According to statistics, Firefox takes the fourth place in terms of browser market share right after Google Chrome, Safari, and Microsoft Edge browser. 

Apart from being quite popular and easy to use, Firefox browser offers a wide range of extensions that you can use daily — both for work and personal use.

Whether you need an easy way to schedule social media posts or want to increase your productivity, Firefox extensions are a sure-fire solution.

To help you choose the right Firefox extension for your needs, in this blog post, we’ll:

• Give you the list of the best Firefox extensions you should try,
• Provide you with all the important details about these tools, such as their prices, pros and cons, and more, and
• Answer some of the frequently asked questions about the Firefox extensions.

The best Firefox extensions for different business needs

Here are some of the best Firefox extensions you should install on your browser depending on your needs:

• Clockify — best for time tracking and increased productivity,
• Tree Style Tab — best for organizing your tabs,
• DownThemAll! — best for managing downloads,
• uBlock Origin — best for privacy protection and a better browser experience,
• Grammarly — best for grammar-checking,
• Turn Off the Lights — best for enhanced video viewing experience,
• Publer — best for social media scheduling,
• Bitwarden — best for managing passwords, and
• FireShot — best for capturing screenshots.

Clockify — best for time tracking and increased productivity

Clockify is a time tracking software used by millions. It lets you track work hours across projects.

Why is Clockify best for time tracking and increased productivity?

Clockify offers many options to help you record the time you spend on your tasks and projects.

With Clockify’s Firefox time tracking extension, you can:

• Track your time via timer or manually (using timesheets),
• Utilize reminders and idle detection alerts for more accurate time tracking, and
• Track your time by selecting any text in the browser (for example, an email subject in Gmail).

For example, I use Clockify’s timer to track how much time I spend on each project, which helps me plan and organize my workload more efficiently. 

Apart from tracking my time with it, I also use Clockify’s Firefox extension to increase my productivity. 

One of my favorite features that I can use with Clockify’s Firefox extension is the Pomodoro Timer. It allows me to work in regular work/break intervals using the Pomodoro technique.

To be able to add minutes for time intervals and breaks, check the “Enable pomodoro timer” box in settings.

By using Clockify’s Pomodoro timer, you can eliminate burnout and increase your focus. 

With Clockify’s Firefox time tracking extension, not only will you be able to track your time easily, but you’ll also become a more productive version of yourself.

Clockify’s pros

These are some of the main benefits of using Clockify:

• It allows you to continue the timer for an activity with just one click (for an activity that’s already recorded in your timesheets),
• It offers the possibility of automatically stopping the timer at a specified time of the day, and
• It is extremely easy to set up and use.

Clockify’s cons

To see some of the main disadvantages of using Clockify, take a look at the list below:

• It doesn’t have an option of splitting a time entry into two with a single action,
• It doesn’t allow you to schedule multiple tasks on a timeline, and
• For additional time tracking features like the option to import timesheets from a file directly to Clockify, you’ll need to upgrade to one of the paid plans.

What’s new in Clockify

In October 2023, Clockify introduced some UX improvements to its users. These include removing the “Load more” button that users had to click to load projects/tags and implementing infinite scrolling which allows projects/tags to load as the user scrolls.

In the same month, Clockify also introduced updates for ClickUp integration. One of these updates includes the ability to pick up ClickUp’s task name and start tracking time for that task via timer. 

These updates are all available in Google Chrome and Firefox extensions.

Apart from the Firefox extension, Clockify also offers several other platforms.

Tree Style Tab — best for organizing your tabs

Tree Style Tab can easily become one of your favorite Firefox add-ons. It allows you to organize your tabs as “trees” and rearrange them according to your needs. 

Why is Tree Style Tab best for organizing your tabs?

Tree Style Tab is an indispensable asset for anyone who has a tough time dealing with tab cluttering.

With Tree Style Tab’s Firefox extension, you can:

• Organize your tabs by creating Independent Tabs, Child Tabs, or Sibling Tabs,
• Use the “History” option to search for a specific page you’ve once opened, and
• Utilize the “Bookmarks” option to quickly find a specific page you’ve previously bookmarked. 

Tree Style Tab can help you get a better overview of all your tabs, and it is also ideal if you want to organize your tabs by grouping them.

For example, I use Tree Style Tab to create “trees” where each tree reflects a group of tabs on the same topic. In other words, if I’m researching how to build a browser extension, for instance, but I’m also exploring different Firefox add-ons, I can create two tab-trees, one for each topic.

I also like using the Tree Style Tab’s “History” option. It allows me to quickly find a specific page by applying the “By Date and Site” filter, for example.

If I need to find a specific page that I’ve opened in the last 7 days, I don’t have to waste time opening and scrolling down my browser history to find it. With Tree Style Tab, I can do it in the extension itself.

In addition, all tabs are neatly organized into folders, which makes the whole search process even easier.

Although Tree Style Tab doesn’t offer much functionality compared to some other similar extensions, it is still worth installing if you want a simple tab manager extension.

Tree Style Tab’s pros 

Here are some key advantages of using Tree Style Tab:

• It allows you to rearrange your tabs by dragging and dropping them,
• It helps you keep track of different websites and pages as you switch between tasks, and
• It allows you to group your tabs for better organization.

Tree Style Tab’s cons 

These are some of the disadvantages of using Tree Style Tab:

• It is scarce in features compared to some other similar extensions,
• It may take you a little longer to master all the settings, and
• Its UI design could be more aesthetically pleasing.

What’s new in Tree Style Tab

On the 10th of November 2023, Tree Style Tab released a new version of the extension with some updates. 

These new updates include options like additional context menu commands  “Mute/Unmute this Tree” and “Mute/Unmute Descendants” and more.

DownThemAll! — best for managing downloads

If you need a free download manager browser extension, DownThemAll! is the right solution for you.

Why is DownThemAll! best for managing downloads?

DownThemAll! makes managing and downloading a bunch of files a breeze. 

With DownThemAll!’s Firefox extension, you can:

• Download all the links or media from a certain web page in one go,
• Choose specific links or media that you want to download from a certain web page, and
• Apply filters like GIF Images, Videos, Audio, and more to quickly organize and select the items you want to download.

What I especially like about DownThemAll! is that it also allows me to create a separate folder for the files that I downloaded using this extension. 

By using the “Subfolder” option, I can create and name a subfolder and store all my downloads there.

This new subfolder will be saved automatically in my Downloads folder. 

With DownThemAll!, I can also pause, resume, and cancel downloads at any time, so I have complete control over the downloading process.

DownThemAll!’s pros 

Here are some of the biggest advantages of DownThemAll!:

• It provides the “All Tabs” option to download links and media from all opened tabs simultaneously, 
• It allows you to easily download a multitude of files at once and save time, and
• It offers customizable filters to organize and download the files you need at a given moment.

DownThemAll!’s cons 

Let’s see some of the disadvantages of using DownThemAll!:

• It would be nice if you could see the images you want to download (in the form of a thumbnail, for example) and not just their links,
• The option of creating custom filters may be difficult to understand, and
• It doesn’t offer many functionalities.

What’s new in DownThemAll!

DownThemAll!’s most recent updates were presented to their users on August 23rd 2023, when DownThemAll!’s 4.11 version was released. One of these updates includes the ability to download the AVIF image format.

DownThemAll! is also available as an extension for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.

uBlock Origin — best for privacy protection and a better browser experience

The uBlock Origin is an efficient blocker add-on that can help you block ads, trackers, and more. 

Why is uBlock Origin best for privacy protection and a better browser experience? 

The uBlock Origin has all the necessary options a great privacy extension may offer and more.

With uBlock Origin’s Firefox extension, you can:

• Block unwanted ads, large media elements, or remote fonts (fonts from external servers) on certain websites,
• Remove page elements such as disturbing images you may encounter on some pages, for example, and
• Prevent tracking and malicious advertising of third-party advertisers to protect your privacy.

With uBlock Origin, you don’t have to worry about malicious or intrusive ads and pop-ups that spoil your browsing experience. You can simply block them and continue using the browser without such interruptions.

You can also set custom settings for each website you visit. 

For example, if I want to block large media elements on a particular website to potentially speed up the loading of the page I’m currently on, I can do so with uBlock Origin. I just need to click the film button.

These settings will apply to all pages of that website. Moreover, these settings are temporary by default.  

However, I can also make these settings permanent by clicking on the padlock icon. 

For even greater control over my browsing experience, I also use the uBlock Origin’s “Trusted sites” option. With it, I can add the URLs of specific websites and completely disable uBlock Origin while I’m on them.

uBlock Origin’s pros 

To see some of the good sides of using uBlock Origin, read the list below:

• It allows you to temporarily or permanently block irrelevant or disturbing content by removing certain page elements, 
• It helps you protect your online privacy by blocking malicious ads from third-party advertisers, and
• It is free of charge.

uBlock Origin’s cons 

Here are some of the uBlock Origin’s disadvantages:

• Some features require advanced technical knowledge,
• Sometimes, it can take a while until the extension accepts changes, and
• It doesn’t offer many other platforms.

What’s new in uBlock Origin

On October 31st, 2023, uBlock Origin introduced a number of fixes/changes when it released its latest 1.53.0 version.

Some of these fixes/changes include setting “My Filters” as an untrusted source by default for increased security. This was done because a number of users utilized the copy-paste option carelessly, which potentially can cause a security breach.

In addition to the Firefox extension, uBlock Origin is also available as an extension for other web browsers. 

Grammarly — best for grammar-checking

Grammarly is an intuitive tool that checks your grammar, spelling, and more as you write. Once you install this browser, you’ll be able to use it on most websites that have text fields, and it runs automatically.

Why is Grammarly best for grammar-checking? 

Grammarly helps you improve your writing skills by allowing you to:

• Check your grammar, spelling, and punctuation,
• Adjust your tone,
• Write concise and clear sentences, and
• Find the most appropriate words for a given context.

With Grammarly, you can write high-quality text and save time on editing and polishing.

As I often write, whether for work or for other occasions, I use Grammarly to improve my writing skills and solve any grammar doubts that I might have.

What I particularly like about Grammarly is its “Synonyms” option. This option comes in handy when I want to check if there’s another similar but perhaps more suitable word that I can use in a particular sentence.

As soon as I double-click on a word, various synonyms of the given word and their definitions automatically appear in the window.

Another interesting Grammarly’s option is its “Personal Dictionary.” I use this feature to add new words that do not exist in the Grammarly’s dictionary. That way, I can stop Grammarly from flagging those words as “misspelled” or “unknown.”

For example, if I’m writing about a productivity tool named “Productivus”, to prevent Grammarly from treating this word as a misspelling, I can simply add it to the Personal Dictionary. 

Grammarly also detects plagiarism in your text, which is another feature that might be useful to many — from writers and researchers to students.

Grammarly’s pros 

Here are some of the main advantages of using Grammarly:

• It offers phrasal autocomplete on Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and the web version of Outlook,
• It helps you improve your writing skills and easily check your grammar, spelling, and more, and
• It allows you to add new words to the Personal Dictionary and stop them from being flagged as misspelled words.

Grammarly’s cons 

Let’s see some of the biggest downsides of using Grammarly:

• Its paid plans may be too expensive for some users,
• Its free plan is limited in features, and
• It doesn’t work when you’re offline.  

What’s new in Grammarly 

In the summer of 2023, Grammarly released several product updates — some available in the free plan and others in the paid plans.

When it comes to paid plans’ updates, one of them is the option of shortening your text and adjusting its tone to ensure you sound more on-brand.

For a free plan, Grammarly added the “Rewrite” option for users who want to improve their writing with the help of higher-quality rewrites. 

Apart from the Firefox extension, Grammarly also offers many other platforms.

Turn Off the Lights — best for enhanced video viewing experience

If you’re looking for a browser extension that allows you to watch videos more comfortably, Turn Off the Lights might be the ideal extension for you.

Why is Turn Off the Lights best for enhanced video viewing experience?

Turn Off the Lights offers many options to help you fully enjoy watching videos.

With Turn Off the Lights’ Firefox extension, you can:

• Highlight the video player you use to watch videos and darken the rest of the web page for a more cinematic viewing experience, 
• Use the “Atmosphere Lighting” option to generate light effects around the video player and make the video more vivid, and
• Optimize the video you’re watching by adjusting its brightness, contrast, saturation, and more.

With Turn Off the Lights, I can fully immerse myself in the video I’m watching. By highlighting the video itself and dimming the rest of the web page, I can eliminate distractions from surrounding content.

One of the main reasons why I like this extension is its various background options.  

For example, if I want to focus even more on a video, I can simply blur out the rest of the web page. In addition, I can also choose a background image or a dynamic background, depending on my needs.

Furthermore, if I want to use a specific image for my background, I can do that too. I just need to add that image’s URL in the Turn Off the Lights’ settings. 

Turn Off the Lights is especially useful for people who work at night and watch a lot of videos for research, for example. It gives them a better viewing experience and protects their vision with the “Eye Protection” capabilities.

Turn Off the Lights’ pros 

These are some of Turn Off the Lights’ key advantages:

• It helps you focus on the video you’re watching by highlighting it,
• It allows you to create light effects around the video player and make the video you’re watching more vivid, and
• It offers the option to adjust the brightness, contrast, or saturation of the video to optimize it according to your preferences.

Turn Off the Lights’ cons 

Here are some of the bad sides of using Turn Off the Lights:

• It can show bugs when you want to apply certain settings,
• It took me a while to find the Options page (you need to take several steps to access it), and
• It offers email support only.

What’s new in Turn Off the Lights

On September 19th 2023, Turn Off the Lights announced a major update known as Manifest V3 for Turn Off the Lights’s Firefox extension users. 

Manifest V3 offered the speedier performance of the extension and enhanced security for better online privacy. 

Besides being available as a Firefox extension, Turn Off the Lights also offers many other platforms.

Publer — best for social media scheduling

Publer is a Firefox add-on that can help you create and schedule social media posts in an easy and efficient way.

Why is Publer best for social media scheduling? 

Publer is a perfect tool for those who need to manage content on various social media platforms.

With Publer’s Firefox extension, you can:

• Create and share posts across all major social networks,
• Use the “Calendar” option to schedule your posts, 
• Utilize the “Bulk” option to save time and schedule up to 500 posts at once, and
• Customize each post according to your preferences by adding media, hashtags, location, and more.

With Publer, you cannot only create posts, but you can also recycle certain posts by reposting them. 

In addition, you can also schedule recurring posts, which is one of my favorite Publer’s options.

To schedule a recurring post, all I have to do is:

• Click on the “Recurring” option, 
• Specify the recurring frequency of the post (for example, once a week), 
• Choose the duration for the post to recur (that is, select a start and end date), and
• Set a specific time when I want that post to recur.

You can see how I use Publer to schedule recurring posts for my LinkedIn profile in the screenshot below.

