Imagine this: you’re at your desk, trying to focus on an important project, but the clock keeps ticking, and your to-do list is only getting longer. Instead of making progress, you get distracted by emails, notifications, and other tasks that suddenly seem much more interesting than your current project. Hours later, you’ve made little headway on your original project—what you needed to focus on—but tackled many other random tasks instead. Your productivity is shot, and you’re stressed about the looming deadline. If this scenario sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Everyone has trouble managing their time at some point, but you can regain control of your schedule. How To Do A Time Audit is one effective way to improve your time management skills.
This blog will provide a helpful guide on how to do a time audit, including real-life time audit examples to illustrate how they work. TimeTackle’s automatic time-tracking software can help you visualize your time efficiently, learn about time audit examples, and learn how to conduct your time audit.
Why a Time Audit is Essential

A time audit is an essential part of productivity management that allows you to identify how you spend your time at work. Tracking time helps you recognize time wasters and better understand your habits to improve productivity.
If you frequently struggle to meet business goals, feel “busy” without making meaningful progress, or constantly running out of time without knowing why, then conducting a time audit is essential.
Minimize Wasted Time with a Time Audit
While some idle time is unavoidable, too much can affect your productivity. A time audit helps you pinpoint these gaps to plan more effectively and minimize wasted minutes.
This issue isn’t uncommon. Many individuals go through their workdays without a clear plan, losing track of how their time is spent. This lack of structure often leads to inefficiencies that hinder productivity.
Address Team Inefficiencies with a Time Audit for Better Productivity
Similarly, teams face similar challenges. Despite deadlines, regular check-ins, and open communication, employees may still miss targets or fail to deliver work on time. The common excuse? “We ran out of time.” This common phrase often signals a deeper issue: unmonitored and unstructured time management.
By performing a time audit, you can identify where time is wasted, pinpoint inefficiencies, and implement strategies to ensure that you and your team prioritize tasks effectively. Aligning efforts with goals and achieving optimal productivity is critical.
Reach Your Goals and Targets
One main reason goals remain unfulfilled is the mismanagement of time. Often, we believe we’re dedicating enough hours to critical tasks, but in reality, our time is spread across low-priority activities that don’t contribute to our objectives.
A time audit helps bridge this gap by offering an honest assessment of how your time is spent versus how you perceive it. This clarity allows you to identify areas where time is wasted, enabling you to allocate your hours more effectively toward high-priority goals.
Reevaluate Priorities with a Time Audit to Boost Business Success
For instance, you might discover that tasks you once deemed essential consume far more time than they should. At the same time, critical activities that drive business growth and success are being consistently overlooked.
A time audit empowers you to reevaluate these priorities and restructure your schedule, ensuring that your time and energy are directed toward the initiatives that truly matter for your business’s success. It’s not about working harder but working more innovatively. Organizing my time around my essential goals allows me to meet targets more efficiently and effectively.
