In a never-ending quest to improve my productivity and workflow system, I’ve come up with this simple timesheet to help track how long I spend on each task. This timer, task planner, and timesheet is rolled into one simple page.
This tool has also been a helpful feedback loop when assessing how long each task takes. You know the feeling where you think it’ll take an hour and then inevitably takes three? This should help you schedule your day more accurately.
I won’t go into detail about how to build the timesheet – everything needed is covered in the Notion Foundations articles. Instead, I’ll explain how it works and how you can implement it into your schedule. A link to the template can be found at the bottom.
Sounds good? Then let’s get going!
Timesheet Database
This tool will help you track the total time spent working on tasks, compare it against time estimates, and ultimately let you analyze how you’ve spent your time.
There are two key blocks on this template:
- Embedded timer – I’ve incorporated a timer onto this page for simplicity. Hit play as you start your task. Alternatively, you can just use the clock on your device.
- Database – There are three database views in this template (I’ll explain how to add more further down the article). These views include All Tasks, Grouped By Project, and Grouped By Month.
Database Properties
There are seven database properties that make up each timesheet entry.
- Done – Checkbox for you to tick once you’re done with a task (satisfying isn’t it?). This also helps to feed the Hours property.
- Project – Assign a project to your task. This forms the Grouped By Project view.
- Task – Name of your task
- Expected Time – I follow the Pomodoro Technique – you break your schedule up into 25-minute work blocks and 5-minute breaks. Each tomato emoji represents a 30-minute block. A max of four tomatoes has been set up but you can add more. You could just change this to a number property where you type in the expected time, but where’s the fun in that? 😜
- Actual Time – Log your actual time spent here – the embedded timer can help track your time. Make sure you toggle the “End date” and “Include time”
- Hours – Notion formula that only activates when the “Done” checkbox is ticked. if(prop(“Done”), floor(100 * dateBetween(end(prop(“Actual Time”)), start(prop(“Actual Time”)), “minutes”) / 60) / 100, toNumber(“”)). If you want to display minutes instead of hours, delete the “ / 60” part.
- Summary – Text property where you can summarize your task or how productive you think you were.
These are the starting database properties but you can always add more according to your needs. One idea would be to link this time sheet database with your master task database so that it’s one seamless timesheet tracker.
Timesheet Views
This timesheet template includes three views.
All Tasks
The master view shows all your tasks and properties. At the bottom of the Done, Actual Time, and Hours columns, there is a summary of each column. For example, Done is showing 60% as 3 out of the 5 tasks there have been checked off as completed.
Grouped By Project
As the name states, each table is grouped by project. At the bottom, you can add new projects by clicking on “+ Add a group”.
Grouped By Month
Last but not least is a monthly summary. To edit the time period (say to weekly), click on the ellipsis (three dots), Group, Date by and select accordingly. If you’re using a weekly view on a regular basis, I suggest you add another table view.
Get The Template For Free
Like all of my Excel and Notion templates, this timesheet template is 100% free, and I don’t require your email for it.
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As promised, you can find the Timesheet template here. Create a duplicate of the template and adjust the template according to your needs.
Thanks for reading and I hope you found this helpful!
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