Another amazing Publer’s scheduling option that I use is the “AutoSchedule” option. With it, I can set up a posting schedule and let Publer publish posts according to that schedule.

Publer also offers powerful analytics for in-depth social media post analysis. However, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan to be able to use it. 

Publer’s pros 

Let’s see some of the main benefits of using Publer below:

• It offers the “Post preview” option that allows you to see how your post would look like once you shared it,
• It allows you to easily schedule posts using different options like manual scheduling, automatic scheduling, or the recurring schedule option, and
• It helps you schedule posts in bulk and save time.

Publer’s cons

Here are some of Publer’s key disadvantages:

• To be able to use Publer’s analytics, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan,
• It may be expensive for some users who want to share posts on a large number of social accounts, and
• It offers email and chat support only. 

What’s new in Publer

In February 2023, Publer introduced the AI assist feature to their users. This feature helps them generate content in seconds.

The most recent update — the ability to schedule Facebook Stories with Publer — was announced on November 13th 2023.

These new updates apply to all their platforms.

Apart from the Firefox extension, Publer is also available as an extension for Google Chrome, Safari, and Microsoft Edge and as a mobile app.

Bitwarden — best for managing passwords

Bitwarden is a password manager trusted by millions. With it, you can manage, store, and share passwords across devices from anywhere.

Why is Bitwarden best for managing passwords?

Bitwarden offers a lot of options regarding password management. 

With Bitwarden’s Firefox extension, you can:

• Save all your passwords across devices and the web,
• Generate strong passwords to strengthen your privacy,
• Store all types of sensitive data within your Bitwarden Vault and share it securely to other people, and
• Use vault health reports to identify weak or reused passwords.

With Bitwarden, you won’t have to worry about forgetting your passwords. 

Although you probably save all your passwords on your Google account, it may happen that you forget your Google account password. And that’s when complications start.

A similar situation happened to me, which is why I decided to try Bitwarden. With it, I can now store all my passwords in Bitwarden’s vault and access them at any time.

One of my favorite Bitwarden’s options is its “Generator” option. It allows me to generate strong and unique passwords for any of my accounts. 

I can choose the type of password (password or passphrase), the length of the password, and what kind of characters I want to include in it.

In addition, Bitwarden also has the ability of generating a username. 

To generate a strong username, I just have to click on the “Username” option and choose a username type (it can be a random word, for example). Additionally, I can also choose whether I want to capitalize my username or include numbers in it.

Bitwarden’s pros 

These are some of the Bitwarden’s benefits:

• It offers the option to unlock your vault via PIN or biometrics,
• It helps you generate strong passwords and usernames to reduce the chances of data breach, and
• It allows you to save all your passwords across devices and the web and have them all in one place.

Bitwarden’s cons

Here are some of the downsides of using Bitwarden:

• It lacks phone support,
• Some additional options like Bitwarden Authenticator or security reports are only available in the paid plans, and
• To be able to share passwords with other people, you have to create “organizations” (an “organization” is a shared vault that is separated from your personal vault). 

What’s new in Bitwarden

On November 7th 2023, Bitwarden launched a new passkey management feature to enable their users to log in to websites in a more convenient way. Users can now create and store passkeys in their vaults for quick and secure passwordless logins.

Managing passkeys is only available for Bitwarden’s web extensions. 

In addition to the Firefox extension, Bitwarden also offers some other platforms.

 FireShot — best for capturing screenshots

FireShot is a screen capture tool that allows you to effortlessly take a screenshot of a specific web page, capture all open tabs, and much more.

Why is FireShot best for capturing screenshots?

If you need an efficient way to take screenshots, FireShot will surely be of help.

With FireShot’s Firefox extension, you can:

• Capture the entire web page or just a visible part of it,
• Take screenshots of all open tabs in your browser,
• Select a specific part of the web page that you want to capture and take a screenshot of that part, and
• Save screenshots as JPG or PNG images or as a PDF file.

I like using FireShot for my work as it has a lot of useful capturing options. For example, it allows me to capture a specific part of a web page and later include that screenshot in an article or blog post that I’m writing. 

FireShot is a versatile screen capture tool compared to some other similar tools. Apart from offering several capturing options, FireShot also allows its users to add watermarks on screenshots or customize page size.

However, some of these options, such as watermarks and page customization options, are only available in the FireShot Pro version.

FireShot’s pros 

To see some of FireShot’s advantages, take a look at the list below:

• It offers several capturing options such as capturing the entire page, visible part of the page, selected part of the page, and more,
• It provides you with the ability to save screenshots as JPG or PNG images or as a PDF file, and
• It has the “Capture list of URLs…” option to add a list of URLs of the web pages that you want to take screenshots of.   

FireShot’s cons 

These are some of the main disadvantages of using FireShot:

• For more advanced options, you’ll need to switch to FireShot Pro version (which is a paid version),
• It would be nice if it had the option of video recording, and
• It only offers a forum for support (you only get access to the Premium section on their support forum and priority email support if you purchase a FireShot Pro Lifetime license). 

What’s new in FireShot 

On June 5th, 2023, FireShot released its latest updates that include some new options for their users.

These updates include the “Capture list of URLs…” option, additional info in PDFs such as page title, source link, and creation time, and more. 

Besides the Firefox extension, FireShot is also available as an extension for many other web browsers.

FAQs about Firefox extensions 

To learn more about Firefox extensions — like whether there are any safety issues, how to use them, and more — pay attention to the following section of this blog post.

Are Firefox extensions safe?

Although most Firefox extensions are safe, some of them may pose certain security risks.

To provide their users with extensions that meet the highest security standards, Mozilla Firefox has introduced the “Recommended Extensions program” — a list of extensions that are approved by their security experts.  

In other words, if an extension has a “Recommended” status, it means that it has been thoroughly reviewed by Firefox’s security team and is safe to download. 

However, it’s important to note that if a particular extension doesn’t have a “Recommended” status, it does not necessarily mean that it is unsafe. It only means that the extension hasn’t been verified by their security experts.

To increase your chances of downloading a safe Firefox extension, you should either:

• Download the extension with a “Recommended” status from the Mozilla Add-ons for Firefox website, or 
• Download the extension from its official website.  

Can Firefox browser extensions be hacked?

The short answer is — yes, Firefox browser extensions can be hacked.

As we learned from the previous subheading, there is always a potential security risk when downloading an extension.

According to research on vulnerable and malicious browser extensions, cyber-attacks have the goal of “penetrating into the victims’ computers by taking advantage of vulnerabilities exposed by their browsers or installed browser extensions.” 

The same research also states that these attacks are “on a continuous rise,” which means that you should definitely be careful when downloading a Firefox extension (or any other extension for that matter).

Do Firefox browser extensions track you?

Generally, Firefox extensions can track your activities and access your data but only if you give them appropriate permissions.

These permissions inform you whether a certain extension may:

• Access your data for the websites you visit,
• Read and modify your browser settings or browser’s download history,
• Open files downloaded to your computer, 
• Access your location, and much more.

Therefore, it is crucial that you carefully read a list of permissions for each extension you intend to add to your browser before you add it.

How to add extensions to Firefox?

To add extensions to Firefox, go to Mozilla Add-ons for Firefox website. Then, use its search engine to find the extension you want to add to your browser. 

When you click on that particular extension, a new page will open where you’ll be able to find the blue “Add to Firefox” button.

After you click the “Add to Firefox” button, a window will open, informing you which permissions you need to grant if you want to install the extension.

If you agree with those permissions, click the “Add” option, and the extension will be automatically added to your browser.

How to use Chrome extensions on Firefox?

To import Google Chrome extensions into Firefox, you can use the “Import Browser Data” option in the Firefox browser’s settings.

When you click the “Import Data” button and check the Extensions box from the list, you’ll see how many matching extensions Firefox is able to import from your Google Chrome browser.

In other words, Firefox will automatically find its native add-on versions of the extensions you have installed on your Chrome browser. After that, it will add those add-ons to your Firefox browser.

Finally, to complete the installation of add-ons, click on the “Install Extensions” notification.

How to remove extensions in Firefox?

First, you need to go to your Add-ons Manager page. There, you’ll see all the extensions you have installed in your browser.

To remove a specific extension, click on the three dots icon. Once you do that, a drop down menu will open where you can choose the “Remove” option. 

When you click on the “Remove” option, a window will open asking if you are sure you want to remove the extension in question. 

To confirm that you’re sure, click the “Remove” option and your extension will be automatically removed from your browser.

Closing words: When used cautiously, Firefox extensions can make your life a whole lot easier

One of the best things that comes with using the Firefox browser is the ability to add extensions to it. They can improve your browsing experience and help you work more efficiently.

However, with so many extensions available, you may have had a hard time choosing the extension that would be most helpful to you.

In addition, you also may have had concerns about how secure Firefox extensions actually are.

After reading this blog post, we hope we’ve helped you learn more about the security risks associated with Firefox extensions and how to reduce them.

Furthermore, we hope our list of Firefox extensions has helped you choose the perfect extension that satisfies your needs.

If you like our selection of Firefox extensions, we’d appreciate it if we could get some feedback from you about the extensions you use on a daily basis. Let us know at blogfeedback@clockify.me and we may include your choices in our future posts. And if you liked this blog post, share it with someone you think could benefit from

Luckily, time and attendance apps are specifically designed to help employers track work hours and attendance of their employees in an easy way.

If you need help choosing the right time and attendance tool for your needs — we’ve got you covered. Additionally, to give you a first-hand experience, I’ve personally tested each of the tools below using their free trials.

So stay tuned as in this blog post, we’ll:

• Explain what parameters we used when choosing the best time and attendance apps,
• Give you a list of the best time and attendance apps on the market, and
• Provide you with all the important information about these tools like their prices, features, pros and cons, and more.

How did we pick the best time and attendance apps?

In order to give you a list of the best time and attendance apps on the market, we had to put ourselves in an employer’s shoes for a moment. 

We had to think about what parameters a time and attendance tool would have to meet in order to be indispensable for our business.

After some consideration, we selected 8 time and attendance tools based on the following parameters:

• Ease of use — a time and attendance app should be easy to use. In general, a tool is considered easy to use if it has a clear user interface (UI) design and intuitive features that a user knows how to use as soon as they see them. 
• Useful features — a time and attendance tool should have features necessary for accurate time and attendance tracking, such as a clock-in/out system or reporting options.
• Integrations — a time and attendance tool should be able to integrate with other tools such as project management software, for instance. This enables you to track time on each project/task directly from the project management tool and optimize your business’ workflow.

What are the best time and attendance apps?

As promised, here is a list of 8 best time and attendance apps that we’ve selected for you based on said criteria to help you track your employees’ time and attendance effortlessly, so let’s see them.

Clockify — best for tracking attendance and time off

Clockify is a free time tracking tool that lets you track work hours across projects. It has everything an employer needs in terms of time tracking capabilities — from tracking employee attendance and billable hours to recording work hours via timer or manually, using timesheets.

What do you get with Clockify?

If you need a tool that offers easy time and attendance tracking, Clockify has several features that you may find useful, such as:

• Timer that your employees can use to track work hours in real-time with a single click,
• Timesheet where your employees can add time manually and fill in all their work hours in one go, 
• Attendance report where you can check each employee’s attendance as well as their capacity and overtime, and
• Auto tracker to automatically track the time you spend across apps, websites, and documents and get a detailed review of your activity.

What’s great about Clockify’s timer is that your employees can easily start tracking time as soon as they begin their work. 

Alternatively, if your employees prefer to log their work hours manually, they can use the Clockify’s Timesheet feature. 

I personally prefer using the timesheets instead of a timer in Clockify as I’m used to filling my work hours manually at the end of the day. Of course, how you track time will depend on your needs.

Apart from being able to see how much time your employees spend on work, in Clockify, you can also track their vacations and time off.

With its Time off feature, you can:

• See who’s away and when,
• Manage time off accruals and check balances,
• Define time off policies, and
• Request and approve employee time off.

Why is Clockify best for tracking attendance and time off?

Clockify offers various options, such as tracking employee hours via timer and timesheets or the ability to track your employees’ time off. With Clockify, you can also manage employee attendance and track billable hours.

That’s why we can safely say that this application truly is an all-in-one time tracking solution for employers.

One of the newest features that Clockify offers is the Kiosk feature. With it, employees can clock in and out from a shared device using a PIN code. 

By using Clockify’s Kiosk, employees can track their time in an even easier and more efficient way. They can clock in and out from any device — be it a tablet, computer, or phone — and track their work hours with just one button. These devices (a tablet, computer, or a phone) are always located somewhere where they are accessible to all workers, e.g. at the entrance to the workplace.

Later, the employer can see the tracked time and attendance of their employees using the Attendance report feature.

With Clockify’s Attendance reports, you can see your employees’ daily work hours, breaks, overtime, and time off, and know:

• Exactly how much time they spent on work, 
• When they were present or absent, and 
• How many overtime hours they worked.

Clockify’s pros

Here are some of Clockify’s key advantages:

• It’s easy to set up and use,
• It sends automatic reminders via email if employees forget to log time, and
• It integrates with 80+ web apps such as JIRA, Asana, Trello, Plaky, and more.

Clockify’s cons

To see some of the disadvantages of using Clockify, look at the following list:

• It doesn’t have an option to capture a photo when an employee clocks in and out when using a kiosk,
• The Time off options are only available in paid plans, and
• You can’t send expenses from Clockify to QuickBooks.

What’s new in Clockify

In August of this year, Clockify introduced the option of starting/stopping the timer via widget for Android users.

Then, in September, Clockify added more new options such as exporting projects in CSV/Excel and tracking breaks via Mac and iOS devices.

The latest Clockify’s upgrade is the ability to choose and switch between projects/tasks via Kiosk, available from October this year.

Best fit for: Freelancers, businesses of all sizes

Time Doctor — best for automatically tracking attendance

Time Doctor is a time tracking tool that helps employers and their employees get more done each day.

What do you get with Time Doctor?

If you want to reduce the time you spend on time monitoring so that you can focus on  more important tasks, Time Doctor is the right tool for you.

Time Doctor offers a lot of features that can help you track your team’s time and attendance and maximize their productivity, such as:

• Automated time tracking to track your employees’ work hours and see how much time they spend on projects,
• Manual time tracking so that your employees can add their work hours manually,
• Productive/unproductive websites and applications to track how much time your employees spend on websites and applications you marked as productive/unproductive, and
• The Attendance Report where you can check your employees’ attendance and see when each of your employees started working.

With Time Doctor’s Automated time tracking feature, you can track your employees’ work hours as soon as they input their current task and start the timer. 

On the other hand, your employees can also track their time manually. However, you need to give them permission to do so in the settings first.

In regard to employee attendance tracking, Time Doctor offers the Attendance Report feature where you can:

• Keep track of who is late, absent, or present,
• See each employee’s shift start time and actual start time, and
• Compare actual hours worked vs. expected hours.

