“How can I get my Chrometa time entries directly onto a bill?”

Good news – now you can create and even email an invoice with the click of a button! Head over to our new Invoices section to get started. Once there:

1. Select your time period
2. Select the Client and Project you want to invoice
3. Click the “Get Time” button

Chrometa will pull your categorized time entries, with annotations, and…you’ve got yourself an invoice!  One that you can export (to Word, PDF, Excel), and/or email directly to your client.

Sample Chrometa Invoice

PS – Not yet a Chrometa user? You can get started capturing your time automatically – and invoicing for it – for free, today.

1. Enable the Xero export within Chrometa by going to Account – Integrations, and clicking the Enable Xero Invoice Integration checkbox.

2. Create your Project in Chrometa to mirror your Xero Contact – specifically by name, and most importantly email address, which is how Chrometa looks for a match during export.

The quickest way to populate your Projects within Chrometa is via a bulk import of your list in CSV format.  Go to the Projects tab in Chrometa, and click the Import Clients button (upper-right) to access the bulk import feature.

3. Create a new invoice by going to the Invoices tab.  Select the New Invoice button.

4. Create a new invoice, save it, and export it to Xero. You can combine the Save and Export steps by taking advantage of the “And” menu located immediately below the Save button.

5. Authenticate the Chrometa connection within Xero (you’ll be prompted to do so), and then you’ll be able to view and edit your invoice within Xero!

If you’re not yet a Xero user, you can take their online accounting app for a free spin here.

If you live by your BlackBerry, here’s a list of some of the top rated time tracking apps in BlackBerry App World. Take advantage of these apps to capture your mobile email and telephone time, and get paid for your work on the go.

1. Call Time Tracker by momentem

Price: Free

momentem’s Call Time Tracker is one of the most downloaded business applications for the BlackBerry. It automatically tracks the time you spend on phone calls and mobile email. This app pops up at the end of important calls, letting you quickly tag that call to a client or project so you won’t forget to bill for it. You can tag the time you spend reading or writing emails on your BlackBerry. At the end of the month, you get an Excel sheet of your mobile calls delivered to your inbox, with entries neatly categorized by client/project.

Call Time Tracker - Tagging a call

Call Time Tracker - Call summary

Disclaimer: momemtem is also a Chrometa partner.

2. BlackTrack Lite Activity Management

Price: Free

BlackTrack Lite is a background application for your BlackBerry that produces a complete log of phone/email activity with duration details. The app automatically logs and reports phone and email activity — without any data entry. The activity report is automatically emailed to the user periodically.

BlackTrack Lite Report

BlackTrack Lite App Screenshot

3. Timr

Price: Free

Timr is essentially a BlackBerry timer app that integrates tightly with their multi-user time tracking web app. The BlackBerry app syncs automatically with the web, so all of your time entries are in one place. This application does not do background tracking of phone call and email time. However, you can create many projects and run multiple timers simultaneously. Key differentiating features include Drive Log and Position Tracking.

Timr BlackBerry Interface

Timr Web App

4. Exgis Time Tracker

Price: $4.99

Exgis Time Tracker is a simple timer for tracking your job time. You create time entries either by starting a timer or by manual input. You can export your time in the form of a spreadsheet, which can be sent to you via email.

Exgis Time Tracker - New Time Line

Exgis Time Tracker - View Clients

5. miTimesheet

Price: $3.99

miTimesheet is another BlackBerry only time tracking application that lets you log project time through timers and manual entry. You can export your timesheet to CSV format and it can be delivered to you by email.

miTimesheet - Time Entry

miTimesheet - View TImesheets

Honorable mention: AIRTIME-Manager

We’d be remiss if we didn’t also include an honorable mention of our own – from another Chrometa partner, Airtime Manager makes a solid BlackBerry Time Tracker for attorneys and legal professionals.

Geared towards firms with entrenched billing systems, Airtime Manager integrates smoothly with many of the top legal time and billing software packages.

That wraps up our BlackBerry time tracking app rec’s.  If you’re looking for PC-based time tracking, time management, and productivity software, check out our creations

Has it every been more challenging to get work done than it is today?  It’s quite ironic that, as fortunate as we are to have all of the technological innovations we enjoy today, these “productivity boosters” can be too much of a good thing.

