actiTIME @actitime - Tumblr Blog

Posts

Want to improve your time management skills, but not sure where to start? Don’t worry, our list of the best techniques is here to put you in the right direction.

#Time Management

Monitoring project costs, providing adequate estimates, identifying the cost centers – all this is essential for the project success. Learn more about ways you can do that with minimum effort.

#project management

It’s not always easy to find a tool for a Linux platform that could be easily installed and configured. So here’s our review of the best time-tracking software for Linux that teams and individuals can use to keep track of their time expenses.

Apply for the R&D tax credit? Sure! You don’t have to be on the Fortune 500 list or hire Nobel Prize winners to qualify. Learn more about the requirements and what you should do to claim expenses for business research.

Back then, it was much easier to concentrate: sit down at the typewriter, close the door behind you, and write. But now it’s possible too! Try out special tools for writers to block out all distractions and create a comfortable work environment.

You sit down at the computer and try to concentrate, but end up doing everything but the work. Social media, emails, friends that never fail to send you another funny video they’ve just stumbled upon… How to avoid distractions in that environment?

Large projects are extremely hard to manage, and the failure rate is very high. Find out what you can do to increase your chances for success.

Looking for free timesheet software for keeping track of your time and billing your clients? Check out our collection of absolutely free tools for small companies, startups and freelancers.

#timesheets #software

Do you watch a lot of television? It’s okay, we do too! And if you ever wondered about other things you could do while binging on the latest season of your favorite show, here are some cool ideas courtesy of actiTIME.

How to get more done without getting tired and overworked? Take a look at our compilation of helpful infographics on how to be more productive and follow these recommendations at work and in everyday life.

#productivity #infographic

How can workplace productivity be measured – and managed – in the today’s knowledge-based economy? Are there any general approaches for that? Read on to learn practical examples and advices on measuring this elusive index.

#productivity

Common Practices of Vacation Accrual Rules

Common practices of vacation accrual rules in companies. With a wide variety of leave types and vacation accrual rules used in different companies, it might be hard to define which leave tracking process would meet a company’s needs better. National, regional and company’s internal accrual procedure may imply many mechanisms of leave time accrual, which sometimes can be confusing. Most companies prefer easier leave time tracking and vacation accrual rules. However, special requirements are not uncommon.

Accruing vacation time

Vacation accrual mechanisms differ from company to company. Accrual rules can have multiple parameters, so let’s take a look at the most popular options.

Accrual period. Employees of most companies accrue vacation days monthly, but weekly and yearly intervals are also possible. Daily leave time accrual can be an option in companies with higher turnover rates.

Equal or progressive leave time amounts. Leave time can be accrued in equal amounts every year or progressively – depending on the years of employment.

A waiting period can be designated before the vacation begins to accrue; depending on applicable legislation, it can take from three months to one year.

Two different balances, one for vacation days and one for sick days. They should be tracked separately; with that said, other leave types can exist that don’t affect either of these two balances.

Using balance cap. If employees are reluctant to spend their time off, companies often choose to introduce a balance limit to keep the overall amount of available leave time within a reasonable range. In this case, it is important to follow the legal guidelines and regulations that indicate the reasonable proportion of the balance cap.

Overwork bonuses and time off in lieu. Some employers prefer to compensate their employees’ overtime by adding hours or days to their leave balances.

Different leave time amounts, for example for full-time and part-time employees, or for managers and regular employees.

Spending vacation time

Leave time usage rules also differ. A common practice is to not allow the employee to take vacation in the first six months – or, in the US and some other countries, in the first year of employment.

Leave time can be deducted differently from the balance. In some companies, the internal procedure can imply using a coefficient for deducting leave time from the balances.

There can be leave types that do not affect leave balances at all. Mostly, these are one-time and extraordinary leaves, or leaves that aren’t used very often: sabbaticals, military service leaves, time off for voting, and some other leave types.

In many companies, the “use it or lose it” principle is implemented for some vacation types. If an employee does not use their leave by the specific date, it is forfeited.

Automating vacation accrual

It is important to keep track of used and unused vacation accurately to avoid misunderstanding and workplace conflicts. Some companies prefer the old-fashioned way, with spreadsheets and paper requests. This consumes valuable time that could be spent doing actual work. Fortunately, there are software solutions available that provide more convenient ways to track leave time accrual and spending.

When selecting a tool for automated vacation accrual, there are a few things you should definitely keep in mind:

Flexibility;

Simple leave tracking procedure;

Availability from any device;

Rich data review options.

Easy vacation accrual with actiPLANS

actiPLANS offers a smooth way of time-off calculation and leave request management. Managers configure the system so that it complies with accrual rules used in the company, and regular users request their leaves and get them approved easily. Flexible configuration options allow managers to set everything up in accordance to the company requirements and automate the entire process.