This allows you to accurately track time and compensate your employees because you’ll know exactly how much time each of them actually spent working.

Why is Time Doctor best for automatically tracking attendance?

While I’ve been trying out Time Doctor and exploring its functionalities, one of the options that caught my eye was the Automatic attendance tracking option.

With it, you can get real-time attendance updates, which I found quite useful. You can see which of your employees is currently:

• Absent,
• Late, or
• Present.

With Time Doctor’s Automatic attendance tracking, you can quickly review who is actively working on their tasks and who is in a meeting, for example.

Moreover, you can also see which of your employees is active if you need someone to take up an urgent task or project.

Another useful Time Doctor option is the Projects and Tasks report. With it, your employees can see how much time they spend on each project and task and have a clear overview of how they allocate their time.      

In addition, an employer can also use these reports to see if a particular task is taking too much time away from one of their employees. This helps them decide whether they need to assign another employee to help them out, for example, so they can complete the task faster.

Time Doctor also offers the Screencasts option that employers can use to make screenshots or screencasts of employees’ screens at random intervals during work hours. 

Time Doctor’s pros

Here are some of the main advantages of using Time Doctor:

• It reduces the time employees spend on unproductive websites and apps,
• It integrates with various business tools such as Asana, ClickUp, HubSpot, Zapier, and more, and
• It allows employers to track employee overtime and help their employees maintain a work-life balance.

Time Doctor’s cons

To see some of the drawbacks of using Time Doctor, check the list below:

• Some employees may feel pressured if they are being monitored while working,
• Its idle time alerts can be distracting, and 
• Its user interface design looks a little outdated.

What’s new in Time Doctor

Some of the most recent Time Doctor features were released last year. They include options like real-time attendance email notifications and the Billable Hours Report.

Time Doctor also announced new features for 2023 such as Time Doctor Breaks for improved time tracking.

Best fit for: All teams and industries

When I Work — best for building schedules

When I Work is employee scheduling and time tracking software ideal for employers who want to track employee time and attendance but also easily create employee schedules.

What do you get with When I Work?

When I Work provides features necessary for employers who are looking for a simple way to track the time and attendance of their employees, such as:

• Time Tracker that employees can use to clock in/out when they start/finish their shift,
• Timesheets that employers can use to see their employees’ clock in and out time but also their total paid hours, and
• Scheduler where employers can make shifts and schedule their employees accordingly. 

With When I Work’s Time Tracker feature, you can have a clear overview of each employee’s work hours and see who’s scheduled and who’s clocked in. 

For example, when an employee is scheduled for the day but has not clocked in yet, their shift will appear gray on the time tracker. On the other hand, if they clocked in and out for the shift, it will appear blue on the time tracker (which also indicates that the shift has been completed).

This allows you to better visualize who has clocked in and who has not and check your employees’ attendance quickly.

To get more information on your employees’ work time, you can use the Timesheets feature. With it, you can keep a record of your employees’ clock in and out time, breaks, and time off. You can also edit their timesheets and add their work hours later on in case an employee forgot to clock in, for example.

Employees can also add and edit their own timesheets (if the pay period is still open). However, you need to give them permission to do so in the settings first.

Why is When I Work best for building schedules?

Compared to some other time and attendance tools on the market, in addition to time tracking options, When I Work also offers many useful scheduling options.

With its Scheduler feature, you can create shifts and schedules for your employees in a matter of minutes. As soon as you click on the Scheduler option, you’ll be able to see all your employees’ schedules but also edit and customize your employees’ shifts. 

To edit shifts according to your business’ needs, in When I Work, you can:

• Assign shift to a particular employee,
• Decide its start and end time,
• Save it as a shift template, or
• Customize it further by choosing a specific color for each employee’s shifts so you can visualize them even better.

What I like the most about this feature is that it operates on a drag-and-drop basis. This means that you can drag shifts across the schedule and move an employee’s shift to another day, or reassign shifts by clicking on a shift and dragging it to another employee.

This allows employers to quickly create schedules and know exactly when each of their employees is working which shift. 

By tracking employee attendance and creating shifts accordingly, you’ll be able to create schedules that work for your employees but also keep your business performance high.

When I Work’s pros

Let’s see some of the main benefits of using When I Work below:

• It’s especially useful for shift-based workplaces like restaurants or cafes,
• It integrates with other business tools such as Gusto, Paychex, QuickBooks Online, Zapier, and more, and
• It offers missed clock-in reminders to regulate attendance and reduce employee absenteeism.

When I Work’s cons

These are some of When I Work’s key disadvantages:

• To use time and attendance features, you’ll need to pay an additional $2 on average per user, which can be expensive if you have a lot of employees,
• It could have more in-depth reports, and 
• It lacks phone support (When I Work’s customer support offers live chat and tickets only).

What’s new in When I Work

When I Work’s most recent updates were presented to their users in the summer of last year.

Some of these updates include the Attendance Notices section and the option of sorting employees in the Scheduler for better organization.  

Best fit for: Teams of any size and for any industry

On The Clock — best for small businesses

If you need a time and attendance tool that’s cost-effective and filled with time tracking capabilities, On The Clock may be the right solution for your business. 

What do you get with On The Clock?

On The Clock is a simple time tracking tool designed to help businesses grow by providing employers with time tracking features such as:

• The Punch-In feature that employees can use to track their time as soon as they start their workday,
• The Check-In feature that allows employees to let employers know when they arrive at work (employers receive alerts via email/SMS when an employee has checked in),
• Time Cards that employers can use to keep a record of their employees’ work hours, make certain corrections and adjust the time, and see employee paid hours for each pay period, and
• The scheduling feature that employers can use to create shifts and schedule employees.

To enable employees to use the Punch-In feature, the employer first has to create an employee’s profile with their personal details and a unique password.

As soon as your employee receives an email or a text message with their username and password, they’ll be able to use them to log in to their On The Clock account. 

Once they log in, they’ll be able to choose whether they want to:

• Punch in, or
• Go straight to their time card and edit their time manually (under the condition you gave them permission to do so beforehand).

If you want to be notified via email/SMS once an employee starts working, you can allow them to use the “Check-In” option by toggling it on in settings. 

This is useful if you have salaried employees who may not be required to punch in but you still want to know when they’ve started working.

Why is On The Clock best for small businesses?

On The Clock is perfect for small businesses because it’s cost-effective and rich in useful time tracking and attendance features.

With On The Clock’s flexible pricing, you get access to powerful time tracking features that can help you:

• Reduce the time you spend on employee time tracking, 
• Get the necessary transparency and increase accuracy, 
• Increase employee accountability, and
• Even manage paid time off. 

Furthermore, On the Clock offers GPS time tracking, so employees can easily clock in and out from multiple locations.

Tracking employee GPS when on the clock also helps you better understand your company’s daily operations, as it allows you to:

• See where your employees are located in the field, and
• Know when they are moving between client sites.

This way, you can prevent employees from punching the clock from unassigned locations. You can also use GPS reports to analyze the time employees spend in transit so you can find the most efficient route and improve the employee’s journey.

On The Clock’s pros

Here are some of the main advantages of using On The Clock:

• It offers advanced GPS features and real-time location tracking to help employers manage employees at multiple locations, 
• It’s cost-effective and easy to use, and
• It integrates with other business tools such as Gusto, Quickbooks, Paychex, ADP, and more.

On The Clock’s cons

To see some of On The Clock’s drawbacks, take a look at the list below:

• It can be buggy so the clock-in/clock-out button must be clicked multiple times sometimes,
• It could have more detailed reporting options for each pay period, and
• It rarely introduces new features.

What’s new in On The Clock

In certain cases, it may happen that an app releases new features and updates on a less frequent basis. On The Clock may be such an app as some users have reported that it could have “more regular releases of new features.” 

In response to one of the user’s reviews, On The Clock’s customer support mentioned that On The Clock introduced a new feature that “alerts you when employees are approaching overtime.” They left this response in January 2020. 

Best fit for: Small businesses

Harvest — best for tracking time capacity

Harvest is a time tracking software that can help you accurately track your employees’ time. It can also streamline your invoicing process.

What do you get with Harvest?

With Harvest, you get access to a multitude of features that you can use for simplified time tracking such as:

• Timer that your employees can use to track their work hours across projects by starting/stopping it as soon as they start/finish their work,
• Timesheets where your employees can add and edit their work hours manually, and
• Automatic timesheet reminders to help you encourage your employees to fill out and submit their timesheets by the timesheet deadline.

Although Harvest doesn’t have a lot of attendance tracking options, it does provide detailed insights into how your employees are doing each week. It allows you to see how much time they’ve tracked and how that compares to their time capacity. In Harvest, you can set that number to be anything between 0 and 60 hours per week/employee.

This is useful for employers who want to know if their employees are working the exact number of hours they’re supposed to work, or less or more than that.

In addition to the time tracking capabilities, Harvest also offers the Invoices feature that can help you track billable hours and create and customize invoices for your clients.

Why is Harvest best for tracking time capacity?

Apart from tracking employee time and attendance, Harvest also provides the ability to set and track employee time capacity.

With Harvest, you can:

• Set the total number of hours per week that each employee is available to work, and
• Track time capacity on a team or individual level.

If you want to track a capacity on a team level, you can do it by setting a default capacity in your settings.

Keep in mind that setting a certain time capacity in Harvest will not prevent your team from tracking time above their set capacity. Therefore, they will not always work for the exact number of hours you previously set for them.

However, this option is still very useful as it allows you to track how much your employees are working and organize their workload more efficiently. It allows you to see:

• Who’s overworked, and
• Who can handle more on their plate.

By monitoring your employees’ time capacity, you can spot how often they work over their set capacity and analyze whether that’s really necessary. This can help you prevent employee burnout.

Tracking your employees’ time but also paying attention to whether they are overworked or maybe stuck on a certain task is very important. It allows you to keep your employees productive, thus making your business more productive overall.

Harvest’s pros

To see some of the good sides of using Harvest, read the list below:

• It integrates with 50+ business tools such as Asana, Trello, Slack, Google Calendar, PayPal, Zapier, and more,
• It offers easy time tracking via timer or timesheets, and
• It provides time capacity options to help employers track how much their employees are working. 

Harvest’s cons

Here are some of the disadvantages of using Harvest:

• It lacks GPS location tracking options,
• Its paid plan is a little bit expensive, and
• It doesn’t provide in-depth attendance reporting.

What’s new in Harvest

On January 13 this year, Harvest announced new updates for iOS and Android users.

One of these updates is the option of adding frequently used tasks tagged as Favorites to the home screen for faster time tracking. Another update is improved insights where employees can now see all their tasks and time charts right from the home screen.

Harvest’s latest update is new versions of browser extensions that allow tracking time inside Asana via Harvest, as announced in October this year.

Best fit for: Teams of all sizes, across all types of industries

Buddy Punch — best for monitoring time off

Buddy Punch is employee time clock software intended for employers who are looking for an easier way to schedule employees, track their time, and do payroll.

What do you get with Buddy Punch?

Buddy Punch provides employers with many time tracking and attendance features essential for easy time tracking, such as:

• The Punch in feature that employees can use to track their work hours by punching in/out as soon as they start/finish working,
• Time Card where employees can enter their time manually by adding date and hours worked,
• The scheduling feature that employers can use to create shifts and schedule their employees, 
• The GPS feature that employers can use to track where their employees are when they clock in or clock out in real-time, and
• The time off tracking feature to track employee PTO.

A great thing about Buddy Punch is that your employees can punch in using several different methods, such as:

• Username and Password to log in,
• QR Code Scanning to scan a QR Code,
• Pin/Kiosk to enter a unique 4-digit PIN, and
• Facial Recognition to use their face to punch in/out, depending on which method you enable in settings.

For example, if you want to track your employees’ attendance by using facial recognition in Buddy Punch, you need to upload your employees’ pictures first. Then, when an employee goes to punch time, their face is compared to that of the image related to their profile. 

This way, you can improve your attendance tracking and eliminate the possibility of so-called “buddy punching” — employees working together to punch in/out time for each other without authorization. 

Why is Buddy Punch best for monitoring time off?

In contrast to some other time and attendance apps, Buddy Punch offers a lot of different options necessary for monitoring employees’ time off.

With Buddy Punch’s time off options, your employees can:

• Enter their time off into their time card and request it, or
• Add their time off without requiring your approval if you want to automate your PTO management process.

One of the interesting Buddy Punch’s time off features is the Accruals feature. This is useful if you want to allow your employees to earn time off over time. 

With the Buddy Punch’s Accruals feature, you can:

• Create rules for when PTO accrues (per pay period, hours worked, or yearly), and
• Specify which of your time off types should be included in accruals (sick days, vacation, holidays, or personal time).

You can also use Buddy Punch’s PTO Summary Report to get a review of PTO balances from all your employees. This way, you can see each employee’s PTO summary, including:

• How much PTO an employee has accrued,
• How much PTO was carried over,
• How much PTO has been used, and
• How much PTO an employee has available.

Note that in Buddy Punch, you can create both paid and unpaid time off types for your employees.

Tracking your employees’ time off (either paid or unpaid) is crucial as it helps you keep a more accurate record of their attendance.

Buddy Punch’s pros

Here are some key advantages of using Buddy Punch:

• It integrates with several different business tools such as Zapier, Gusto, Paychex, QuickBooks, and more, 
• It offers time off tracking options, and
• It provides great customer support.

Buddy Punch’s cons

To see some bad sides of using Buddy Punch, look at the list below:

• It is much easier to approve time cards and review employee activity through the web app versus the mobile app,
• It can be quite slow at times, and
• Its UI design is a little bit dull compared to some other apps.

What’s new in Buddy Punch

Some of the most recent features Buddy Punch presented to their users are the Facial Recognition option and Overtime Alerts for employers to set custom alerts when employees reach a certain amount of time. 

These features were all added to the app last year.

Best fit for: Businesses of all sizes

Jibble — best for detailed reporting

Jibble is a time tracking software that facilitates employee time and attendance tracking but also offers detailed reporting options for advanced analysis. 

What do you get with Jibble?

You can track your employee time and attendance with ease with Jibble’s time tracking features, such as:

• The clock in/out feature that your employees can use to track their time by clocking in/out as soon as they start/finish their workday,
• Timesheets that your employees can use to track their time by adding and editing their time entries manually,
• Live Locations that employers can use to follow an employee’s location throughout the workday from the point of clock in to the point of clock out, and
• The Time Off feature to track employees’ time off and create custom leave policies, assign those policies to specific employees, and track your employees’ leave balances.

With Jibble’s clock in/out option, your employees can track their work hours effortlessly by activating the time clock.

On the other hand, if they prefer using timesheets to track their time manually, they can do that in Jibble too.

With Jibble’s Timesheets feature, your employees can add time and edit their time entries (provided you gave them permission to do that beforehand). 