Boost Productivity
A time audit is a powerful tool for uncovering the most significant “time wasters” in your day. We often don’t realize how much time we spend on non-productive activities like browsing irrelevant websites or checking social media until we track it.
By documenting where your time goes, you can pinpoint these distractions and take actionable steps to eliminate or better manage them. Once you identify the areas that drain your time, you can make conscious decisions to cut them out entirely or allocate them to more structured periods, ensuring they don’t interfere with your productivity.
Boost Efficiency and Focus with a Personal Time Audit
For instance, I might limit social media usage to specific breaks or set time limits for certain tasks that tend to overrun. This approach enables me to create more room in my day for high-impact tasks, boosting my overall efficiency.
By conducting a time audit, I become aware of my daily habits and develop the tools to maximize my workday, increase my focus, and achieve more in less time.
Redistribute Time Efficiently
One significant advantage of a time audit is identifying when you are most and least productive during your workday. Understanding these patterns helps you make more intentional decisions about allocating your time. High-performing professionals know that not all day hours are equally effective for different tasks.
When you know your peak productivity times, you can schedule your most important, demanding tasks during those hours, ensuring you are working at your highest potential. For example, if you notice you are more focused and energized in the mornings, this is the ideal time to tackle complex projects or make critical decisions.
Streamline Time Tracking with Tools Like EmpMonitor for Better Productivity
In contrast, less mentally demanding tasks, such as responding to emails or attending meetings, can be scheduled for later when your energy levels may be lower. While conducting a time audit manually is effective, leveraging tools designed to streamline the process can make it significantly easier and more accurate.
Tools like EmpMonitor help track time and provide detailed insights critical for improving productivity and prioritizing effectively.
Tackle: Revolutionize Time Tracking with AI and Calendar Integration
Tackle revolutionizes time tracking through seamless calendar integration, eliminating the need for manual logging. Our platform automatically captures and categorizes your time, providing actionable insights through intuitive dashboards and reports.
We’ve built everything you need into one seamless package:
- An intelligent tagging system that works your way
- AI-powered automation to handle the tedious stuff
- Flexible reporting tools to track what matters
- Intelligent time capture right in your browser
Trusted by Roblox, Deel, and Lightspeed Ventures teams, Tackle helps executives, team leaders, and customer-facing professionals understand and optimize their time allocation. Simply connect your Google or Outlook calendar, set up custom tags and automations, and gain valuable insights into how your team spends their time.
Whether you’re tracking strategic initiatives, measuring team efficiency, or ensuring resource optimization, Tackle transforms time monitoring from a chore into a powerful decision-making tool.
Start using our automatic time-tracking software for free with one click today!
Real-Life Time Audit Examples

