Measuring the Impact of Async-First Practices Starts with Tracking Time

As a placeless leader, I value output over input—I care more about actual work that is produced than the number of hours that someone spends in front of their computer. However, that doesn’t mean that input doesn’t matter at all. Time spent accomplishing tasks is valuable data that can help inform process improvement, workforce planning, training interventions, and more.?

Let’s say a team member takes three hours to complete a task that should only take them one. This is a signal to investigate possible causes, such as:?

• Not having access to all the information they need to accomplish their task
• Too many notifications and meetings keep disrupting their work?
• The process they are following is inefficient?
• A need for more training?

When you’re leading a virtual team, you can’t rely on visual cues to gauge your team’s efficiency. However, time spent on tasks is one data point that translates equally whether remote or in-office.?

Tracking time is helpful in remote and hybrid teams because:?

?? In order to identify inefficiencies to improve, you first need to know how much time is actually being spent on tasks.?

?? Insight into team members’ workloads helps indicate when you need to hire more people to support certain functions.?

?? Tracking time provides an opportunity for self-reflection and can help minimize the Planning Fallacy, or the tendency to underestimate the amount of time it takes to complete a task.?

?? Related: when you have accurate knowledge of how long tasks will take, you can more accurately assess whether you have the bandwidth to take on additional tasks. This keeps you from taking on more work than you have the capacity to accomplish.?

?? If underdeveloped skills cause someone to spend more time than expected on a task, appropriate training interventions can be implemented.?

Want More Async? Track Time?

If you are trying to make the business case for your team or organization to adopt more asynchronous practices, your case will be more compelling if you have data on time spent on inefficient processes. While you can use industry or general workforce data (like time spent in meetings or time wasted due to interruptions), data that is specific to your team or organization will have more of an impact.?

Since one of the most valuable benefits of more balanced communication is time saved, you’ll need to first know what the baseline is for those processes you are aiming to improve. Once you do start leveraging more async communication to improve productivity, you’ll also use time tracked to demonstrate the impact of those new skills, processes, and practices.?

Getting Started?

Tracking time is an administrative task that takes, well, time. You’ll need to set up a process to make this task as easy as possible. If you or your team are not currently tracking your time, and are open to adopting a new tool, here are some suggestions:

• Harvest
• Toggl
• Time Doctor

Some project management tools also have time tracking built into their products, like ClickUp.?

To develop the habit of tracking time, set up recurring tasks or reminders to do so. If you’re expecting your team to also track time, make sure that you have articulated the exact purpose for doing so, specifically the benefits that your team will see. To be clear, I do not encourage any kind of micromanagement when it comes to time tracking, nor should it be a substitute for measuring results.?

Ideally, team members should have the autonomy, mindset, and psychological safety to proactively identify and improve inefficiencies on their own. Leaders can help support team members develop this practice by framing time tracking as an essential component to process improvement, modeling desired behaviors themselves, and coaching direct reports on how to identify and resolve inefficiencies.

In my next newsletter, I'll share the process we're working through at Workplaceless to improve our processes and save time by leveraging automations. Make sure to subscribe!

Do you currently track time spent on tasks? If so, how are you using that data to improve your own team’s effectiveness??