They can do it by choosing a start and end time, as presented in the image below.

In Jibble, employers can also use various attendance options such as face recognition or GPS location to accurately track their employees’ attendance, whether they’re working in or out of the office.

Why is Jibble best for detailed reporting?

Jibble lets you track your employees’ time and attendance. Apart from that, you can also get a lot of useful insights into your team’s activities and tracked time with the help of its reporting options.

With the Jibble’s reports feature, you can:

• See all your teams’ activities/tasks (an employer can create activities and customize each by adding a specific color),
• See your projects and clients, and
• Get hours breakdown to see each employee’s tracked time and billable amount for each day, week, or month. 

Besides the Tracked Time Report option, Jibble also offers the Attendance Insights Report option. Here, you can monitor your employees’ day to day attendance statistics and learn more about their work habits.

By looking at your employees’ attendance reports, you can see:

• Your employees’ expected days of work,
• Their tracked days of work (total number of days worked),
• Their time off,
• Their overtime,
• Absentees (total number of days absent), and more.

With attendance insights reports, you can analyze inconsistencies in your employees’ attendance and time behavior. However, to be able to use this option, you need to upgrade to some of the paid plans. 

Jibble’s pros

Here are some of the biggest advantages of Jibble:

• It integrates with numerous business tools such as ADP, Airtable, Asana, Basecamp, Evernote, Google Calendar, and more,
• It provides detailed reporting options, and
• It allows employees to track their time even when offline. 

Jibble’s cons

These are some of the main disadvantages of using Jibble:

• To be able to use certain attendance features, you’ll have to upgrade to some of the paid plans,
• You can’t download reports in PDF, and
• It lacks more advanced scheduling options. 

What’s new in Jibble

In September of this year, Jibble launched the Automatic Selfie Capture feature to enable auto-selfie as part of the face recognition process.

During the same month, Jibble also introduced the option of exporting reports directly from Jibble’s mobile app for even easier access to information.

Best fit for: Teams of all shapes and sizes

Deputy — best for businesses with multiple locations

If you need an efficient time tracking app to track employee time and attendance, Deputy might be the right choice for you. It can also help you create shifts for your employees across multiple locations.

What do you get with Deputy?

Deputy has many features that are vital for effortless employee time and attendance tracking, such as:

• The clock in/out feature that employees can use to track their time by clocking in when they start their shift and clocking out when they finish it,
• Timesheets where employers can track their employees’ work hours, approve timesheets, and export them for payroll,
• The scheduling feature that employers can use to create shifts and schedule their employees, and
• The Reports feature to generate different reports such as the “Attendance Report by Employee,” the “Attendance Report by Location,” the “Leave Management” report, and others.  

With the Deputy’s clock in/out option, your employees can start tracking their time as soon as they start their workday. 

Another interesting Deputy’s feature is the Timesheets feature. Whenever employees clock in and out of work via Deputy, Deputy’s software automatically creates a digital timesheet for that tracked time.

This allows employers to have all their employees’ timesheets in one place and:

• See the status of each timesheet (e.g. approved or pending),
• See whether each employee has tracked time, and
• Edit timesheets, if needed.  

In Deputy, you can also enable the touch-free facial verification feature or a GPS location stamp to verify your employees are in the right place, at the right time, and track their attendance correctly.

Why is Deputy best for businesses with multiple locations?

Deputy offers a lot of interesting tracking options that you can utilize to monitor where your employees are whenever they clock in and out.

This is ideal for businesses that have employees working on multiple locations as it helps them precisely track employee attendance.

For instance, with Deputy’s Locations feature, you can: 

• Create several different ‘locations’ based on your business’ workplaces (that is, their geographical locations),
• Give each location a name and enter the address, and
• Edit each location by adding shifts, entering departments or roles that you want to schedule that shift for (e.g. Front Desk, Cleaner, etc.) as well as the names of employees who work in that specific location.   

This way, you’ll be able to know exactly who works where and when as soon as your employees start tracking their time via mobile app.

To see an example of what it looks like when you open one of these locations to check your employee’s attendance, look at the image below.

Deputy’s pros

These are some of the main benefits of using Deputy:

• It integrates with many other business tools such as Gusto, BambooHR, ADP, Paychex, Zapier, and more,
• It offers the News Feed feature where employers can post an announcement to share with the whole team or send a private message to selected individuals (it is also displayed in the form of a post), and
• It’s very user-friendly.

Deputy’s cons

Let’s see some of the biggest disadvantages of using Deputy in the list below:

• It could integrate with more productivity tools,
• It doesn’t provide the ability to have several different pay rates for each employee (in case one employee has multiple jobs that are paid differently), and
• It lacks phone support (Deputy’s customer support offers tickets and email support only).

What’s new in Deputy

Five months ago, Deputy announced a new clock-in and clock-out experience for iOS and Android users. 

Deputy added new Shift Details options, such as a more detailed display of shift information, as well as a comment box for employees to answer shift questions previously set by the employer.

Best fit for: Small and medium-sized businesses

Wrapping up: Using time and attendance apps helps businesses increase efficiency and productivity

To run a successful business, you need to pay attention not only to how well your employees perform but also to whether they started work on time, whether they use their working hours efficiently enough, whether there are cases of time theft, etc.

In addition, tracking employee time and attendance is crucial for businesses as it helps them increase employee productivity, accountability, and payroll accuracy.

Nowadays, using an app to keep track of employee work hours and attendance is a must. 

Therefore, we hope this blog post provides you with enough useful information to help you decide which time and attendance app you should choose for your business. 

What are your favorite time and attendance apps? Which ones help you the most to track your employees’ work hours accurately and easily? Let us know at blogfeedback@clockify.me for a chance to be featured in this or one of our other articles. Also, if you liked this blog post, share it with someone you think could benefit from it.

With the businesses expanding, employers often use rotating shifts to tend to their customers’ needs at all times. Some of them also use rotating shifts because their business may require continuous production, for instance.

As its name says, a rotating shift involves employees working on schedules that change over a period of time. At times, they’ll be working the day shift, and other times, they’ll be working at night, for example.

To learn more about rotating shifts and how employers use them to operate 24/7 businesses, stay tuned because in this blog post, we’ll:

• Define what a rotating shift is,
• List some of the industries that use rotating shifts,
• Mention the most common types of rotating shift schedules,
• Suggest some tips on how to schedule rotational shift work, and
• Talk about the benefits and drawbacks of using a rotating shift schedule.

So, let’s start!

What is a rotating shift?

Rotating shifts are scheduled shifts that change or “rotate” over the course of time.

They may be of different lengths (generally 8-12 hours per shift) and may include:

• Day shift, 
• Evening shift, 
• Night shift, or 
• Weekends, depending on the business’ needs.

One of the main reasons businesses use rotating shifts is to provide better coverage for businesses, given that there is always someone available to keep the business running. Moreover, rotational shift work allows employees to have more flexibility in terms of their work schedules.

How does a rotating shift work?

A rotating shift schedule implies that employees take turns working on all shifts that are part of a certain shift system.

Let’s say you own a business, and you want to maintain business operations 24/7. So, you arrange a shift system for your employees that includes:

• A day shift, 
• An evening shift, and 
• An overnight shift.

For starters, you divide your employees into three groups where each group of employees works a different shift:

• The first group of employees works a day shift (8 a.m. to 4 p.m.), 
• The second group of employees works an evening shift (4 p.m. to midnight), and 
• The third group of employees works an overnight shift (from midnight to 8 a.m.).

The following table shows when exactly each group of employees works/doesn’t work:

With a rotating shift schedule, employee shifts may rotate on a:

• Daily basis: an employee may work the day shift, and then the next day they can change their shift and work the evening shift,
• Weekly basis: an employee works a day shift for a week, and the next week they can change their shift and work the evening shift that whole week, or
• Monthly basis: an employee may work a day shift for a month, and the next month they can change their shift and work the evening shift that whole month.

Rotating shift vs. fixed shift

The main difference between a rotating shift and a fixed shift is that when working a fixed shift, all employees have a consistent shift schedule. In other words, employees work specific hours and days each week.

Again, let’s say you divide your employees into three groups where each group of employees works a different shift (a day shift, an evening shift, and an overnight shift).

If you incorporate a fixed shift schedule into your business, this means that employees scheduled for the day shift can’t change their shift and work the evening shift the next day, for example.

Simply put, employees who work a fixed shift always work the same shift.

Still, fixed shift schedules do not provide much flexibility to employees as they always work the same hours, while with rotating shift schedules, employees have a chance to choose when they work.

What industries use rotating shifts?

Employers often use rotating shifts because the nature of their business requires employees to work 24/7. 

Such industries include:

• The healthcare industry,
• The manufacturing industry, 
• Emergency responders, 
• Military, 
• The hospitality industry, or 
• The transportation industry.

Let’s learn a little bit more about each of these industries.

Rotating shift industry #1: The healthcare industry

As they need their staff to be available for their patients 24 hours a day, hospitals and other healthcare facilities often use rotating shifts. They provide the necessary coverage in terms of staffing but also ensure that medical expertise is evenly distributed.

According to research on the impact of shift patterns on healthcare professions, rotating shifts are mainly used to “ensure the provision of high-quality patient care.” In other words, healthcare facilities use rotating shifts to allocate their staff in the most effective way, according to their patients’ needs.  

As another research on nurses’ experiences in rotating shift work also explains, rotating shifts are in fact unavoidable in the healthcare field, considering there are so many different patients all the time. 

Rotating shift industry #2: The manufacturing industry

According to research on the shift work practices in the United States, rotating shifts may be prevalent in industries with manufactured goods where those goods depend on “equipment or chemical reactions which cannot be started and stopped within the duration of a single shift.”

Since manufacturing industries usually involve continuous production, whether manual labor or machinery is used, employers who are part of such industries use rotating shifts to ensure their operations run non-stop.

By using rotating shifts, manufacturing companies can increase business productivity but also distribute shifts evenly among employees.

Rotating shift industry #3: Emergency responders

According to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, emergency responders are people who are “normally the first on the scene of an emergency.” 

They include people who work as:

• Firefighters, 
• Police officers, 
• 9-1-1 operators, 
• Paramedics, and others.

As emergencies such as fire, flood, or health emergencies cannot be predicted and require instant action, it’s important for emergency responders to work round the clock. This is one of the main reasons why they use rotating shift schedules.

Rotating shift industry #4: Military

The military incorporates rotating shifts for active duty service members and reserves to ensure that there’s always enough military personnel available. 

Moreover, according to an article published by the Air Mobility Command, having workers rotate shifts helps “raise a broader awareness of safety issues that affect the different shifts.” 

The said article also suggests that rotating shifts can help maintain “optimal job productivity” and allow workers to perform better by providing everyone with the same training opportunities.

Rotating shift industry #5: The hospitality industry

The hospitality industry includes various businesses such as hotels, restaurants, or event planning and catering services. Their goal is to provide customers with an enjoyable experience. Therefore, meeting customers’ needs at all times is vital.

That’s why hotels and restaurants, for example, often use rotating shifts as a way of ensuring there’s always a sufficient number of employees available to maintain high customer satisfaction.

Rotating shift industry #6: The transportation industry 

The transportation industry includes a wide range of services — from air, road, rail, and sea transport of people/goods to logistics firms that provide guidance for efficient transportation as well as storage of goods.

For example, some of the representatives of said industries are bus drivers and logistics operators who often work rotating shifts in order to be at their customers’ disposal at all hours. 

Types of rotating shifts (+ examples)

To explain rotating shifts in more detail, let’s look at some of the most common types of rotating shift schedules and their examples.

Type #1: The DuPont shift schedule

The DuPont schedule is a type of rotating shift schedule that consists of:

• 4 teams, 
• Two 12-hour shifts (both day and night), and
• A 4-week cycle. 

To be specific, each of the 4 teams works across two 12-hour shifts over a period of 28 days (4 weeks).

The 4-week cycle is divided into 4 weeks, and each week, employees follow a different shift pattern.

This is what the 4-week schedule for team #1 looks like.

Week #1: 

• Employees work 4 night shifts, and 
• Have 3 days off.

Week #2: 

• Employees work 3 day shifts, 
• Have 1 day off, and 
• Work 3 night shifts.

Week #3: 

• Employees have 3 days off, and 
• Work 4 day shifts.

Week #4: 

• Employees have 7 consecutive days off.

To understand the DuPont shift schedule better, look at the illustration below:

Keep in mind that even though there are 4 teams, not all of them start the week with the same shift pattern.

For example, while team #1 works 4 night shifts and then has 3 days off in the first week, team #2 starts the first week with 3 day shifts, has 1 day off, and ends the week with 3 night shifts. 

Although this type of schedule includes switching between day and night shifts, and the fact that shifts are 12 hours long, some employees prefer it because they get to enjoy a lengthy break at the end of each cycle (7 consecutive days off). 

Type #2: The Pitman shift schedule

The Pitman schedule includes:

• 4 teams, 
• 12-hour shifts, and
• A 2-week cycle.

There are two versions of this schedule:

• The Pitman fixed schedule, and
• The rotating Pitman schedule.

The Pitman fixed schedule

With the Pitman fixed schedule, 2 teams work only day shifts, while the other 2 teams work night shifts. 

For example, team #1 and team #3 always work the day shift, while team #2 and team #4 work the night shift.

To see how the Pitman fixed schedule works, take a look at the illustration below:

As we can see from the illustration above, team #1 (the day shift) has the following shift pattern: 

• Works 2 days,
• Has 2 days off,
• Works 3 days,
• Has 2 days off,
• Works 2 days, and
• Has 3 days off.

Team #2 follows the same shift pattern, but instead of the day shift, they work at night.

Meanwhile, the shift pattern for team #3 (the day shift) looks like this: 

• Has 2 days off,
• Works 2 days,
• Has 3 days off,
• Works 2 days,
• Has 2 days off, and
• Works 3 days.

Team #4 follows the same shift pattern as team #3, except they work at night.

The rotating Pitman schedule

On the other hand, the rotating Pitman schedule includes 4 teams that rotate between day and night shifts. In one cycle (first two weeks), one team works during the day, and in the next cycle (third and fourth week), the same team works at night. And, the team that worked at night in the first cycle will work the day shift in the next cycle.

Let’s explain this a bit further.

During the first week of a 2-week cycle, the first team works 2 day shifts, then has 2 days off followed by 3 day shifts. The same team starts the second week of a 2-week cycle with 2 days off, then they work 2 day shifts followed by 3 days off. 

In the next 2-week cycle, the same team will follow the same 2-2 3-2 2-3 pattern, but instead of the day shift, they work at night. 

Therefore, the shift schedule for the team #1 looks like this.

Week #1 and week #2 (a day shift): 

• Work 2 days, 
• Have 2 days off, 
• Work 3 days, 
• Have 2 days off, 
• Work 2 days, and 
• Have 3 days off.

