Timeular

Kommentare: I use it mainly for tracking progress on projects and time fractions spent doing various tasks, and NOT for the time-tracking capability that is central to the design of the product. I enjoy recording notes about what I do throughout the day, and I enjoy understanding better how long it takes me to do some tasks to enhance my work time estimation skills. The device also serves as a constant reminder of what I am doing, and I have acquired a keen habit of looking at it to remember what I was just doing, or to remember what I must do next. Ultimately, though, ZEI and Timeular don't do enough of what I want them to do. By updating the ZEI to use USB-recharged Li-Ion batteries, passive electronics and a connectivity failure sound from the device, the ZEI itself would be very future-proof as a platform. By including more usability and hierarchy in activities and notes features would be the biggest benefit to my user experience. I leverage the activity tracking strictly to understand my time use better and to stay on task. Timeular does some of this but not enough. Please see my "Cons:" section for a few feature request details. I hope they are helpful, I would very highly recommend the product with these software-only feature updates! Multi-colored markers would be cool, too, or perhaps a smooth plastic material that permits permanent ink to be erased with a solvent wipe without damage.

Vorteile: The basic fundament of it is great. The ZEI caught my eye 2 years ago when it was still in development, and the design of the octahedron tracking current activity seemed great. When it is working, I really enjoy the ability to track all the tasks I engage in daily to better estimate time use, and take notes for different things. My position at my small company involves wearing many hats, and tracking which hat I am wearing for how long is very useful. I do not even use the time card export feature set - the primary purpose of ZEI and Timeular - and I still find some benefit.

Nachteile: Feature request: the ZEI should have a lithium ion battery and USB charging, with rotation-triggered connection after standing it on a corner in the stand puts it to sleep. In my opinion, the device should not need a button press to turn it on once it has been connected - my biggest qualms with the physical device are that it intermittently needs to be reconnected. If the device fails to connect on a turn, a simple beep from the device would probably be the best feature to reduce pain level at intermittent connectivity - an inherent problem with Bluetooth devices. For Timeular itself: with my use for complex task management, the interface is a little restrictive. I find that 8 activities alone are insufficient, and I have to manually adjust many activities to a different type. Feature request: I would really enjoy the option to set 8 *types* of activities, and every time I flip the device I am prompted to sub-select a specific task. The notifications through Windows 10 are sufficient to mediate these prompts. For example, "Meetings" as a type, with sub-types for each team I might meet with. Perhaps this is met by allowing an activity to be set as an "activity class", and if the prompt is not answered then the unspecified activity class remains for later review. Also, a prompt for entering notes upon a flip would be equally sweet. Even sweeter would be a "default notes entry" for each activity or activity class that pre-writes some of the notes field for me.

Kommentare: All in all, Timeular HAS greatly improved my consistency with keeping track of where my time is going. I used to be really bad about logging working time, and adding Timeular to the arsenal has greatly improved time/work documentation.

Vorteile: While the title of my review is specifically about Timeular's ZEI tool, I will make these comments about both that device and their time-tracking software in general. For starters, the ZEI is a very easy-to-use time-tracker. The fact that it's a physical object sitting there on the desk also makes for an easier time remembering to start and stop tracking the time I spend working. It's software is good, but not great. It's UI is fairly straightforward and easy enough to navigate. I also like that it's a desktop app, as opposed to something that has to be accessed via a web portal. Compared to other leading time-tracking company's desktop apps that I've tried, this one works better and provides more control options. I also appreciate the integrations with other software and would LOVE to see more added in the future.

Nachteile: My biggest problem with the Timeular software is that it still feels very tethered or limited by the ZEI device's 8-sided physicality. I get that the ZEI is the right hand and that the software was probably originally designed to be the left hand, however, it seems to me that Timeular's end game is to scale beyond that. A few thoughts/criticisms for how to improve:
- The ZEI has 8 sides. Make it easier in the software to assign those sides to be more general "families" or "genres" of work, and then offer the ability for an unlimited # of projects to start, live, and be completed/archived within those families . This way, I'm not constantly having to reassign sides of the ZEI to correspond with a new client or project. - Give me the ability to log time by day without needing to assign a working session starting and ending times to the minute. In other words, I write down in my paper journal while on the road that I worked 2.5 hours last Thursday, 9/27. I want the ability to be able to go click on last Thursday and quickly type in that I worked 2.5 hours. Doesn't matter WHEN I worked those 2.5 hours in that 24-hour day to my client. They get billed all the same and don't ask when, throughout my days, I'm logging time. I've never really understood why the timestamps are so important. Maybe that information is more important in the corporate world where employees are only "supposed" to be working during certain hours. However, ask any freelancer if that matters. J

Kommentare: Although I use it primarily for tracking how much time I spend doing things at work (including NOT doing work), it's only for my own personal information. It started when I was asking myself just what I spent my time at work doing. I wanted to know, even in broad terms, just how long was I *really* spending trying to read papers and documentation, how much I was actively working on projects, and - let's face it - how much time I wasted on email, Facebook, etc. Speaking of wasting time, just the mere presence of the ZEI sitting on the desk in front of me has made me more mindful of just how much time I spend on email and (especially!!) the black hole/time suck of YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, and the rest of those. Instead of just opening a new browser tab to, say, check news feeds "for just a minute" - meaning those special minutes that last hours - now I have the little external reminder of the ZEI to give me that little extra pause and reconsider. While I might still spend an hour or more when I do get sucked down one of those black holes, now I don't go there as often. That alone has helped me regain some time and focus.

