Time tracking should empower your team, not burden them. Yet many organizations fall into common traps that turn this valuable tool into a source of frustration and inefficiency. Here are the five most critical mistakes we see teams make – and how to avoid them.
1. Making Time Tracking Too Granular
The biggest mistake teams make is requiring employees to track every minute of their day in excruciating detail. This creates administrative overhead that often takes more time than the value it provides.
Solution: Focus on meaningful categories and projects. Track at the task or project level, not the minute level. Your goal is insights, not surveillance.
2. Using Time Tracking as a Performance Metric
When time tracking becomes tied to performance reviews or compensation, it immediately becomes adversarial. Employees start gaming the system rather than providing honest data.
Solution: Use time tracking for resource planning and process improvement, not individual performance evaluation. Make this policy clear to your team.
3. Ignoring the Data You Collect
Many teams diligently track time but never analyze the data or act on insights. This makes the entire exercise feel pointless to employees.
Solution: Regularly review time tracking data as a team. Use it to identify bottlenecks, optimize workflows, and make data-driven decisions about resource allocation.