Week #3 and week #4 (the night shift):

• Work 2 days, 
• Have 2 days off, 
• Work 3 days, 
• Have 2 days off, 
• Work 2 days, and
• Have 3 days off.

The following illustration shows the schedule for the first team:

The difference between the schedules for the first and second teams is that instead of the day shift, the second team starts working with the night shift.

The following is the schedule for the third team:

The third and fourth teams work on the first and second teams’ days off.

The Pitman schedule allows extended weekends every other week, which may impact employee motivation.

Type #3: The Southern swing schedule

The Southern swing schedule is a type of rotating shift schedule that involves:

• 4 teams,
• Three 8-hour shifts (day shift, swing shift, and night shift), and
• A 4-week cycle. 

To be specific, 4 teams work each shift in a 4-week cycle following a 7-2-7-2-7-3 work pattern.

In accordance with a 7-2-7-2-7-3 work pattern, each of the 4 teams works:

• 7 day shifts,
• Has 2 days off,
• Works 7 swing (day/night) shifts,
• Has 2 days off, 
• Works 7 night shifts, and
• Has 3 days off.

To understand the Southern swing schedule better, look at the illustration below:

Keep in mind that not all teams start the first week with the same shift pattern.

For example, while team #1 works 7 day shifts the first week, team #2 starts the first week with 2 days off and then ends the week with 5 swing shifts.

In regard to the swing shift we mentioned in the list above, this is a type of shift where employees, for example, start working later in the afternoon (e.g. 4 p.m.), work through the evening and end their shift late at night (e.g. midnight).

Although the Southern swing schedule allows employees to work shorter 8-hour shifts, some employees still find the Southern swing schedule difficult because they have to work 7 days in a row.

How best to schedule employees for rotating shifts

Creating a functional rotating shift schedule can be difficult, so we’ve put together some tips to help you schedule your employees for rotating shifts trouble-free.

Tip #1: Talk to your employees first

Before you start creating a rotating shift schedule, it’s a good idea to talk to your employees about which shifts they would prefer to work.

In search of some useful tips on the subject, we asked Jovana Kandic, VP of Customer Experience at CAKE.com, why she thinks being considerate is important when creating a work schedule. She told us that talking to employees about their preferences goes a long way toward creating a schedule that works for everyone.

“After all, these will be people who will rotate shifts, so it’s good to be familiar with their way of working and their preferences. Of course, there will always be different people who want different things, so the point here is not to fulfill everyone’s wishes, but to get an impression of how the team functions, whether it’s easier for them to change shifts on a weekly or monthly basis, how they cope with the third shift, etc.”

Asking your employees about their preferences can help you create a schedule that’ll be acceptable to the whole team, while giving them the opportunity to participate in the creation of the schedule itself.

Tip #2: Clearly determine the length and number of shifts

Another key step in creating a rotating shift schedule is determining the length and number of shifts you want to include in it.

Some common options for shift length include:

• 8-hour shift, 
• 10-hour shift, and
• 12-hour shift. 

The number of shifts you want to include in your schedule depends on how many shifts you need in order to cover the required hours. If you want your business to operate 24 hours a day, you may want to include, for example, three 8-hour shifts or two 12-hour shifts.

As Jovana also adds, determining shifts according to your business needs is crucial when creating a schedule:

“For example, if 24/7 coverage is required, first it is necessary to divide the day into shifts, decide when each shift starts and when it ends, and whether there are intermediate shifts or certain ‘overlapping’ shifts.”

When deciding how long the shifts will be, employers should also factor in employee work-life balance, if they want to reduce the risk of employee burnout.

Tip #3: Define the rules of rotation

To have a properly organized rotating shift schedule, you need to create one where employees can follow a set pattern and see how the shifts are distributed among them.

In this regard, our colleague Jovana also says that defining certain shift rotation rules helps in creating a clear schedule for employees:

“It’s important to define in which order the shifts are rotated, when shifts can be changed with a colleague, how many third shifts in a month or a certain period of time a person can have, how many times the same shift can be repeated in a row, and so on.”

Additionally, some shifts may require specific skills that only certain employees have, so you need to think about that too. 

For example, if there are two anesthesiologists working in a clinic, but there are several procedures that same week that require their expertise, the employer may want to schedule rotating shifts so that those two anesthesiologists are available at the required hours.

Tip #4: Share the schedule in advance

To give your employees enough time to plan their personal matters around their shifts, you need to share the shift schedule with them as soon as possible.

According to Jovana’s experience, it’s best to determine the exact date as the deadline for publishing the schedule:

“For example, we give it much earlier, like by the 15th of the month we release the schedule for the next month so that people can plan according to the shifts.”

Tip #5: Use scheduling software

To schedule rotating shifts even easier, you can use scheduling tools.

For example, employee scheduling software such as Clockify can help you streamline the scheduling process and also track your employees’ availability.

In Clockify, you can:

• Create shifts, 
• Schedule employees, and
• Check the capacity of your employees, and see who has too many hours assigned and who can take on more work.

Clockify’s scheduling software helps you monitor your team’s availability and make optimized schedules. You can see who’s working on what, who’s taken time off and when, and visualize everything on a timeline. 

Apart from being able to track your employees’ projects, in Clockify, you can customize working and non-working days per employee. This way you can know exactly who’s working the first, second, or third shifts this week.

Furthermore, with Clockify, you will be able to: 

• Define hours for a task/shift, 
• Choose a start time for a shift/task, or 
• Use the “repeat schedule every X weeks” option in case you want to set recurring schedules for your employees.

Tip #6: Revise shifts at least once a year

After you’ve been using a particular schedule for a while, you’ll be able to see all of its good points but also any potential problems or difficulties your employees have had with it.

Maybe everything is working well, and maybe something needs to be changed, and the best way to check that is to talk to the employees themselves.

Moreover, instead of waiting for employees to report problems first, it’s much better to take the initiative and set a date at least once a year for a group discussion. 

Jovana also agrees that setting time for a revision is a good strategy:

“If the team knows that there is a set time when the schedule is discussed, then they don’t have to stress about coming off as a complainer if they say there’s something they would like to change regarding the shifts. This way, they know when we revise it and have the opportunity to express their opinion then.”

Benefits of rotating shifts

In certain ways, rotating shifts can be beneficial to both employers and employees. We’ll mention some of these benefits in the text below.

Benefit #1: Rotating shifts ensure better customer experiences

From an employer’s perspective, one of the biggest benefits of rotating shifts is that their employees work round the clock and are able to meet customer demands at all times.

To get more insight on this topic, we reached out to Marshall Davis, President and Founder of Ascendley Marketing. As someone who has experience in managing small to medium-sized enterprises and a 24-hour coverage team, he thinks rotating shifts are necessary for a great customer experience:

“They provide 24/7 customer service coverage, an invaluable asset in the digital age. This setup facilitates a global reach by accommodating various time zones, thus increasing market share. Additionally, it allows for continuous workflows that maximize productivity.”

By providing 24/7 customer support, businesses put a high priority on their customers’ needs.

Benefit #2: Rotating shifts provide enhanced flexibility

By being able to change their shifts, employees have more flexibility regarding their work schedules. 

For example, employees who are parents may want to work more day shifts because it allows them to coordinate their schedule with their children’s school hours. This gives them more time to spend with their children.

With rotating shifts, employees can organize their time better and plan their personal matters accordingly.

Benefit #3: Rotating shifts allow employers to reduce labor costs

Rotating shifts help businesses cover more hours with fewer employees. 

Instead of covering specific shifts by having employees work overtime, employers can allocate the workload among employees and thus reduce overtime costs.

Drawbacks of rotating shifts

While rotating shifts bring certain benefits, this type of work schedule has its downsides too.

Drawback #1: Rotating shifts can have a negative impact on employee health

According to an article on the effects of shift work on employees’ lives, health-related problems are one of the main drawbacks of shift work as rotational shift work can disrupt circadian rhythms. 

Since circadian rhythms are based on “physical, mental, and behavioral changes that follow a 24-hour cycle,” constant switching between day and night shifts can interrupt natural processes such as releasing hormones that make us feel awake, sleepy, or hungry. As a result, changing shifts can force these processes to occur at times when the body is not genetically programmed or environmentally conditioned for that.

For example, when working night shifts, employees have to be awake during the night when they’re supposed to be asleep, which can be difficult for them to adjust to.

Marshal Davis also agrees that rotating shifts can put a strain on employee well-being:

“Inconsistent scheduling disrupts the body clock, which can lead to long-term health concerns.

Moreover, rotating shifts not only affect the physical health but also the work-life balance of employees.”

Drawback #2: Rotating shifts can be disruptive to employees’ lives

As rotating shifts imply that employees change shifts from week to week or month to month, this type of inconsistency can interfere with employees’ personal lives in terms of their routines.

For example, someone may be on a special diet and have to eat certain foods at certain times. This type of routine can be difficult to follow when working rotating shifts.

Moreover, some employees find certain stability in working fixed shifts, for example, and feel that switching to other shifts compromises that stability. 

Drawback #3: Rotating shifts can cause fluctuation in employees’ incomes

For most employees, having a predictable income is very important, and this is not always the case with rotating shifts. 

As employees who work rotating shifts may not always work the same number of hours, it can cause fluctuations in their incomes, especially for hourly employees.

In addition, not all shifts are always equally paid — e.g. night shifts are sometimes paid more than day shifts. This can also cause employees’ income to fluctuate, as it depends on the number and type of shifts they work during a given period.

Frequently asked questions about rotating shifts

If we’ve piqued your interest and now you want to know even more about rotating shifts, check out these frequently asked questions we’ve put together for you.

Are rotating shifts unhealthy?

To be straightforward — yes, rotating shifts can be unhealthy.

For instance, healthcare workers often work rotating shifts and thus experience various consequences — from poor sleep quality to increased stress.

According to research on the impact of rotating shifts on lifestyle and perceived stress among nurses, rotating shifts were associated with increased stress compared to fixed shifts. Also, fixed-shift nurses had longer sleep time compared to rotating-shift nurses.

As another research on the correlation between rotating shifts and the well-being of nurses further suggests, rotating shifts can also lead to emotional distress and increased fatigue.

However, with certain hacks such as packing your own healthy snacks while working night shifts or napping effectively, you can minimize the negative consequences of rotational shift work.

What is the 2-2-3 work schedule?

The 2-2-3 work schedule is a rotational shift schedule where each employee works a daily 12-hour shift in a rotational cycle of 28 days. 

This schedule usually involves 4 teams that: 

• Work for 2 days, then 
• Get 2 days off, followed by 
• 3 days of work. 

This is why it is called the 2-2-3 work schedule.

To get a better understanding of how the 2-2-3 schedule works, here’s an example:

As you can see from the illustration above, while team #1 works on Monday and Tuesday (week #1) from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., team #2 works from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. 

Then, team #1 and team #2 have two days off, while team #3 and team #4 take over the shifts. 

After that, team #1 and team #2 return to work for 3 days — team #1 works day shifts while team #2 works night shifts for those 3 consecutive days. At the same time, team #3 and team #4 have 3 days off. 

The 2-2-3 shift schedule allows employees to work for two days every other week. This enables them to spend the rest of their week as they like, which is one of the reasons why some of the employees favor the 2-2-3 work schedule.

What is an 8-hour rotating shift schedule?

An 8-hour rotating shift schedule involves employees rotating shifts over a certain period of time while each shift lasts 8 hours. 

In this blog post, we already mentioned and explained one type of 8-hour rotating shift schedule — the Southern swing schedule. 

However, besides the Southern swing schedule, there are some other types of 8-hour shift schedules, such as the Continental rotating shift schedule, for example.

With the Continental rotating shift schedule, 4 teams go through three 8-hour shifts (day, swing, and night shifts) over a 4-week cycle.

To see an example of the Continental rotating shift schedule, look at the illustration below: 

As presented in the illustration above, the 4-week schedule for team #1, for example, looks like this.

Week #1:

• Employees work 2 day shifts, then
• Work 2 swing shifts, and 
• Finish the week with 3 night shifts.

Week #2:

• Employees have 2 days off, then 
• Work 2 day shifts, and 
• End the week with 3 swing shifts.

Week #3:

• Employees works 2 night shifts, then
• Have 2 days off, and 
• Complete the week with 3 day shifts.

Week #4:

• Employees work 2 swing shifts, then
• Work 2 night shifts, and 
• Conclude the week with 3 days off. 

Bear in mind that not all 4 teams start working at the same time.

For example, while team #1 works day shifts, team #2 has days off. At the same time, team #3 works night shifts, while team #4 works swing shifts.

With the Continental rotating shift schedule, during a 28-day period, there’s one week when employees have to work for 7 days straight, which some employees may find hard.

What is a 10-hour rotating shift schedule?

A 10-hour rotating shift schedule involves employees rotating through a series of shifts that are 10 hours long over a certain period of time.

This type of work schedule typically includes:

• 6 teams,
• 3 overlapping 10-hour shifts (one shift each week), 
• A 3-week cycle, and  
• 3 days off for employees each week.

An example of a 10-hour rotating shift schedule looks like this:

As presented in the illustration above, we can see that each team works:

• 4 consecutive 10-hour first shifts, 
• Has 3 days off, 
• Works 4 consecutive 10-hour third shifts, 
• Has 3 days off, 
• Works 4 consecutive 10-hour second shifts, and
• Has 3 days off.

With a 10-hour rotating shift schedule, all 6 teams need to work on the same day one day of the week, resulting in overlapping shifts on that day. For example, on the fifth day of the first week, all 6 teams are working. Team #1 and team #2 both work the first shift, team #3 and team #4 both work the second shift, and team #5 and team #6 both work the third shift. 

This provides double coverage, which is useful for businesses that need an additional labor force during busy days.

What is a 12-hour rotating shift schedule?

A 12-hour rotating shift schedule involves employees rotating shifts over a certain period of time while each shift lasts 12 hours.

Remember the DuPont and Pitman shift schedules that we’ve already talked about in this blog post? 

Well, those schedules are one of the most popular 12-hour rotating shift schedules. However, apart from them, there are some other types of 12-hour shift schedules, such as the 4-on-4-off schedule, for example.

The 4-on-4-off shift schedule includes 4 teams where employees rotate between day and night shifts over a 16-day period. 

To understand the 4-on-4-off shift schedule better, take a look at the illustration below:

As we can see from the illustration above, team #1 works for 4 days (day shifts) and then has 4 days off. Simultaneously, team #2 works for 4 days (night shifts) and then has 4 days off. 

The same goes for team #3 and team #4, except they start the workweek with 4 days off. 

Conclusion: Rotational shift work is demanding but also an invaluable asset for businesses

If you’re not already on a rotating shift schedule, there’s a good chance you’ll experience it at least once during your career.

However, if the time comes for you to work rotating shifts, don’t be discouraged by it.