Freelancer Time Audit – Tracking Billable vs. Non-Billable Hours
Freelancers often think they’re working a full day, but when they track their time, they realize that only a fraction of it is billable. The rest? It’s often spent on admin work, emails, social media, or unnecessary revisions.
What the Audit Revealed:
- Only 4 out of 8 hours per workday were spent on client projects (billable)
- Too much time spent on back-and-forth emails with clients (which weren’t paid for)
- Marketing, invoicing, and admin tasks were eating up time that could be used for paid work
Changes Made:
- Batch emails and client communication to once or twice daily instead of answering immediately
- Using time-tracking software like TimeTackle to see precisely how long each task takes
- Outsourcing admin work (like invoicing or bookkeeping) to free up time for billable work
- Setting more explicit boundaries with clients (e.g., defining how many revisions are included in a project)
Result:
- Increased billable hours by 25% and reduced time wasted on unnecessary tasks
Corporate Professional Time Audit – Meetings vs. Deep Work
Corporate employees often find themselves stuck in meetings all day with barely any time left for actual work. A time audit helps identify how much time is lost in unnecessary meetings, email back-and-forths, and low-priority tasks.
What the Audit Revealed:
- 35-40% of the workday was spent in meetings, many of which weren’t essential
- Email took up another 20% of the day, primarily responding to non-urgent messages
- Deep work (strategic tasks) was squeezed into short, fragmented time blocks
Changes Made:
- Declining or shortening unnecessary meetings (suggesting async updates instead)
- Batching email checks (e.g., twice per day instead of constantly responding)
- Blocking off “Focus Time” on the calendar to ensure uninterrupted work sessions
- Using meeting templates to keep discussions focused and actionable
Result:
- Gained back 10+ hours weekly for deep, high-value work while reducing stress from back-to-back meetings
Entrepreneur Time Audit – Growth vs. Operations
Entrepreneurs wear many hats, but without a time audit, they often spend too much time working on their business instead of working on it. A company can only grow if the founder spends time on strategy, sales, and leadership instead of being stuck in day-to-day operations.
What the Audit Revealed:
- 70% of the time was spent on operations (customer service, admin, putting out fires)
- Only 10% was spent on business growth (marketing, partnerships, product development)
- No dedicated time for strategic planning
Changes Made:
- Identified tasks that could be delegated (hiring a virtual assistant for admin work)
- Created structured “CEO time” to focus on high-level business growth strategies
- Automated repetitive tasks (e.g., customer inquiries, scheduling, reporting)
- Set up systems and SOPs to reduce time spent micromanaging.
Result:
- Shifted focus to growth activities led to increased revenue and a 20% reduction in daily workload.
Example 4: Student Time Audit – Study Habits & Distractions
Students often feel like studying all day but still struggle with productivity. A time audit helps pinpoint where study time is going, how distractions creep in, and how to study brighter—not longer.
What the Audit Revealed:
- Study sessions were interrupted every 15-20 minutes (checking social media texting)
- Multitasking (listening to music and watching videos while studying) reduced focus
- Cramming late at night led to lower retention and increased stress
Changes Made:
- Using the Pomodoro Technique (25-minute study sprints with 5-minute breaks).
- Blocking distracting websites & putting the phone on silent during study sessions.
- Switching to active recall techniques (flashcards, self-quizzing) instead of passive reading.
- Scheduling study sessions in sync with peak focus times (e.g., morning instead of late night)
Result:
- Improved focus, better retention, and less time wasted on distractions while studying.
Why a Time Audit Works for Everyone
No matter your profession, a time audit can reveal hidden inefficiencies and help you reclaim lost hours.
Whether it’s increasing billable hours as a freelancer, reducing unnecessary meetings in the corporate world, shifting focus to business growth as an entrepreneur, or optimizing study habits as a student, small changes lead to significant results.
The best part? You don’t need to work harder—you just need to work smarter.
Related Reading
- How To Track Hours Worked
- Calendar Audit
- Time Audit For Employees
- Keeping Track Of Time At Work
- How to Track Time Spent on Tasks
How To Do a Time Audit in 7 Simple Steps

