One of the challenges that many freelancers face is the difficulty in letting clients know that they are getting stuff done. Even if you aren’t a freelancer, and you have a team working with you, it can be difficult to track workflow and productivity. One way you can improve this difficulty is to use software that can help track your work activities.
iJobo: Freelance Activity Journal
It’s true that iJobo is geared mainly toward freelancers. The program will check your activities, and monitor your work flow. You can track time spent in each program, and even filter out which programs and windows you want to include. This can be a valuable tool for freelancers for two reasons:
- Show clients what you have been doing: Especially if you bill hourly, rather than by the project, this type of software can be helpful. You can keep track of time on each task, and you can present it in an attractive visual format for your clients.
- Analyze your own patterns of productivity: On top of that, you can boost your productivity levels. Even if you don’t want to share the intimate details of your time use with your clients, you can still check your own patterns. How much time are you spending on Facebook? Could you be spending more time on more effective projects? Having your activities, and the time spent on them, readily available to you can be a real eye-opener.
iJobo also features real-time work optimization, which is designed to help keep you on track, reducing the amount of inactivity you have, or the distractions that you might experience. This can be very helpful if you are fighting the distractions that sometimes come with being your own boss.
Using iJobo with Employees
Freelancers aren’t the only business people who can benefit from iJobo. In some cases, it is possible for employers to use it to help keep track of employee productivity. It is possible to manage up to 1,000 employees with the help of iJob. You can look for patterns in workflow to identify problems, and then address them, improving your overall efficiency.
iJobo can be used to manage your employees as well as yourself. This way, you stay on task, and you are more likely to complete projects on time. It can help make everyone involved more accountable for their time, and increase the productive efficiency of the office.
Privacy Concerns
As you might imagine, there are likely to be privacy concerns with a product like iJobo. Personal information can be excluded from the work log, reducing your exposure to ID theft, and you can set filters that scramble all numbers, presenting them as scrambled text, so that your passwords and other information are kept safe. Some screenshots are blurry, preventing others from seeing information that might be on a page you are on. You can also drill down to set privacy for each individual application, or for each browser window.
You can start iJobo with a free 30-day trial that comes with two licenses. Each additional license (for each additional computer) is $16. For a freelancer or a small business, this could be quite affordable.
Miranda is freelance journalist. She specializes in topics related to money, especially personal finance, small business, and investing. You can read more of my writing at Planting Money Seeds.