With so many different types of rotating shift schedules such as:

• The DuPont shift schedule,
• The Pitman shift schedule,
• The Southern swing schedule,
• The 2-2-3 work schedule, and more, there must be some that’ll benefit you, at least to some extent.

On the other hand, if you are the one who needs to schedule rotating shifts for employees, we hope that our strategies – such as creating a clear schedule and defining rotation rules – will help you overcome any difficulties.

And in case you want to make it even easier for yourself to create a schedule, don’t forget to try out some of the useful scheduling tools.

Have you ever scheduled rotating shifts for your employees before? Maybe you have already found the right method that helped you incorporate rotating shifts into your business. Let us know at blogfeedback@clockify.me so we can try out your technique next. And, if you liked this blog post, share it with someone you think would be interested in reading it.

From the process of writing to distribution and shipping, it’s a long journey before a reader gets to enjoy the book itself. At least, that was the case before digital publishing started to take over traditional print media.

Although the publishing industry is constantly changing (which can be challenging for the people who are part of it), the Director of RM Marketing Services, Rachael McDiarmid, finds it rather thrilling. In fact, the main thing about her work she used to have trouble with was tracking the time she spent on tasks and projects.

We came across Rachael on LinkedIn, where she mentioned how Clockify helps her track the time she spends on client work and create invoices for her clients, among other things.

So, we reached out to her to discuss:

• How she started working in the publishing industry,
• Why she decided to start her own business, and
• How she uses Clockify to make her work easier.

Without further ado, let’s dig in!

Rachael McDiarmid’s career: Gathering knowledge and starting her own business

Before starting her own business, Rachael McDiarmid worked in several different roles — from sales and marketing to management positions. Along the way, she decided to specialize in outsourcing, consulting, and coaching for authors, book publishers, and distributors.

We gathered from talking to Rachael that her journey to establishing her own business — RM Marketing Services — was a relatively long but diverse and fun one. And it all started with Pergamon Press, where she learned a lot about the power of direct and niche marketing.

Rachael’s beginnings: Starting a career in the publishing industry

Rachael has been in the book trade since 1990, starting her career at Pergamon Press, where she worked mainly on educational and science resources. She loved her day-to-day tasks and to this day, she is known for her love of “all things academic,” as she once put it.

Since Pergamon Press, Rachael has started to build her career in publishing and has worked in various roles:

“I’ve been in the publishing industry for over three decades. I started in mainly sort of product and marketing roles and then went to management.”

Although she has worked primarily in academic and professional publishing, RachaeI also gained extensive experience in library supply and book distribution — working with hundreds of suppliers and thousands of publishers, both locally and internationally.

For over 10 years, Rachael managed a distribution business representing around 100 presses to the ANZ (Australia and New Zealand) book trade. She has also worked closely with Blackwell, YBP and Baker & Taylor.

While working at the senior management level, Rachael began to think about how to advance her career from there, and a thought occurred to her — maybe she should start her own business.

How the idea of starting RM Marketing Services came to life

Although Rachael spent some time thinking about her next career move, she wasn’t really sure in which direction to go.

Given that she gathered all this knowledge and reached a stage in her career where there were no similar jobs in the industry she could try out, she felt kind of stuck.

Thankfully, she got the right advice at the right moment:

“I actually have to thank a wonderful man who was the managing director of one of the big companies here. He said to me — ‘You’re the most networked person in the industry. Why don’t you make your network work for you?’”

That’s when she realized what the publishing industry was missing — a business that provides an outsourcing solution and consulting service for authors, publishers, distributors, and library vendors. In other words, she thought of a business that caters to basically anyone in publishing who needs help with sales, marketing, and distribution.

And she was the ideal person to start such a business.

She wanted to use her connections and experience to help others achieve their goals — whether by providing coaching services for authors who are inept at digital marketing or outsourcing for book publishers and distributors.

“These days, particularly with digital marketing, there are authors that are really savvy and authors that aren’t, and they need help with websites and social media and even things like newsletters and advertising. So I coach them and train them to do what they need to do.”

Although she’s based in Australia, Rachael now works globally and has clients from all over the world:

“I’ve been in the industry for so long and I’ve built up such knowledge. It’s nice, you know, having lots of different clients and doing lots of different work.”

Tracking time in Clockify: The game-changer in Rachael’s work life

As she works with a lot of people and provides many different services, Rachael needed an easy way to track the time she spends on tasks and projects so she could invoice her clients.

Initially, Rachael tracked the hours she spent on client work using her calendar and Excel. However, after a while, she realized that the way she was tracking her time was neither practical nor fast enough. That’s when she started looking for a more efficient solution — such as a time tracking app.

How Rachael found out about Clockify 

Hoping to find the right app for her needs, Rachael went online and started reading summaries and blog posts about the best time tracking apps. That’s when Clockify came up.

“I needed something that could help me track the time I spent on client work. So I started using the free version first, so I could export that information and report to my clients and later invoice them.”

By creating reports in Clockify, Rachael could share all important project-related information with her clients, including the time she spent on each project or task and her costs.

What led Rachael to stick with Clockify

With all the features Clockify released over time, Rachael wanted to try out some of the useful extra options — such as time rounding and tracking project budget — so she upgraded to a paid version.

Time rounding in Clockify helps Rachael keep her reports nice and neat by rounding her time entries up or down to the nearest minutes or hours.

In addition to time rounding, Rachael loves that she can track each project’s budget in Clockify.

“If a client says to me — ‘I’ve got $2,000 to spend on this campaign,’ you have to track that as a project to make sure you don’t go over budget.”

With Clockify’s project budget tracking options, Rachael is able to:

• Set her project budget, and 
• Track how much of a budget she spent by setting monetary estimates.

Keeping track of her project’s budget helps Rachael stay within it. 

Clockify features Rachael enjoys the most

In this section, we’ll explore the Clockify features Rachael uses the most — both for keeping track of her work and invoicing her clients in an easy way.

Feature #1: Invoicing

Invoicing can be a tedious and quite difficult process, especially if you have many different clients.

What Rachael likes the most about Clockify is that she can easily tailor each invoice according to her clients’ needs:

“Clockify saved my sanity, particularly because I have lots of clients — the outsource clients and then the consults on top. And there are different rates for things, so having to manage all of that and do invoicing — it’s, um, it’s a challenge.”

Feature #2: Alerts

When it comes to project budget tracking and project estimates, Rachael says that she particularly likes the Alerts feature:

“It sends me a notification that my project has reached 25%, 50%, 75%, or whatever percentage of the estimated time I previously set.”

That way, Rachael can keep to the client’s budget and not go over the agreed time.

Feature #3: Tags 

As Rachael works on a lot of projects and tasks, being able to label them comes in handy. So she uses the Tags feature to organize her work.  

She can also use tags to filter through her reports and find exactly what she needs based on keywords.

Benefits of using Clockify for work

As someone who now can’t imagine her day-to-day functioning without using Clockify, Rachael shared with us the benefits she discovered while using this app for work.

Benefit #1: Clockify is efficient and easy to use 

When you have as much work as our interviewee, Rachael — which is often a lot — using a reliable app to help you get your work done more efficiently is a must.

Clockify helps Rachael finish all her client-related tasks much faster: 

“It’s an absolute time saver. It does everything someone like me needs from reporting to my clients to creating invoices and recording work expenses. Oh my God, I just love it!”

When she started using Clockify, Rachael also noticed how convenient and easy to use it was.

Compared to before, when she did all these tasks the hard way using Excel, Rachael now has more productive workdays.

Benefit #2: Clockify is incredibly affordable 

One of Clockify’s biggest strengths is that it’s extremely affordable, considering it offers a ton of great features.

“You can do all of these different things in one app. It’s value for money.”

As Rachael adds, having an inexpensive time tracking app that also helps you quickly create reports and invoices definitely is a lifesaver — especially for freelancers or people on a tight budget.

Benefit #3: Clockify provides great customer service 

When you’re using an app, it’s always a big plus if it provides good customer support because you never know when you’ll run into some kind of complication or minor issue.

When something like that happens, you usually don’t have a lot of time to spend trying to fix whatever went wrong — you need help right away.

Good customer service is another benefit that comes with Clockify, which is something Rachael noticed early on:

“I had to ask a question because something wasn’t appearing on a report, and it was only because I hadn’t filled in a particular part when setting up a new project. And the customer service was excellent. They just made sure I knew what I was doing enough to never make that mistake again. Those sorts of things also make Clockify pleasant to work with.”

Who would Rachael recommend Clockify to and why?

As Clockify has truly changed her work life for the better, Rachael takes every opportunity to share her experiences with others — both within the publishing industry and beyond:

“I was speaking to someone the other day who’s starting up their own business. As they are working with lots of different people and have been looking for an easy way to manage reports and invoices, I said to them — ‘You’ve got to get this app. It will make your life so much easier!’”

As Clockify offers so much — from time tracking to creating reports — Rachael considers it very useful for anyone who works with a lot of clients and has multiple projects and tasks they need to track. 

She also recommends Clockify to people who don’t really want to spend a lot of money on a time tracking app, as it is really affordable. 

Last but not least, Rachael thinks Clockify can be beneficial for freelancers or people in general who don’t have a staff and do their own invoicing by hand. 

Wrapping up: Using the right time tracking app makes doing what you love extra enjoyable

Although Rachael loves her job and finds it fun and diverse, reporting to multiple clients and tracking so many different projects isn’t easy. To be more accurate — it wasn’t easy. At least not until she started using the right time tracking tool.

Now that she uses Clockify to track her time but also create reports and invoices for her clients, Rachael realizes how much time and energy she used to waste trying to do it all on her own.

If you are one of those people who have difficulty keeping track of their time and projects, don’t worry. With a little help, you can easily solve that problem.

Just make sure you find the right time tracking tool that meets all your needs.

  Do you have interesting stories about time tracking apps and how they’ve improved your work life? Feel free to share your thoughts at blogfeedback@clockify.me, and we might write a blog about it. Also, don’t forget to share this article with someone that might find it useful. 

These taxes, commonly known as “payroll taxes”, as they are based on employees’ wages, are a mandatory contribution to the federal, state, or sometimes even local governments.

As an employer, you’ll have to withhold a certain amount of money from your employee’s wages and pay taxes for each employee that works for you. At the same time, you’ll also have to pay your own share of taxes.

If the concept of payroll taxes confuses you, and you are not sure what your obligations are as a taxpayer, stay tuned.

In this blog post, we’ll:

• Define what payroll taxes are and what they include,
• Tell you which payroll taxes you need to pay as an employer, and 
• Explain how to calculate payroll taxes and give you some examples.

Let’s start.

What are payroll taxes? 

According to the Congressional Research Service, “a payroll tax is generally a tax levied on the wages or earnings of workers.”

In other words, when an employee is paid their salary, the employer withholds a certain amount of money from the employee’s wages and pays taxes to the government. 

But, employers also have their own share of the payroll taxes they need to pay, which are not deducted from the employee’s gross pay. Meaning, these deductions are not taken from employees’ wages, and the employer pays them out of their own pocket.

Payroll taxes — both employee’s share (taxes deducted from their paycheck) and the employer’s share of these taxes — are used to finance:

• Government expenditure for military equipment, research, education, etc.,
• Social insurance programs such as Social Security and Medicare,
• Unemployment insurance programs, 
• Local infrastructure, and more.

The term “payroll taxes” is a broader term that includes both employee payroll taxes and employer payroll taxes. To clarify the difference between each of these terms, we’ll explain:

• Employee payroll taxes,
• Employer payroll taxes, and
• Payroll taxes in more detail.

What is the difference between: Employee payroll taxes, employer payroll taxes, and payroll taxes?

Before we explore employee and employer payroll taxes, let’s get back to the term “payroll taxes” for a moment.

The term “payroll taxes” is an umbrella term that includes all taxes paid by employers and employees to the federal, state, and local governments. Payroll taxes are generally based on the employees’ wages, that is, they are calculated as a percentage of the wages the employer gives to their employees.

Payroll taxes include:

• Employee payroll taxes, and 
• Employer payroll taxes.

Employee payroll taxes are taxes withheld by the employer and paid to the IRS on behalf of the employee, and they include:

• Federal income tax, 
• FICA taxes (Social Security and Medicare),
• State income tax,
• Self-employment taxes (this applies to the self-employed only), and 
• Any local taxes employees may have to pay depending on the city or county they live in (some states don’t impose local or even state income taxes). 

Employer payroll taxes are taxes paid solely by employers, and they include:

• Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA),
• FICA taxes, and
• State unemployment tax (with certain exceptions such as Alaska, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania where employees also contribute to state unemployment taxes).

Who pays payroll taxes, the employee or the employer?

Both employers and employees have to pay a certain share of taxes.

In most cases, the employer is the one who withholds a certain amount of money from the employee’s wages and pays taxes to the government on behalf of the employee. However, in some instances, for example, if you’re self-employed, you have additional  tax obligations, such as the Self-employment tax (SE).

Also, some payroll taxes, such as taxes used to fund social insurance programs (Social Security and Medicare), are paid by both the employer and the employee, and they share them 50/50.

In short, we can conclude the following:

• Some payroll taxes are paid solely by employees (they are taken from their paychecks), 
• Some payroll taxes are paid solely by employers, out of their own budget, and
• Some payroll taxes are shared equally between the employer and the employee.

What is included in employer payroll taxes? 

As we’ve learned, employers have certain responsibilities when it comes to paying taxes. In addition to taxes they’re paying on behalf of employees, they also have their own share of taxes they are required to pay — employer payroll taxes.

Let’s break down employer payroll taxes and explain each of them. 

Social Security tax

Social Security tax is one of the two Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) taxes. 

According to the IRS, Social Security consists of the “old-age, survivors, and disability insurance taxes.” This payroll tax is used to provide monthly funds to help workers and their family members with their income in the event of the worker’s: 

• Retirement, 
• Disability, or 
• Death.

The current tax rate for Social Security is 6.2% of the employee’s wages for the employer. 

Again, as the IRS explains, the maximum amount of an employee’s wages that are subject to Social Security taxes per year is $160,200. This is also called a wage base limit.

Medicare tax

As we’ve mentioned, Medicare tax falls under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) taxes.

Medicare tax, also known as the “hospital insurance tax,” is used to fund costs for hospital and hospice care for senior citizens or people with disabilities, adequate nursing facility care, and others. 

The current tax rate for Medicare is 1.45% of the employee’s wages for the employer.

Medicare tax has no wage base limit.

Federal unemployment tax

The Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) is a federal law that imposes a tax used to fund benefits for workers who’ve become unemployed.

According to the Internal Revenue Service, the federal unemployment tax rate is 6.0%. The employer is required to pay a tax equal to 6.0% of the first $7,000 paid as wages to each employee during the year.