1. Pick the Right Time to Track
Choose a typical week to track your time. You don’t want to do a time audit during a week that’s totally out of the ordinary—like when you’re covering for a co-worker, traveling, or dealing with back-to-back holiday parties. Instead, pick a week where your schedule reflects your normal routine.
If your work is seasonal or inconsistent, try picking a week representing the bulk of your year. Aim for at least five days of tracking. A full seven-day audit is even better since weekends can look very different from weekdays.
2. Choose Your Tracking Method
How will you track your time? The simpler, the better. You don’t want to create extra work for yourself.
Here are some easy ways to do it:
- Notebook and pen: These are classic, low-tech, and super easy. Jot down what you do every 30 minutes.
- Spreadsheet: If you love structure, use Google Sheets or Excel to create a time log.
- Time-Tracking Apps: Apps like TimeTackle, Toggl, RescueTime, Clockify, or Harvest can automatically track your digital activities or allow you to log time manually.
- Voice Notes: If writing things down feels too much work, use your phone’s voice memo feature to record what you did every half-hour quickly.
Choose whatever method feels most effortless for you. If it’s too complicated, you won’t stick with it.
3. Log Your Time Every 30 Minutes
This is where the magic happens. From the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed, track what you’re doing every 30 minutes. Set an alarm to go off every half hour to remind you.
When it rings, take 20 seconds to write down what you just did. Be brutally honest. Write down if you spent 25 minutes scrolling Instagram or staring at your email inbox without answering anything.
Your log might look like this:
- 7:00 AM – 7:30 AM: Hit snooze twice, got out of bed, and scrolled TikTok.
- 7:30 AM – 8:00 AM: Made coffee and answered Slack messages.
- 8:00 AM – 8:30 AM: Checked emails got distracted by a news article.
- 8:30 AM – 9:00 AM: Started working on a report and stopped to answer a phone call.
Don’t try to “clean up” your habits just because you’re tracking them. Being on your best behavior is tempting, but that defeats the purpose. You want to see the real picture, messy as it may be.
4. Categorize Your Activities
Review your log at the end of each day and group your activities into categories.
Some common ones include:
- Deep Work (high-focus, important tasks): Writing, coding, designing, strategic planning, problem-solving.
- Shallow Work (low-focus tasks still needed): Emails, admin tasks, scheduling, routine reports.
- Meetings & Calls: Zoom meetings, team check-ins, and phone calls.
- Distractions & Wasted Time: Social media, unnecessary meetings, excessive email checking, getting sidetracked.
- Personal Time: Exercise, family time, hobbies, self-care.
- Chores & Errands: Grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning, appointments.
This helps you quickly spot where your time is going.
5. Analyze Your Time Data
Now that you have five to seven days of tracked time, it’s time to take a step back and look at the patterns.
Ask yourself:
- Where is most of my time going? Is it work, family, social media, Netflix?
- How much time am I spending on low-value tasks? Endless emails, busy work, distractions?
- When am I most productive? Do I get my best work done in the morning? The afternoon? Late at night?
- What are my biggest time-wasters? Social media? Meetings? Interruptions?
- Are my priorities reflected in how I spend my time? Or am I spending too much time on things that don’t matter?
- When do I feel the most drained? Are there certain times of day when my energy crashes?
This is where the lightbulb moment happens. You’ll start seeing where your time is slipping away and where you can make changes.
6. Create Your Ideal Schedule
Now that you know where your time is going, it’s time to design a better schedule. Think about what an ideal day would look like for you.
Start by breaking your time into chunks:
- 8 hours for work (or however long your workday is)
- 8 hours of sleep (non-negotiable for peak productivity)
- 8 hours for everything else (family, hobbies, exercise, socializing, personal projects)
Now refine it further:
- Work Time: What tasks deserve your best focus? When should you check emails? Do you need blocked-off deep work sessions?
- Personal Time: How can you prioritize self-care, relationships, and hobbies?
- Boundaries: Where can you eliminate distractions or limit meetings and emails?
The goal isn’t to fill your schedule—it’s to ensure that your time aligns with your priorities.
7. Implement and Adjust
Test your new schedule for a week. If something isn’t working, tweak it. Maybe you realize you need longer focus sessions or more breaks. That’s okay! A time audit isn’t about perfection—it’s about improvement.
To stay accountable, consider:
- Setting weekly time-check reminders.
- Using a time-blocking system in your calendar.
- Checking in with a coach, mentor, or friend.
The Big Takeaway
A time audit isn’t about making yourself busier—it’s about making your time work for you. The goal is to gain control over your schedule, not let it control you. At first, you might be shocked by how much time is slipping away into things that don’t matter.
But once you see it clearly, you can reclaim that time and use it for what’s truly important—whether growing your business, spending more time with family, or finally starting that creative project you’ve been putting off.
7 Best Tools for Conducting Time Audits
1. TimeTackle: The Smart Way to Track Your Time