Sometime late last year, I found myself really looking forward to a free weekend where I had nothing planned – which would allow me to get “a lot of work done”.  So starting Saturday morning, I plowed away at my “to do” list.  Same thing on Sunday.  I knocked off more things than I would have during a normal work week, and in only two days.

These weekend work sessions have become a real boon to my productivity.  And many people I’ve discussed this with have shared my experience.

“Absolutely, I can’t get anything done during the week, there are just too many interruptions,” they’ll say.

But recently I got to thinking – wait, there’s something really wrong with this picture.

First off – I love what I do.  I’m building my own company, I’ve gotten to choose everyone I work with – so absolutely no complaints.  BUT – is it healthy to work for consecutive weeks on end, without breaking away.

I don’t think so.  Hard work is great, and absolutely required for entrepreneurs.  But often our best ideas will come when we least expect it – when our mind is free to relax and drift.  This can’t happen if we work 24/7/365 – we just never get the opportunity.

So recently, I’ve started devising a system that would help optimize my personal/business productivity, AND bring a little more balance to my life.

I started by immersing myself in many of the time management and productivity methodologies out there – and there are no shortage of them.

I actually have traditionally avoided these, because, well, I fancied myself as being relatively productive.

So here’s an overview of a hybrid system I’ve developed.  One thing I learned is that, as an entrepreneur, my playbook is always changing.  So I need to develop a very flexible system – beyond just optimal efficiency.  Sure, it’s great if I get a lot done, but if it’s not the right stuff, who really cares anyway.

The three principles I’ve been successfully incorporating:

1. Always be prioritizing – most things don’t actually matter.

Classic 80/20 rule – 20% of the things you do will provide 80% of the value.  If you have 10 things on your “to do” list, the top 2 are much more valuable than the next 8 combined.

I’d encourage you to chew on this concept a bit – it’s simple, yet very powerful.  I try to reprioritize my top items on a weekly basis (this is a better use of weekend work time).  I’ve found that many of the “next 8” are no longer important anymore.

2. Don’t get too busy – fake it if you feel guilty.

Resist the urge to fill up your day with meetings, phone calls, and items that you need to get done.  I constantly ask myself: “What’s the worst that will happen if I don’t have this meeting?  If I don’t get this done?”  If it’s not that bad, axe it.

Sure, it feels great to be busy, and to “get a lot done.”  But I think as an entrepreneur, this is a trap.

If I look back at all the time I’ve invested in Chrometa since we founded it, most of the things I’ve done haven’t mattered at all in the long run. I’ll bet just 5% of my efforts have yielded 80% or more of our benefits.

Since I realized this, I’ve tried to sit back and think that if I only had one hour to work today, what would I do?  That usually helps push a sales/marketing activity to the forefront.  It’s never administrative work, that’s for sure.

And if you want to project a busy façade for the rest of the world to see?  Go for it – nobody’s going to know you’re not really that busy.  Heck, Ben Franklin used to run through the streets of Philadelphia carry reams of paper by hand back to his printing shop.  It was all for show – because not only did Franklin value hard work, but he also valued the appearance of hard work.

3. If it has to be done, then just focus and do it.

The old weekend phenomena revisited.  On weekends, with no incoming distractions, I can just focus in and knock something off.  Weekdays it’s been a challenge – emails, instant messages, phone calls, clicking over to the web (what’s the DOW doing today?).

So here’s how I am trying to emulate the weekend experience, during the week:

1. Practice time boxing for the items that I need to do – specifically, what is it, and how long will it take.  The list is a manageable size for the day, thanks to the vetting system we’ve discussed.  Never more than 5-6 “to do” items for a given day, and preferably even less.
2. Just do them – minimize interruptions until it’s done.  If it’s a long task, break it up into sub-items.  I’ve been quite amazed that even the most daunting task can often be knocked off in 60 minutes or less – provided the focus is there.
3. See how long it took.  This is something I use our time management software for, and it’s quite helpful.  I can see what time I started something, what time I finished, and how long it took.  Interruptions are also there.  Since I know I’m “on the clock”, and will be graded afterwards, I’ve been on my best behavior.