Still, the federal unemployment tax rate ranges from 0.6% to 6.0%, depending on how much the employer pays in state unemployment tax. If the employer paid the state unemployment taxes in full, and if they did it by the due date of Form 940 they’ve previously filed, they may become entitled to the maximum 5.4% credit, in which case the FUTA tax rate after that credit would be 0.6%.

State unemployment tax

Similar to the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA), the State Unemployment Tax Act (SUTA) is a law that imposes taxes to finance the cost of state unemployment insurance benefits in the US. 

In short, the main difference between the federal unemployment tax (FUTA) and the state unemployment tax (SUTA) is that SUTA imposes taxes at the state level.

According to the US Department of Labor, each US state has its own law that determines state unemployment insurance tax rates for each state.

What is included in employee payroll taxes?

Employee payroll taxes are those taxes that the employer withholds from the wages of employees and pays on behalf of the employee. 

To see which payroll taxes are paid by the employee, we’ll state and explain each of these taxes.

Social Security tax

Besides paying their own share of Social Security tax, the employer also needs to withhold the same amount of these taxes from their employee’s wages. The current tax rate for Social Security is:

• 6.2% employer’s share, and
• 6.2% employee’s share.

Medicare tax

The same goes for Medicare tax. Both the employer and the employee pay the same amount of Medicare taxes. The current tax rate for Medicare is:

• 1.45% employer’s share, and
• 1.45% employee’s share.

Also, as the IRS adds, self-employed individuals who earn more than $200,000 in a year are required to pay an additional 0.9% in Medicare taxes.

Federal income tax

Federal income tax is based on the employee’s wages earned during a pay period and the information specified in the employee’s Form W–4, also known as the “Employee’s Withholding Certificate.” 

When an employee fills out Form W–4 and forwards it to the employer, the employer will be able to calculate the right amount of taxes they need to take out from the employee’s paycheck.

According to the IRS, federal income taxes are used to finance the: 

• US defense system, 
• Various social programs, 
• Law enforcement, 
• Maintenance of the country’s infrastructure, and others.

State income tax

State withholding rules vary from state to state. 

Most US states have a state income tax and their own state income tax rates. 

According to the US Government, if an employee lives in a state with an income tax, how much of state income tax they will have to pay is based on:

• Their income, and
• The tax rate of that state. 

On the other hand, there are 9 US states that have no income tax:

• Alaska, 
• Florida, 
• Nevada, 
• South Dakota, 
• Tennessee, 
• Texas, 
• Wyoming, 
• New Hampshire, and 
• Washington.

In these states, the only withholding that applies is federal tax withholding. 

Local income tax

Any local taxes employees may have to pay depend on the city or county they live in. 

In most cases, the employer withholds local income tax from the employee’s paycheck and pays it to the local government. However, in the state of Colorado, 5 cities have a tax called “an occupational privilege tax” that requires employers to pay local taxes too.

These cities are:

• Aurora, 
• Denver, 
• Glendale, 
• Greenwood Village, and 
• Sheridan.  

Local income tax is used to provide for various public services such as:

• Education, 
• Road repairs, 
• Garbage maintenance, and similar.

How can an employer calculate the payroll taxes they need to pay (+ examples)?

Now that we’ve explained employer payroll taxes and employee payroll taxes, we’ll show you how to calculate the total payroll taxes you have to pay to the government by following these steps.

Step #1: Calculate your employee’s federal withholding

An employee’s federal withholding mainly depends on:

• Their taxable income and filing status, and
• The other information they provide on their Form W–4, which we’ll cover later in this subheading.

The taxable income is an amount of an employee’s income that is subject to tax. An employee’s filing status can be:

• Single filers, 
• Married filing separately, 
• Married filing jointly, 
• Head of household, and
• Qualifying widow(er) with dependent child.

Some taxpayers whose spouses have passed away may be eligible to use Qualifying widow(er) with dependent child as their filing status. This means that, if they haven’t remarried, they may qualify for joint return tax rates (which may result in lower tax) and use them for two years following the year of their spouse’s death.

To determine your employee’s federal income tax, use the IRS’s wage bracket system.  

As the IRS states, the US has 7 federal tax brackets:

• 10%, 
• 12%,
• 22%,
• 24%,
• 32%,
• 35%, and 
• 37%. 

To calculate your employee’s federal withholding, first, you need to determine your employee’s tax bracket. 

Take a look at the tables below:

SINGLE FILERS TAX BRACKETS FOR 2023

MARRIED FILING SEPARATELY TAX BRACKETS FOR 2023

MARRIED FILING JOINTLY TAX BRACKETS FOR 2023

HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD TAX BRACKETS FOR 2023

For example, let’s say your employee Sarah is a single taxpayer whose annual income is $38,000. According to that, Sarah has to pay 10% of the first $11,000 of her income, and the remaining portion of her income is taxed at 12%.

This is a progressive tax system, which means that the more you earn, the higher the tax rate you’ll have to pay.

Other factors you need to consider when calculating your employee’s federal withholding are:

• Multiple job adjustments,
• The amount of credits,
• Deductions, and
• Any additional tax withholdings your employee may request.

After you determine Sarah’s tax bracket and include other factors from her Form W–4, you’ll know how much to withhold from her paycheck.

Step #2: Calculate your and your employee’s FICA taxes

To calculate your employee’s part of FICA taxes, multiply their gross pay by the Social Security and Medicare tax rates. 

For example, if your employee earns $800 in a weekly pay period, their Social Security tax would be calculated this way:

$800 in employee’s wages x Social Security tax rate of 6.2% = $49.60 in Social Security taxes you need to withhold from their paycheck

The same principle applies if you want to calculate how much you need to withhold for their part of Medicare tax:

$800 in employee’s wages x Medicare tax rate of 1.45% = $11.60 in Medicare taxes you need to withhold from their paycheck

As the Social Security and Medicare tax rates are the same for the employer and the employee, you’ll follow the same process when calculating your share of Social Security and Medicare taxes. 

Step #3: Calculate your FUTA tax

The employer only pays the FUTA tax on the first $7,000 of the employee’s earnings. For any amount of wages that exceed $7,000, you are not required to pay FUTA tax for that employee in that year.

The FUTA tax rate is 6.0% of the employee’s wages. Therefore, you’ll be required to pay 6.0% of an employee’s earnings up to $7,000. 

The FUTA tax you’re required to pay for each employee is calculated this way: 

$7,000 in the employee’s wages x the FUTA tax rate of 6.0% = $420 in FUTA tax you need to pay

However, if you pay your state unemployment taxes in full and if you do it by the due date of Form 940 you’ve previously filed, you become entitled to the maximum 5.4% credit. In this case, you only have to pay 0.6% of the first $7,000 your employee earns.

Here’s how the calculation goes:

$7,000 in the employee’s wages x the FUTA tax rate of 0.6% = $42 in FUTA tax you need to pay

Step #4: Calculate your SUTA tax

Since each US state has its own SUTA tax rules, the amount you’ll have to pay in SUTA tax depends on:

• The wage base of the state your employee works in — this is the maximum amount of the employee’s wages that an employer can use to calculate SUTA tax per year. An employer is not required to pay SUTA tax on an employee’s income that goes above the wage base in their state.
• The SUTA tax rates of that state — each state has its own minimum and maximum tax rate.

The SUTA tax wage base is the same for all employers in a given state. However, SUTA tax rates are different for each employer as they depend on various factors such as:

• The employer’s previous experience with unemployment, 
• The age of their business, and
• The industry turnover.

For example, let’s say your employee works in North Carolina. The taxable wage base for 2023 in North Carolina is $29,600, and this is the maximum amount you can use to calculate your SUTA tax. If your employee earns $50,000 in a year, the only SUTA taxes you need to pay are taxes on the first $29,600. In other words, you don’t pay taxes on any income beyond the taxable wage base.

We’ll also say your SUTA tax rate is a maximum tax rate of 5.76%. When you multiply the tax wage base with a maximum tax rate, you get your SUTA tax:

$29,600 tax wage base x 5.76% maximum tax rate = 1,704.96 in SUTA tax you need to pay

Moreover, in Alaska, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania employees also contribute to state unemployment taxes, so you’ll have to count in their share of SUTA taxes too.

After you’ve covered these 4 steps, your payroll taxes are ready. If you want to see whether you have some additional forms to hand over to the IRS, check this list of employment tax forms.

Wrapping it up: Paying payroll taxes can be easy if you follow our steps for calculating them

Handling taxes is a necessary task for every employer. Employers also have to make sure that each of their employees’ Forms W–4 is valid and updated to avoid any possibility of underpayment.

To successfully pay payroll taxes, an employer has to:

• Deduct the right amount of taxes from employees’ paychecks,
• Calculate their own share of taxes, and
• Follow IRS guidelines regarding due dates and different forms they need to hand over. 

If you’re an employer and you’ve been wasting time trying to find the right way to pay payroll taxes, we hope we’ve helped you in that search.

Just make sure to follow each step we’ve explained and calculate your taxes properly.

Are you an employer and it’s your first time paying taxes? Or are you familiar with payroll taxes and already have a perfect system to calculate and pay them? If you have found the right method to manage payroll taxes, feel free to share it with us at blogfeedback@clockify.me for a chance to be featured in this or one of our upcoming articles. And, if you liked this blog post, share it with someone who might find it useful.

Well, if you compensate your employees for the hours worked after the due date for that compensation has passed, that’s arrears in payroll. 

To help you better understand arrears in payroll, we created a short guide to explain not only this term but also some other expressions such as “paying in advance” and “paying in current” — so stay tuned.

In this blog post, we’ll also cover the following topics:

• What does arrears mean in payroll,
• The difference between payroll in arrears and current and advance payments,
• An example of paying in arrears,
• The advantages and disadvantages of paying employees in arrears, and
• Frequently asked questions about arrears and arrears in payroll.

So, let’s start.

What does arrears mean in payroll?

If you’re running payroll for last week instead of the current week, that’s considered payroll in arrears.

In other words, your employees are not paid at the end of the set pay period, that is, at the end of their workweek, but they’ll have to wait a few days after the pay period ends to get their pay.

Most businesses compensate employees this way because it’s easier for them to calculate total wages for the current pay period. 

Apart from the hours worked, while calculating payment, an employer also has to take into account other factors, such as:

• All the taxes that need to be paid, 
• Paid time off (PTO), 
• Sick leave, 
• Tips, 
• Commissions, or
• Overtime.

You can also compensate your employees in other ways, so let’s see the differences between paying in arrears, paying in current, and paying in advance in the following paragraph.

Payroll in arrears vs. current vs. advance: What are the differences?

As we already mentioned, paying in arrears means that you, for example, run payroll for last week instead of the current week.

When you pay your employees in current, on the other hand, you pay them the day the set pay period ends. 

Paying in current can be a bit tricky for employers because they need to calculate the estimated number of hours the employee will work during that pay period. Calculating the estimated number of hours worked means that the employer will have to guess how many hours the employee will work, which may differ from the actual hours worked. 

For example, if an employee’s workweek is from Monday to Sunday, and the end of their pay period is on Friday, to pay them that same day, the employer would have to calculate hours earlier (for Saturday and Sunday) and guess how many hours worked there will be in the end.

Paying in advance would be the complete opposite of paying in arrears. When an employer pays the employee in advance, it means that the employee is paid ahead of the normal pay schedule.

For example, an employee can take something called salary advance. This term refers to the situation where the employer can give their employee a percentage of their salary before their usual payday.

This way, the employee receives their payment before the usual pay period ends. 

What is an example of paying in arrears?

To explain paying in arrears in more detail, let’s take a look at the example of this payment method.

Let’s say John works at the coffee shop and he works his usual 8 a.m.–5 p.m. shift on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, but he decides to take a day off on Friday.

Sunday would be the day the workweek ends, so his employer usually calculates John’s wages on the same day. This time, his employer also includes paid time off in their calculation (in this example, the day off is Friday).

In this case, John doesn’t get paid right away. He gets paid five days after the end of the previous workweek, that is, he receives his payment the following Friday. In other words, John is paid in arrears.

If you’re wondering why John wasn’t paid right away, we’ll explain it in a bit.

Paying in arrears is more convenient for John’s employer, since they can take some time to consider factors such as paid time off before doing the final pay calculation.

What are the advantages of paying employees in arrears?

There are several notable advantages of paying employees in arrears, so let’s learn more about them.

Advantage #1: Paying in arrears helps employers include all the factors

Paying employees in arrears gives employers more time to calculate all the factors, such as overtime, paid time off, or commissions, before issuing payments.

To find out more about this topic, we’ve reached out to Wendy Ha, the Founder, Principal Consultant, and Advisor at AgileCPA.

Wendy is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) and Certified Management Accountant (CMA) with over 10 years of experience as a finance and accounting leader.

In her professional opinion, paying employees in arrears allows for more time to accurately calculate variable pay (i.e., commissions):

“For example, say a technology salesperson closed a deal on Jan 13th and the person is generally entitled to a 10% commission. If the payment is in the following week, the finance team can take their time to calculate and obtain all the necessary approvals to release the commission.”

Advantage #2: Paying in arrears reduces inaccuracies 

If we compare it to paying in current where the employer may record the employee’s hours while they are still working, paying in arrears provides enough time to track and calculate the hours more precisely.

According to Wendy, there are certain instances where employers have to pay their employees in arrears:

“If the employers have hourly employees and want to pay by direct deposit, they have to pay in arrears. For example, say at a retail clothing company, it is impossible to pay hourly employees for Jan 14th if the pay date is the same day. The retail store wouldn’t know how many hours they’ve worked that day. Also, the company won’t be able to direct deposit the funds because typically, the final payroll amounts have to be submitted the day before.”

Advantage #3: Paying in arrears helps businesses with their cash flow

Companies often pay in arrears because it gives them time to be more flexible with their cash flows. According to the British Business Bank, “cash flow is a measurement of the amount of cash that comes into and out of your business in a particular period of time.”

Again, let’s see how Wendy explains this advantage:

“Delaying the payment can help the business with cash flow. Since service is rendered by the employees, the company might receive payment from their clients already. Delaying the payroll by 1 or 2 weeks will help with cash flow, especially if the company has other financial obligations they need to make.”

What are the disadvantages of paying employees in arrears?

When it comes to paying employees in arrears, there are also some disadvantages, so let’s see them.

Disadvantage #1: Paying in arrears leads to employees waiting for their payment

When you’ve just finished a tough week at work, what can certainly lift your spirits is being able to access that hard-earned money right away. Paying in arrears prevents employees from doing so, which is why some employees may find it a less desirable compensation option.

Disadvantage #2: Paying in arrears can be a difficult change for employees who got used to being paid in current

Any transition can be a little difficult for employees, especially when it comes to payroll. If you decide you want to switch to arrears payment, you need to be aware of the potential consequences this may have for your employees. Perhaps your employees have become accustomed to the current payment system, and the transition from paying in current to paying in arrears is not something they anticipated.