Vorteile: I like it's ease of use the most. It's effortless to use - link each side of the ZEI with a category in the software. I have tried software timers, time trackers on my phone. Each and every one I stop using within days - usually within hours. It just requires too much keeping in mind that I have a tracker running, switch to the application or open my phone, and change it. With the ZEI, I just have to reach over and change facings. And since the ZEI hardware sits on my desk in front of my monitor, I don't forget to do it. In the PC version, the software is very responsive to when I change from one side to another. It's also very easy to just type a couple of words of description into each recorded block to let myself know what I was doing during that time. I find another useful feature is that, while you can only assign one category to a face, you can have many more categories than faces. I use it to track, for example, how much time is spent on different projects. I have one face for 'Project' which I use to track the time block. In the software, after I finished tracking that block, I will change the category from 'Project' to "Specific Project A' or whatever. It's very quick and simple to do, requiring near zero effort on my part.

Nachteile: The app versions - at least running on my phone and tablet - aren't very responsive. It would take several seconds for the app to respond when I change faces or when I wanted to add a note to an entry. I haven't used the app on either for a while now, so that might have been improved since then.

Kommentare: I consult with schools, helping them "gamify" their curricula, and I bill each school by the hour. Instead of spending 1-2 additional hours a week creating, updating, and extracting each client school's time sheet, it takes me 15 minutes to double-check for extraneous/mis-attributed entries and pull together Excel sheets for my overall billable hours and for each client's weekly hours, down to the minute! I can accurately log my creative-brained-tendency to switch rapidly between tasks and am far more confident that I'm not accidentally over- or under-estimating any time spent on a project when I get distracted or In The Flow. I get so many questions and compliments on my "Work D8" as my spouse, clients, and I affectionately refer to it, and I tend to evangelize for my Timeular device and app without even realizing I've slipped into Timeular-PR mode! ;) Thank you SO MUCH for this invention, and I look forward to all the functionality tweaks and updates you geniuses come up with next.

Vorteile: Timeular has streamlined my time-sheet processes immensely and made visualizing my time-management (or, some weeks, lack thereof) a breeze.

Nachteile: Sometimes the app is a little slow and clunky, especially for editing/deleting entries (such as when my cube/D8 rolls around in my bag between client sites and logs a bunch of 1-2 minute nonsense entries I would like to be able to mass-delete, but I have to load and delete each one individually, and sometimes it misses a cube-switch and I end up with comically long time logs, my personal record being 43 hours when it missed being turned off before a weekend...). Also (not re:the software, but the physical cube itself), as someone with a fine-motor disability, the on-off switch mechanism is physically challenging to use, so it doesn't end up turning off reliably when I'm not using it even if I try to hit and squeeze the on-off button. But every app update does seem to make it a little smoother each time, so keep it up, hardworking coding team! <3

Kommentare: Minimal to no need to interact with Support as everything is pretty clear. I believe the one time I did contact Support (before some major updates), my request was dealt with quickly and professionally, and with a wonderful friendly tone over the email!
It really makes it easy to keep track of time with both computer and phone app. If I forget to turn off my timing on the computer, I can do it on my phone at a later time (and/or edit it, of course). It makes me wish I had the Zei. My focus is not spent on spending a lot of time organizing timing of project management, and I love that.

Vorteile: Timuelar is really easy to use. Interface is clean and there is no confusion about how it works.
Time entries are easy to edit. You can create your own types of projects and colour-code them (many colours to choose from). There is even a place to add additional notes.
You have a status report anytime you need it and an additional report at the end of the week of time spent on projects.
Uploads easy to Excel for tax purposes (if necessary in your area/country) and is super readable.
Right now I'm using the free version of the software and I can't say enough about it. I've tested multiple leading time-tracking software and this is by far the best experience so far.

Nachteile: I wish there was a Pomodoro timer function; set for 25 min (or whatever you set it to). This is what I find lacking (and very handy), but perhaps this is with the Zei/paid version? I don't know.
I also wish there was an automatic stop after x-amount of time if I forget to turn off the timer. I want to say this was covered in the last update, but have not seen evidence of this. It's always a surprise to turn on the computer in the morning to see my work on Social Media has been going on for 12 hrs :D