Just thought I’d pop in this morning to share a new tool I’ve found that’s become invaluable to my editing work. It’s Toggl, a simple online tool for time tracking.

There are lots of apps and options for this, but I like Toggl because it allows you to set up a personal account and store your hours in one place (rather than using a timer and recording the total hours worked somewhere else, like an Excel spreadsheet). Better still, all I had to provide to set up an account was an email address. I also like that it has some basic extra features, like organizing by project and running reports. Since I do almost all of my editing on my laptop, it’s easy to just run Toggl in another tab. I’m really enjoying it so far. #notsponsored Haha!

Lately I’ve been making an effort to get a better handle on how long it takes me to work through a project. I have a general idea of how much time I spend per page, but this tool will allow me to zero in on my time per page for different types of editing (like substantive editing vs. proofreading) and different types of writing (like marketing copy vs. fiction)—not to mention varying levels of needed intervention. 🙂 I’m working on updating my pricing page and this data will be so useful for that. And while I’ve never had an issue focusing on a project when I’m charging by the hour, I’ve also found that this tool gives me a sense of being “on the clock” that helps me avoid Pinterest breaks even on projects with flat-rate fees.

Do you use time-tracking tools? Let me know which ones you recommend! I’d also love to hear your thoughts on pricing—there’s so much to consider!

photo by Sonja Langford via Unsplash