How much aren't you working?

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Do you find yourself rolling your eyes at the thought of tediously tracking all of your unbillable tasks? It's true, time you can't bill for is much less fun and exciting to pay attention to than time you can bill for. But what if your unbillable time could reveal hidden treasure and value in your biz? It absolutely can!

Keeping track of all your time will improve your productivity by showing you exactly what tasks are eating up your day. And when you're more productive, you're more profitable!

We sat down with designer Rachael Acklin to talk to her about how she started tracking her time, and found that she had the power to beat the unbillable time bully in her life. (Check out the full interview with Rachael at the Noko Blog)

A few years ago, when her business began to grow, Rachael started using Noko to track her time. As an entrepreneur, consultant, business owner, and mother, she had a lot of different work that she needed to keep under control. With a little help from Noko, Rachael started tracking all of her billable hours.

Then something magical happened:

Rachael noticed that even though she felt like she was tied to her desk all the time, she was really only spending an average of two and a half to three hours a day on things she could bill as "work."

Before Rachael started using Noko, she thought she spent at least 6 to 10 hours each day working. And while it was true that she was spending that much time in her office, at her computer, it turns out that butt-in-chair-time doesn't equal billable-work time.

And since thinking about her work, planning her work, and organizing how she was going to do her work, really felt like work, Rachael was shocked to see how much her productivity was being eaten up by these (previously) unbillable tasks. And how few of them required her to be sitting in front of a glowing screen.

This insight helped Rachael re-frame how she looked at each day. She didn't have to be at her computer all day to be productive. In fact, she found that she was more productive when she worked for a solid three hours, took a break, and came back to her work a little later. She also got a more realistic view of what she could really accomplish in one day.

All these insights? Rachael got them from tracking her time. She collected data, and then (with Noko's help) she crunched that data, and surprising new facts appeared. Now Rachael can spend more time doing what she loves, and feel more accomplished at the end of the day, with less stress.

Now that's what we call a happy ending!

And chances are that your story isn't so different from hers. There's more billable time (and even more play time!) just waiting to be discovered in your business.

The Bottom Line

Tracking all of your time helps you see what sort of tasks make up your day. And, like Rachael, you'll probably notice changes you can make to your work habits in order to spend more time on billable tasks. That means a happier and healthier work life, better work for your clients and more efficient billing. We think that's a win, win!

P.S. If you're wondering where your time goes, you're in luck. We designed our time tracking software, Noko, to make tracking unbillable time quick and easy. So you can see exactly where there are opportunities to streamline processes and increase your bottom line! Take Noko for a free
14-day spin today!