In sum, I’ve found that the key to my personal productivity is exactly what small business and time management guru Brian Tracy has been preaching for years – focus on just one thing at a time, your most valuable activity, and don’t stop until it’s completed.

Further Reading: The First Rule of Productivity: One Thing at a Time

From my studies, I like these 7 proven ways to beat procrastination.

1. Do the worst thing first thing: This is known as swallowing the frog first thing and the rest of the day looks good. It gets me through lots of “procrastination” issues.

2. Break it down: Often there are small parts of the task that can be done. Often the reason that we procrastinate is because the task ahead of us is too big. How do you walk 100 miles? One step at a time.

3. Get help. I wasn’t actually referring to delegation (but of course that is good too), I was referring to having someone help you start the task. Often it is the act of starting a task that is enough to get the task done.

4. Do the pleasant part of the task: Often many distasteful and large jobs have some parts to it that are not particular distasteful. Do them so at least you are moving forward on your most important items.

5. 20 minutes: Just spend 20 minutes on a task. I have the attitude that I can spend 20 minutes doing anything. Often by spending the 20 minutes on a task is enough to get the momentum rolling to get it done.

6. Track it: The simple act of tracking process on a goal is often enough to keep the goal moving forward. I like Time Tracking Software for this of course.

7. Reward or punish: The reason we do something is because it is more painful than not doing something, so if we can make a task more rewarding or more painful, then we tend to move forward faster.

Remember that even successful people occasionally procrastinate. And it is solvable.

The idea spawned from a conversation that we were having with the fine folks who run Social Media Law Student. We were originally planning to offer a steep discount on Chrometa for students in their listening audience…and then I started thinking back to my days as a student (which were not too long ago).

I was always broke (some would argue I still am!) Why not just make it free. So there you go – if you’re in law school, here’s how you can get a free copy of Chrometa:

1. Download the free trial of our time tracking software.
2. Send us an email from your school email address (.edu)
3. We’ll send you a complimentary license code back!

It yours to keep – we hope that it’s of use to you in law school, and of course we’d encourage you to use Chrometa when you land your first gig.  The partners will be in awe of how many billable hours you rack up

And we ALWAYS appreciate your referrals – please refer Chrometa to friends and family who you think will benefit from it using this form: http://www.chrometa.com/refer-us.php

They’ll thank you – and so will we!

You’re probably wondering what kind of lettuce I’ve been smoking to write this in a blog focused on productivity and – hello – time management.

I’m talking about time management in the classic sense of the word. Getting through your “to do” list faster. It’s a complete waste of time.

What you really need to do is to look at everything that you have on your list – and pick the single most important thing. Then work on it, uninterrupted, until it’s completed.

The uninterrupted part is the toughest, by far. It’s SO easy and tempting to check your email, answer the phone, respond to an instant message, or click over to a website.

But if you can master this ability, you’ll boost your productivity significantly, and you’ll be able to work the same, or even less, hours.

This is possible because you’re assuring two things. First, that you’re working on the single most important task at hand. Not the most urgent task, or the easiest one – but the most important one. So often, we plow down our “to do” lists, with our heads down, without seriously questioning whether it makes a difference if we even do most of the items on it.

And the sad truth is – it doesn’t. The 80/20 principle tells us that 80% of our results will come from 20% of our inputs. By picking the single most important task to work on, we’re making sure that it falls within the critical 20%.

And secondly, by focusing 100% of our energies on this item, we’ll accomplish it much faster than we would have if we’d allowed ourselves to be distracted by interruptions, or worse, tried to multi-task and complete two or three items at once.

Interruptions are the real killer. It’s amazing how fast you can get something done, if that’s all you do.

I hadn’t realized this until I started using our time management software to measure the amount of active working time I was spending on work items. Sadly, items would often sit on my “to do” list all week, where’d I’d get to them on the weekend.

And with the benefit of no incoming interruptions (because the rest of the world was out having a life), I was able to focus, and get the thing done.

The real surprise came when I checked my elapsed time spent on the task after the fact – I realized that I could get A LOT done under an hour. Like, basically anything on my “to do” list would be accomplished in an hour or less – provided I just sat down and did the work.

So try this exercise tomorrow – pick one thing, and work on it until it’s done. No distractions, and no excuses. You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish.