MacLife UK – August 2019

Image rights: Toggl OÜ.

Toggl

Self–employed? Track your free time

Free From Toggl, toggl.com

Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 10.3 or later

With more and

more people now

working freelance,

there are plenty of

apps to help you keep track

of your time and projects, so

that you can accurately bill

your clients.

Toggl says it oļers

“insanely simple time

tracking”, which isn’t

entirely true, as the blank

screen that initially faces you

is rather unhelpful. But it

doesn’t take long to get the

hang of the basics, and the

iOS version of the app is free,

so you can download it to see

if it suits you.

To get started, you simply

tap the Play button at the

bottom of the screen in order

to start a “time entry”. You

can name each time entry

and link it to a particular

project, or use tags to add

further information. When

TOGGL

Free, and no IAPs

Simple controls

Mac version also available

No tutorial to help get started

GREAT

A quick tap on

the screen tells

Toggl to record

the time spent

on each project.

you’re Ľnished, you just tap

the Stop button and Toggl

will make a note of the time

spent on that task. It can

combine all your timed

entries to provide a detailed

report with a graph of how

you’ve spent your time

during the week.

Toggl has a simple one–day

calendar that shows all the

time entries for the current

day. You can also link Toggl

to the iOS Calendar so it can

remind you to start a timer

for a meeting or other events

that you have scheduled.

There’s also an option to use

the popular “pomodoro”

time–management technique

to break down your working

day into 25–minute segments,

and a “focus” mode that will

start a music playlist to help

you concentrate when you

start on a particular task.

The app can be confusing,

though. When you start a

time entry and give it a name,

that entry is added to the

app’s record of the day’s

events, but isn’t included in

the overall report of your

time usage unless you also

assign it to a “project”. The

link between time entries,

projects and tags isn’t

explained very well — an

introductory tutorial would

help new users.

There’s also a Mac version

of Toggl available if you want

to sync timer info across all

your devices.

THE BOTTOM LINE. A quick

and easy way of tracking your

time when you’re at work.

CLIFF JOSEPH

Toggl can monitor all your timers

to create a graphical report.

Tough testing, trusted ratings

maclife.comAUG 2019 63