The tool supports two separate balances: paid time-off and sick days, in days or hours depending on the company’s internal procedure. If a company does not use one or both of the balances, they can be disabled.

Managers can use preset leave types or set up custom ones. Every leave type can be configured to affect paid time-off or sick days balance, or neither. Manual corrections of both balances are also possible.

For those employees whose vacation accrual rules differ from the corporate ones managers can specify individual settings.

This way, actiPLANS provides a convenient configuration of vacation accrual rules and keeps all data on employees’ leave balances available and up-to-date.

Summary

Vacation accrual and leave balances calculation is an important part of any company’s internal procedure, so it is critical to find a tool that will simplify and speed up this process. actiPLANS can be configured to fit almost any requirements, allowing both managers and regular employees to benefit from the automated the accrual process, keeping things accurate, transparent and hassle-free.

Time off Request: It Doesn't Have to Be a Headache

Even in today’s shaky job market when an increasing number of employees are reluctant to take their vacation days, requesting time off is still very much a common practice for businesses of any size.

Of course, it’s hard to imagine employees just not showing up to work without any notice whenever they need to take some time off. There have to be rules for them to follow, right? Well, there is usually no strict legislation regulating the leave time request procedure, so it falls to companies to establish their own guidelines in that department.

From Traditional to Convenient

Since every organization has its own set of rules for requesting time off, the requests themselves take different forms depending on the company, with varying degrees of convenience for the actual employee.

Printed forms. By far the most traditional (read: outdated) and arguably the least convenient way to request some leave time are the good old printed forms and letters. While certainly not without a certain bureaucratic charm, printing out a form, filling it out, filing it with half a dozen different departments, and praying that it doesn’t get lost under a pile of other paperwork on your manager’s desk sure doesn’t sound very fun.

Emails. A more direct and significantly less time-consuming way to request time off is to just send your manager and/or HR person an email. This increases your chances of receiving a timely reply, and spares you the trouble of having to deal with paperwork, but can be a bit difficult to keep track of, considering what a mess an average employee’s inbox is. With both emails and printed forms information on employees’ requests is commonly kept in an Excel spreadsheet or a separate HR system, which can help keep things organized, but could at times lead to some unfortunate mistakes associated with manual data entry.

Leave time software. And then there’s actiPLANS – an affordable software solution dedicated entirely to streamlining the time off request and approval process. The whole thing becomes as easy as selecting a date, choosing the type of leave you’d like to take, and pressing a button to send the request to your manager. With a very user-friendly web version and a free mobile app, it allows you to request vacation time from pretty much anywhere, eliminating the frustrating steps and saving you valuable time.

Summary

Requesting leave time should not be an exercise in frustration. Unfortunately, the more conventional methods such as printed forms and emails are often just that. With actiPLANS, however, you can solve that problem in just a few clicks. Less paperwork, less time wasted, and more time spent actually enjoying your well-deserved time off.

Many of us are experiencing problems with staying focused throughout the day. Multitasking, distracting behavior of colleagues, social media, and physical discomfort, like low light or noise at the workplace, often cost us valuable work hours and prevent us from accomplishing more.

Researching Happiness: 8 Really Helpful Productivity Blogs

Researching productivity seems to be a today’s trend. Experts and bloggers are talking and writing about boosting productivity at the workplace, defeating procrastination and increasingwork efficiency. Research-backed conclusions and personal thoughts, motivational stories and expert studies – there’s more than enough information on productivity and related issues. So here’s our list of productivity blogs that are worth taking a look at – for those who want to know more about social, psychological and behavioral aspects of working, learning, and communicating with others in a positive and efficient way.

99u is a creativity and productivity blog. Among the topics it covers, career stories of creative people, remarkable design ideas, and psychological topics should be mentioned. Interviews with people who achieved success in their creative professions would be interesting for ambitious beginners and professionals. Psychological articles on motivation, focusing, and building up self-confidence combine theoretical facts with practical advices, so it’s helpful for those who need science-backed recommendations on improving their work environment, attitude, and, eventually, career.

Dumb Little Man is a blog full of not really dumb advice for all spheres of life on how to ensure your success, achieve more, and change your life for the better. Its topics range from success stories to improving and maintaining physical health, covering such issues as learning foreign languages, beating fear of failure, stepping out of the comfort zone, and developing success as an entrepreneur. In general, it’s about happiness in work and life, positive habits, and gratefulness.

