

Jonathan Stewart: 00:08:47

around pressing buttons and likes that feeling, that tactile feeling of

Jonathan Stewart: 00:08:51

pressing buttons feels good for you.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:08:54

Then I don't know whether rise would be a good solution.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:08:57

But for me, what I needed was something that was just not in my way, that

Jonathan Stewart: 00:09:02

just allowed me to get what I needed.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:09:06

There are so many tools online that you can find that probably

Jonathan Stewart: 00:09:09

no one has ever seen before.

Jonathan Stewart: 00:09:11

And there is ones that suit you and fit your needs.