Tackle revolutionizes time tracking through seamless calendar integration, eliminating the need for manual logging. Our platform automatically captures and categorizes your time, providing actionable insights through intuitive dashboards and reports.
We’ve built everything you need into one seamless package:
- An intelligent tagging system that works your way
- AI-powered automation to handle the tedious stuff
- Flexible reporting tools to track what matters
- Intelligent time capture right in your browser
Trusted by teams at Roblox, Deel, and Lightspeed Ventures, Tackle helps executives, team leaders, and customer-facing professionals understand and optimize their time allocation. Simply connect your Google or Outlook calendar, set up custom tags and automations, and gain valuable insights into how your team spends their time.
Whether you’re tracking strategic initiatives, measuring team efficiency, or ensuring resource optimization, Tackle transforms time monitoring from a chore into a powerful decision-making tool.
Start using our automatic time-tracking software for free with one click today!
2. Toggl Track: A Flexible Time Tracker for Teams of Any Size

Toggl Track is an all-in-one time tracker designed for individuals and large teams. It promises effortless time tracking, team management, detailed reporting, and integration with preferred workflow tools.
With Toggl Track, you can track your time on different tasks and projects and create accurate invoices to bill your clients promptly.
Pros:
- Simple yet comprehensive interface
- Efficient team management features
Cons:
- Limited free plan options
Users and Pricing:
- Free: Free for up to 5 users
- Starter: $9 per user per month
- Premium: $18 per user per month
- Enterprise: Contact for pricing
Free trial: 30-day trial of Toggl Track Premium
3. Harvest: The Time Tracker That Makes Invoicing Easy

Harvest is an intuitive time tracking app that works seamlessly for businesses of all sizes. Known for its timesheet management, automated invoicing, project budget tracking, and team scheduling abilities, Harvest allows its users to track time and bill their clients with precision easily.
Pros:
- Easy-to-use interface
- Thorough budget tracking features
- Quick invoicing
Cons:
- Lacks advanced reporting
Users and Pricing:
- Free: 1 seat and 2 projects
- Pro: $12 per month; unlimited seats and unlimited projects
Free trial: 30-day free trial
4. RescueTime: A Time Tracker Designed to Improve Productivity

Suitable for individuals and freelancers looking to improve their productivity, RescueTime uses an AI-powered time tracking feature to provide automated time tracking, distraction blocking, website blocking, and weekly performance reporting.
RescueTime offers an efficient way to track and manage how much time you spend on your computer or smartphone, resulting in increased productivity.
Pros:
- Automated time tracking
- Insight reports
- Comprehensive blocking features
Cons:
- Limited manual time tracking capabilities
Users and Pricing:
- RescueTime: Free
- RescueTime Classic: $6.50 per month or $78 per year
Free trial: 2-week free trial for RescueTime Classic
5. Clockify: A Free and Simple Time Tracking Tool

Clockify is a budget-friendly time tracking app built for individuals and growing teams. This essential time-tracking tool’s features include project management, detailed reporting, and integrations with other helpful workflow tools.
With Clockify, you can track your time on each task or project. This makes it easy to generate timesheets and speed up your invoicing process.
Pros:
- Simple interface
- Free plan
- Fast reporting
Cons:
- Limited team management capabilities
- Limited-time tracking features
Users and Pricing:
- All plans have unlimited users.
- Basic: $3.99 per user per month, billed annually (or $4.99 if billed monthly)
- Standard: $5.49 per user per month, billed annually (or $6.99 if billed monthly)
- Pro: $7.99 per user per month, billed annually (or $9.99 if billed monthly)
- Enterprise: $11.99 per user per month, billed annually (or $14.99 if billed monthly)
Free trial: A free plan is available, as is a 7-day free trial with extra features
6. TimeCamp: A Time Tracker Built for Organization

TimeCamp makes time management and organization more straightforward for any business, whether you’re working solo or with a team. The app provides users with automatic time tracking, project management, invoicing, and billing features to analyze how they spend their time and generate insightful reports.
Pros:
- Automatic time tracking
- Integrations
- Invoicing capabilities
Cons:
- Limited mobile app features
Users and Pricing:
- All plans have unlimited users.
- Free Starter: $2.99 per user per month
- Basic: $6.99 per user per month
- Pro: $9.99 per user per month
- Enterprise: Contact TimeCamp
Free trial: 14-day free trial
7. Traqq: A Free Time Tracking App for Remote Teams

Traqq is an efficient and free time tracking app for remote teams, freelancers, and businesses alike. Along with its automated time tracking feature, the app highlights other performance indicators, including activity tracking and screenshot-based monitoring, simplifying project management and timely delivery.
Pros:
- Automated time tracking
- Screenshots and activity tracking
- Real-time monitoring
Cons:
- Limited integrations and customizations
Users and Pricing:
- Premium Starter (for 3 users): Free
- Premium Teams (for 4-100 users): $7 per user per month, billed monthly (or $6 if billed annually)
- Enterprise (for 100+ users): Custom price
Free trial: 21-day free trial
Related Reading
- Time Card App For Employees
- Time Insights Google Calendar
- AI Time Tracking App
- Time Audit App
- Best Way To Track Employee Hours
- Best Employee Time Tracking App
Implementing Changes Based on Your Time Audit