Barking Up The Wrong Tree. Another humble blog author who chose an ironical domain name for the blog: it means “actually, I’m a fool” in Japanese. Its contents cover productivity, success, happiness, and relationships. With its easy-to-read style and in-depth analysis, it presents a really good food for thought and reflection on many psychological issues that keep us from getting what we want in our careers, relationships, and life.

The Muse. Those who don’t really like theoretical psychologies, preferring practical advices and experience sharing, would appreciate this career and productivity blog. It is literally about everything in professional life: advices for job interviews, tips on how to interact with difficult people at work, recommendations on improving career prospects, etc. An interesting feature of this blog is lists of companies that are worth checking out because of promising work prospects or exciting workplace conditions. So it’s really a muse for job seekers.

Productivity 501. Just another boring productivity blog full of clichés on boosting efficiency and dealing with your bully boss? No. In fact, it provides realistic but not always evident suggestions on bringing order, harmony, and efficiency into your work process. Among the publications, you can find such non-trivial ones as thoughts on dependence between battery life and productivity, laziness and talent, and the power of physical communication on hard copies.

actiTIME blog. Productivity and efficient time management is the main idea of the blog. Thoughts and recommendations on project management, tips on how to measure your productivity, a statistical research on work and leave time tracking, and a study on understanding and beating procrastination are the topics covered here. Its audience is those who prefer relying on facts and statistics more than on personal opinions in understanding productivity problems.

Mike St. Pierre’s blog. The topics of this blog may seem more than trivial – office distractions, bad workplace conditions, overworking –but the point is that the author sets right and simple questions to answer and understand your personal scale of the problem.

James Clearu. A blog where forming positive habits, developing productivity and efficient decision making, mastering creativity, improving health, and lifelong learning are discussed. The author develops his own philosophy and provides his readers with lists of recommended books to help them understand their own ways to improve their productivity and performance, and to achieve more without compromising happiness and peace of mind.

It is remarkable that in all productivity blogs, success and achievements are closely interrelated with physical and emotional comfort. Psychologists and writers point out that there is always a way to increase your performance and improve your career prospects without sacrificing free time, healthy habits, or anything that makes you happy. What is more, beating negative attitudes, fear of failures, and reliance on social expectations is what helps you achieve your goals and makes you happy, successful, and productive.

Time Management Basics: 5 Tools to Get You Started

No matter how well organized and efficient we think we are, at some point we’ve all felt as if there’s just not enough hours in the workday to keep up with everything. And so we end up falling behind and we panic. And in a desperate effort to boost our time management skills we start researching books, courses and software applications. To spare you the trouble, I’ve put together a list of 5 excellent (and free!) tools to get you started on the journey to better time management.

Chatting coworkers, doors opening and closing, phones ringing – this is a regular office environment these days. One where concentrating on anything can be pretty difficult. What’s not difficult, however, is to take a look at Noisli. It’s a cool little background noise and color generator that features a wide variety of different high-quality sounds to help you relax, relieve stress or focus while at work.

In a connected world, where our everyday lives are inseparable from technology, we have to put up with a constant barrage of distractions. Which mobile phones and social networks provide in spades. Good thing there’s Freedom - a neat service that allows you to outright block distracting websites, apps or the entire internet. And working distraction-free will help you concentrate on the task at hand way more easily. And who knows, with time maybe even break the habit of constantly checking your phone every couple of minutes.

And while we’re on the subject of distractions, sorting through your inbox has got to take a good chunk out of your workday every day. To help you make this process all but trivial is My Blend. It’s an email aggregator that allows you to unclutter and organize your inbox. Easily unsubscribe from unwanted messages, while having all of your favorite newsletters, promotions or blog updates moved into a separate section and turned into an easy to read visual feed - like your personal lifestyle magazine!

Whether you’re working on big-scale projects that require involvement of multiple employees across different departments, or smaller tasks with only a handful of team members, good communication among colleagues is absolutely essential for successful results in both cases. That’s why a tool like Twoodo could be indispensable in any company looking to streamline the collaboration and day-to-day communication between its employees. Hashtag a topic to share it with your colleagues, set up workflows from your team discussions and send tasks and discussions directly to your calendar. No more need to juggle several applications – create workflows and assign tasks using a single easy-to-use solution.

To manage your time more efficiently you’ll need to understand how you spend it first, and there’s no better tool to help you with that than actiTIME. Keep track of the time it takes you to perform various tasks and assignments, set up estimates to control your time expenses and run detailed reports on the collected data to get a clear picture of where your time goes.

Improving your time management skills is a worthy goal to pursue, and when mastered can have a truly profound effect on your overall productivity. But the sheer abundance of productivity software available on the market these days can be quite overwhelming. So why not save yourself the trouble and get started with the tools covered above!

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

actiTIME