Time: The most precious of commodities
Have you watched Stranger Things yet? I am sure I am not alone in walking away feeling inspired to play Dungeons & Dragons again.
Rose tinted glasses. The reality being that I am forgetting the complexity and size of the manuals, just to start a simple game… might have to pass.
That being said, everyone loves a good board game right? Ignore the monopoly politics & family feuds over Cluedo, can’t beat a good game of mouse trap or opertation?
If you have taken a dive into board games, you quickly realise that the best games are made by the Germans. Games such as Carcassone, Settlers of Catan or Agricola are amazing, minimal time to learn to play, lifetimes to master and fun for everyone.
Unfortunately, most people haven’t heard of them as they are not mainstream. They reside in the corner of Waterstones hidden or relegated to speciality games shops that terrifies people.
Why the preamble? Simple, Time Tracking is exactly the same.
Using a simple spreadsheet or diary is a great start and many people do it (Time Sheets right?)
If you take a deep dive and use an all singing, all dancing program to time track – it’s all to much for most of us.
But the true power and happiness lies in the least well known tools that take a little discovery…
So here is it, ZEI° (pronounced like “eye”)…
Not only does it look like a D&D style D8 (eight sided die) but it is the ultimate time tracking desk toy.
Why?
Working as a freelancer is fun and equally tough. I spent a period of time in my life where I was working hard but the money coming in was not reflective of the work I was doing.
I had a vague idea where it was going but could give no specifics and couldn’t change it either.
Not only was this hurting my ability to “drink and eat” but I was massively devaluing what I do and misrepresenting the time it takes to do a job.
This had to stop.
I’d tried any number of time tracking apps on both my phone and my computers. I would start with good intentions but I always forgot to start/stop/pause a timer and ended up doing more work fixing the timers that it was supposed to be saving.
This was no reflection on the many great software packages out there and more telling about my ability to get lost in the chaos of day to day.
Enter ZEI°
I saw an opportunity to Beta test a bit of kit that would track my time…. look at it, seems wierd right?
So I ordered a ZEI° and this lovely desk device was delivered with the care attention that you would expect from a new parent delivery a first Christmas present to their child.
I installed the apps (they are available for all Platforms) on my iPhone, iPad & Mac and jumped in with 2 feet.
How it work
Simple really.
- Setup projects in the App
- Allocate them to a side (face) of the ZEI°
- Label that side(face) as you see fit…. I used stickers becuase they are fun!
- As you do things, turn the ZEI° over to the appropriate side and it does the rest.
As a guide, I setup these Projects :
- Telephone
- Clients 1 – 5
- most importantly for me, “Pause”
You can add notes as you change side. Which I do, so I can see who I was “telephone” calling with or “email” -ing.
At the end of the day/week/month I can run reports and see what I have been doing. Simple
If you happen to use Toggl, there is a cool integration of the two. And there are more planned.
Sounds good right?
The team behind ZEI°, are a great bunch and always happy to help.
I am proud to have been one of the first 100 people in the world to Beta test this. I put my cold hard cash down to do it and I love it.
If you fancy a go and want to support a great product, you can back them on Kickstarter here: ZEI° – the most simple time tracking solution by Timeular
They still have another 2 weeks to run and smashed their funding goal already.
If you want to know more about uses or want to meet for a coffee and a demo, drop me a line anytime