The best-rated time management tools for small businesses and freelancers

For small business owners, freelancers and solo contractors, time is the most important resource. So, while looking for the best small business apps, you should be prioritising those that will help you optimise how you spend your time.

Why is time management important for small businesses and freelancers?

Large and medium-sized businesses have enough staff strength to divide core duties and routine tasks. This also allows them to take days off. But as a freelancer or small business manager, you’re always on call. Without time management, you might focus on the wrong things and feel continuously exhausted.

Even when you work on your core tasks, you might get routinely interrupted and left unable to focus. Importantly, if you don’t manage your time, you’ll have no work-life balance. That’s why along with project management apps, expense tracking apps and accounting apps, you should consider these eight of the best small business apps for time management.

8 time management apps for small businesses and freelancers

1. Remember the milk

As the name suggests, it’s a reminder app that works with an easy interface. The app will remind you of what you have to do on any of your devices, ensuring that, well, it gets done. It’s ideal for those starting out.

2. Clockify

You want a free time tracker app that’s used by some of the biggest companies on the planet? Try Clockify which lets you track your hours across various projects. What makes it suitable for small businesses is that you can add unlimited users for free.

3. Slack

It isn’t just time tracker software. It’s the productivity app that will let you manage your time, resources and projects. You can create separate channels for different functions and teams and supervise their progress. Slack’s basic version should be enough for freelancers and most small businesses.

4. Trello

Trello is collaboration made easy. You can create boards, cards and lists for different projects. You can track how you and your team members spend their time, manage tasks, effortlessly set goals and get everyone involved.

5. Infinity

With Infinity, you get to organise all your teams and projects in one place. What makes it particularly useful is the interface -which will remind you of your email inbox - that allows you to order the tasks. You can customise the view or have a completely new view whenever you open a tab.

6. TimeCamp

Sometimes managing different teams can make it difficult to get an overview of your performance against your goals. But not with TimeCamp. This intuitive software not only lets you track the progress of various projects and teams but also gives you much-needed reports on how you’re dividing time across projects.

7. Toggl Track

If you’re a freelancer who wants to track your time and be more productive, the app you should consider is Toggl Track. It’s your time expert that will help you manage your time across projects and ensure that you hit your goals. It’s excellent at sending reminders and will give you insightful reports based on data from your projects.

8. RescueTime

If saving time and spending it with your loved ones is your priority - which it should be - RescueTime is here to help. What it does is help you stay focused on the task, send timely reminders about upcoming meetings or engagements and ensures that you save time every day. What we particularly like about this critic’s favourite time-tracking software is the fact that it tracks how you spend time from the taskbar of your browser. It then compares it against millions of other users and gives you a daily goal to accomplish.

In short

The difference between those who accomplish more and those who are always running behind time is the right time management software. Among the best small business apps, these are what every entrepreneur, freelancer or small business owner should use to optimise how they spend their time and improve their productivity.