After completing a time audit, one of the first steps is to establish a daily routine. Creating a structured schedule can help you allocate time efficiently to different tasks and activities.
Start by identifying your peak productivity hours and assigning essential tasks to maximize your output.
Prioritizing Tasks And Activities After Conducting A Time Audit
Use the insights from your time audit to prioritize tasks and activities. Focus on high-value activities that align with your goals and objectives. By prioritizing, you ensure that your time is directed towards activities that bring the most significant impact.
Consider categorizing your tasks based on their urgency and importance. This can help you differentiate between tasks that require immediate attention and those that can be addressed later. By organizing your tasks this way, you can tackle critical activities first, ensuring that essential deadlines are met.
Eliminating Or Reducing Time Wasters After A Time Audit
Take proactive steps to eliminate or reduce your time wasters. Set boundaries around activities that tend to consume excessive time. Explore productivity techniques such as time blocking or the Pomodoro Technique to stay focused and minimize distractions.
Another effective way to reduce time wasters is to review your daily activities regularly. Reflect on how you spent your time each day and identify any recurring patterns hindering your productivity. By recognizing these patterns, you can take targeted actions to eliminate or minimize activities that do not contribute to your overall goals.
Setting Realistic Goals And Deadlines After A Time Audit
Based on your time audit analysis, set realistic goals and deadlines for your tasks. Break larger tasks into manageable chunks and allocate dedicated time slots for each. Setting specific goals and deadlines helps create a sense of urgency and accountability.
Consider incorporating buffer time into your schedule to account for unexpected delays or additional work that may arise. By allowing flexibility in your deadlines, you can better adapt to changing circumstances and avoid feeling overwhelmed by rigid time constraints.
Related Reading
- ProofHub Alternatives
- Sling Alternatives
- Timeular Alternatives
- TimeCamp Alternatives
- ActivTrak Alternatives
- Jibble Alternatives
- TSheets Alternatives
Start Using Our Automatic Time Tracking Software for Free with One-click Today
A time audit helps you understand how you spend your time at work. By analyzing your current time usage, you can identify patterns, uncover inefficiencies, and discover opportunities for improvement.
Time audits can be beneficial for tracking time spent on various projects, clients, or tasks. This data can reveal insights that help you boost profitability, optimize team performance, and enhance productivity.
Why Should You Do a Time Audit?
Time audits produce actionable data to help you work smarter, not harder. By tracking how you spend your time, you can identify inefficiencies and uncover opportunities for improvement.
These insights can help you boost profitability, optimize team performance, and enhance your own productivity.
What Should You Track During a Time Audit?
A time audit can reveal insights about almost any area of your work, from individual productivity to team performance and project profitability. Here are some examples of what you can track during a time audit:
Personal Productivity
Conducting a time audit of your own productivity can help you get organized and create a roadmap for success.
Tracking your time will reveal how much time you spend on various tasks and help you identify any repetitive, mundane, or low-value activities that could be streamlined or delegated to someone else.
Team Performance
A time audit can also help you assess team performance and uncover any inefficiencies hindering productivity.
For example, if you’re managing a project and tracking how your team spends their time, you might discover that specific tasks are taking longer than expected. This could indicate a knowledge gap within the team or inefficient processes that must be optimized.
Project Profitability
If you run a business, tracking how you and your employees spend time on different projects can reveal valuable insights about project profitability. For instance, a time audit might uncover that a particular client project isn’t as profitable as it seems.
This could be because the work is taking longer than expected and that there are inefficiencies at play. The more you know about how time is spent on various projects, the better you can make informed decisions about the work going forward.
Client Work
Time audits can also help you better understand how your team spends time on various clients or projects. This can help you identify any performance issues or inefficiencies that need to be addressed and reveal opportunities to improve your own productivity.
In addition, tracking time spent on client work can help you produce more accurate client billing reports and uncover opportunities to increase profitability.