Having to go one or two weeks without pay can affect your employees’ finances. Moreover, to keep a good relationship with your employees but also prevent financial hardships they may encounter, you’ll also probably have to provide them with some type of transition payment (this is a one-time payment in the form of an advance, for example).

Frequently asked questions about arrears and arrears in payroll

If you want to learn more about arrears and arrears in payroll, check out these frequently asked questions we’ve singled out for you. 

Arrears in payroll vs. being paid in arrears: what is the difference?

As we’ve already mentioned, arrears in payroll refer to the situation where employees are compensated for the hours worked in the previous pay period instead of the current pay period.

But, what about being paid in arrears?

According to Forbes, being paid in arrears means “to pay for goods or services after the terms have been met or the due date has passed.” For example, if you’re behind on your electricity bill, and your house has already been supplied with electricity, that means your electricity bill is being paid in arrears. 

What does arrears mean in accounting?

Arrears in accounting can occur in several cases, and the first case we’ll mention is the case of being paid in arrears — for example, when your business pays your vendor in arrears.

Let’s say you own a restaurant, and you purchase your vegetables from a certain vendor.

Although you have established payment terms with your vendor — to pay them before January 30th — you failed to do so. You received your vegetables, but you missed the deadline for payment, so now you’ll have to pay your vendor in arrears.

In other words, if you, as a business owner, are behind on payments you owe your vendors, that’s payment in arrears. 

Vendors can sometimes make you pay a late fee, so keep that in mind when deciding whether paying in arrears is the best option for your business. 

Aside from paying vendors in arrears, other cases of arrears in accounting can be grouped into 3 types of arrears:

1. Annuity in arrears — As Forbes explains, “if the annuity payment is made at the end of a fixed period, rather than at the start, it is referred to as an annuity in arrears.” For example, mortgage payments are considered an annuity in arrears.
2. Calls in arrears — Calls in arrears occur in a situation where there are a few shareholders of a company, and one of them fails to pay the due amount of shares on call. 
3. Dividends in arrears — When a company has dividends in arrears, it means that it failed to issue a dividend payment by the due date to preferred shareholders — that is, to those shareholders that have priority in contrast to common shareholders over a corporation’s profits.

How to reduce the risks of billing in arrears?

Apart from paying employees in arrears, there’s also something called billing in arrears.

When you bill in arrears, you bill your client or customer after you have provided them with services or goods.

To help you reduce the risks of billing in arrears, such as the risk of missing payments, or even prevent certain risks, we’ve listed some handy tips.

Tip #1: Use invoicing software to keep track of your invoices

Using invoicing software helps reduce the risks of billing in arrears because it allows you to keep track of all your invoices in one place.

As a matter of fact, the right invoicing software gives you a detailed overview of both your paid and overdue invoices.

In Clockify, for example, you can mark invoices as either Sent or Unsent, and if a due date for a sent invoice passes, the invoice automatically gets Overdue status. 

You can also use the Reminder email as a friendly note of the invoice that is past due time.

All of these options can simplify tracking your client’s payments and reduce the risks that sometimes come with being paid in arrears.

Tip #2: Conduct credit checks on potential clients

To avoid dealing with unreliable clients, you can conduct credit checks on them to evaluate whether they can pay consistently on time. 

An employer can check someone’s credit history by looking at their credit report — credit reports list your: 

• Bill payment history, 
• Loans, 
• Current debt, and 
• Other financial information.

This way, you reduce the possibility of receiving late or missing payments and putting your business finances at risk.

Conclusion: Before paying in arrears, evaluate whether this system works for you

As you can see, paying employees a few days after the end of the pay period is a useful practice for employers because they get more time to calculate their employees’ hours worked more accurately.

Employees, on the other hand, may not always be in favor of this payment system. Sometimes they’ll need some time to adjust to being paid later than usual, especially if they’re used to a different payment schedule.  

Still, if you decide to pay your employees in arrears, you need to be aware of both the advantages and disadvantages that this payment method can bring. That way, you can decide if paying in arrears is the best solution for your business or if you should go for another option.

Ultimately, however you decide to pay your employees, try to choose the payment system that’s most convenient for all the parties involved.

Have you ever paid your employees in arrears before? You may have already found the right payment system that is best for your business to compensate employees for hours worked. Let us know at blogfeedback@clockify.me so we can try out your system next time. And, if you liked this blog post, please share it with someone you think might be interested in reading it.

Is overtime taxed more? 

And, essentially: 

Is working overtime actually worth it in the end?

Many people believe that if they work more hours and earn more money, they will have to pay more taxes. Although this seems like a logical sequence of events, it is not always so. In other words — it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll end up making less money because of taxes that you’ll have to pay when working overtime.

However, if you don’t want to be unpleasantly surprised when you see that the increase in your paycheck isn’t as high as you expected, stick around and keep on reading.

We’ll include everything you need to know about overtime taxation — that is, we’ll answer some questions on this subject, use examples, and hopefully, clear up the confusion.

In this blog post, we’ll cover the following topics:

• Regular pay vs. overtime pay,
• Whether overtime is taxed more than regular pay,
• How is overtime taxed,
• How is overtime tax calculated,
• Why is overtime taxed more (if it actually is), and
• Frequently asked questions about overtime and taxation.

So, let’s begin.

Regular pay vs. overtime pay

First, we have to highlight that there are two types of pay:

• Regular pay, and
• Overtime pay.

Both are subject to taxes. 

Regular pay refers to the regular rate of pay that the employer compensates employees for working a standard workweek, that is, for working 40 hours a week. Regular pay doesn’t include overtime pay, any benefits, payments for leave, reimbursement for business expenses, bonuses, or similar.

The regular rate of pay is calculated this way:

The total money that is owed to the employee by the employer (except for statutory exclusions) / the total number of hours the employee worked in the workweek = the regular rate of pay for the workweek

Like regular pay, overtime pay is considered a type of income, so it’s taxable. 

Overtime pay is a compensation that a non-exempt employee gets for working more than 40 hours per week. As regulated by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), a non-exempt employee is an employee who’s entitled to receive at least the minimum wage and overtime pay at a rate of one and a half (1.5) times their regular pay rate.  

Is overtime taxed more than regular pay?

Simply put — no.

But we can’t just leave it at that, can we?

As an employee, you have your regular pay, and you pay your taxes according to your taxable income and your tax bracket. A tax bracket refers to a range of incomes that are taxed at different tax rates and which are largely based on your filing status. 

In certain circumstances, the tax bracket you belong to can change. For example, if you work overtime (in addition to your regular hours) and increase your gross income in a certain pay period — you may be moved to a higher marginal tax bracket but only for that pay period.

The marginal tax rate is the extra tax you pay on every extra dollar you earn as part of your income. The marginal tax rate is also the main reason why some of your hard-earned money seems to have slipped through your fingers in that pay period.

However, the taxes you owe are based on your annual earnings. So, if you earn more money by working overtime during a certain pay period, you may be moved to a higher wage bracket, for sure, but only for that specific period of time.

To give you a clear picture of how overtime is taxed in general, we’ll explain it in the following paragraph.

How is overtime taxed? 

Determining how overtime is taxed isn’t that different from determining how regular income is taxed.

First, you must identify your tax bracket. These federal tax brackets are separated based on the marginal tax rates — tax on every extra dollar you earn, as we mentioned earlier.

As confirmed by the IRS, the US has 7 federal tax brackets — 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, and 37%. 

The tax bracket you belong to depends on your taxable income and filing status:

• Single filers,
• Married filing separately,
• Head of household, and
• Married filing jointly.

For more information, let’s take a closer look at the tax brackets for each filing status presented in the tables below.

Apart from the categories listed above, marginal tax rates also apply to widows and widowers in certain cases. If qualified, a widow or widower can use the married filing jointly tax rates when paying taxes. See the qualification requirements here.

For example, if you’re a single taxpayer with an income of $11,000, you’ll pay a 10-percent rate on the first $11,000 you earn. 

When working overtime, you may move up a tax bracket — on your $11,001st dollar, you’ll move to the next tax bracket and start paying a 12-percent rate on each dollar you earn.

However, your gross income will be taxed more — not your overtime. 

How is overtime tax calculated? 

As stated above, an employee’s overtime rate cannot be less than 1.5 times their regular pay rate. In other words, for each additional hour, that is, for each hour over 40 hours weekly, employees are entitled to a time and a half (1.5) their regular rate of pay.

To give an example, let’s say you’re an employee and you want to calculate your overtime pay so that you could calculate the overtime taxes you owe.

For instance, if you’re an hourly employee with an hourly rate of $18, your overtime rate of pay per hour would be calculated this way:

Regular hourly rate x 1.5 = overtime rate of pay/hour

The equation goes as follows:

$18 x 1.5 = $27 overtime rate of pay/hour

Now, let’s say you worked 5 additional hours that week, your overtime pay would be calculated this way:

$27 overtime rate/hour x 5 overtime hours = $135 total overtime pay for that week

Now that you know how much money you earned from working overtime, you can determine what tax bracket you fall into.

For example, if you are in the 22% tax bracket as a single filer, and you made an additional $135 while working overtime, you would calculate your overtime tax like this:

Overtime pay x the income tax rate of 22% = overtime tax you owe

The equation goes as follows:

$135 x 22% (0.22) = $29.7 of overtime tax you owe

You owe $29.7 of overtime tax for that specific period of time.

Aside from employees, determining overtime pay and overtime tax is important for employers too. When doing taxes, employers have to calculate how much money they should withhold from their employee’s paycheck.

Why is overtime taxed more? (If it actually is) 

Although overtime is not taxed any differently than regular pay, this matter can be confusing — it can make you think about whether working additional hours is actually worth it due to taxes.

If you earn more money and increase your gross income — you may be moved into a higher tax bracket, for sure.

Overtime is always taxed, but it’s taxed at the same rate as your regular wage bracket (10% for the lowest and 37% for the highest income) hence overtime isn’t actually taxed more. 

Only your gross income as a whole will be taxed more (and only in that pay period) thus working overtime is still worth it.

Frequently asked questions about overtime and taxation

Now that we’ve learned the basics, let’s answer some frequently asked questions about overtime and taxation.

#1 Are there any exemptions from the overtime tax law?

According to the FLSA, employees are exempt from (not covered by) overtime tax law under the following circumstances:

• If they are considered administrative, professional, executive, or computer employees — since these employees usually earn twice the minimum wage,
• If they are paid a salary instead of an hourly rate (salaried employees), and
• If they are considered “highly compensated” — according to the US Department of Labor, employees are considered “highly compensated” if they earn a total annual compensation of $107,432 or more, which includes at least $684 per week. Also, they have to regularly perform at least one of the exempt duties (office or non-manual work).

#2 What are the pros and cons of the progressive tax system?

According to the IRS, “a progressive tax takes a larger percentage of income from high-income groups than from low-income groups and is based on the concept of ability to pay.”

For example, depending on whether you’re a taxpayer with a lower or higher income, a progressive tax system might tax you at lower or higher rates. A progressive tax system includes tax brackets that separate taxpayers according to their income ranges.

Compared to a flat percentage tax where all taxpayers are taxed at the same rate regardless of income, a progressive tax system ensures certain fairness for all taxpayers.

However, like any other tax system, progressive tax system also has its advantages and disadvantages, so let’s see them.

Pros of the progressive tax system

These are some of the good sides of the progressive tax system:

• It reduces the tax burden on those who earn less money and simply can’t afford to pay a lot of taxes — these people have lower wages and usually a lower living standard,
• It stimulates the economy because people with lower wages spend their money mostly on essential items — the progressive tax system actually increases economic demand, and
• It provides governments with more revenue — the progressive tax system allows governments to collect more money from those with higher incomes, which eventually results in more money being collected than with any other tax system.

Cons of the progressive tax system

Although the progressive tax system brings certain benefits, it also has some drawbacks:

• It can discourage those on the wealthier side — as a larger portion of the money is being taken away from them, this can reduce the desire of people with higher incomes to work hard and be competitive,
• It can seem unfair to people from the upper and middle classes — they end up paying a disproportionate amount of taxes. The progressive tax system also can encourage those with higher incomes to find ways to underpay their taxes, and 
• It encourages capital flight and reduces the overall size of the economy — money flows out of the country quickly as certain individuals decide that investing abroad is a better financial option for them.

#3 What is the difference between time-and-a-half pay and double-time pay?

When calculating the total compensation for an employee, an employer must also take into account two forms of overtime work:

1. Time-and-a-half pay — Refers to the amount of additional payment that an employer has to provide for an employee who worked overtime. Time-and-a-half (1.5) means literally that an employee gets paid according to their regular hourly rate plus 50% (that is, half) of their regular pay/hour. And this applies to every hour that is overtime.
2. Double-time pay — According to the FLSA, employers are not required to cover the double-time pay. Double-time pay is generally used as a way of thanking employees for putting in extra effort, and it depends on the state you live in or the company you work for. For example, California has its own overtime law that states that employers need to pay their employees two times their regular pay rates if they work beyond 12 hours in a work day.

#4 What are some of the reasons why people end up doing overtime?

Working overtime hours can be enticing to many people because it enables them to reach some of their financial goals. 

If you’ve ever wondered what actually motivates people to put in that extra effort — take a look at some of the top reasons why people work overtime.

Reason #1: To earn extra money

This is perhaps the most obvious reason why people work additional hours. By working overtime, they get the extra money that they can later use for vacations, savings, or whatever the reason is. 

Reason #2: To pay off debts

Earning overtime is a big relief for people who have debts to pay off. 

According to a 2021 CNBC report, the average American has about $90,000 in debt. Therefore, to help relieve some of their debts, most Americans usually choose to work overtime.

Reason #3: To invest in a business venture

If you want to start investing in a business venture — but don’t want to spend money from your regular earnings — working overtime may help you in achieving such a goal.

Reason #4: To improve skills and achieve career advancement

Although working overtime doesn’t necessarily help in advancing your career, it can be a good enough reason for some people to start working additional hours. 

Employees can use this time to improve their skills and show their employer their full potential. 

Conclusion: Working overtime (but in moderation) pays off after all

If you want to increase your earnings through working overtime, don’t let misconceptions about paying overtime taxes hold you back. 

Overtime pay is not taxed differently than regular pay — there’s only the possibility that you’ll have to pay more taxes in that pay period when your gross income increases. 

Working overtime will surely put extra dollars in your pocket, whether you get pushed into a higher tax bracket or not. Although working overtime has its benefits, it’s better to do it in moderation and not overwork yourself, considering it can have a negative impact on your health.

And if you weren’t sure whether working additional hours is actually beneficial considering the taxes you need to pay, we hope we’ve made it easier for you to understand how overtime taxation works and make a final decision.

Have you ever wondered how overtime taxation works? Maybe you have already found the right method and tool that helped you calculate your employees’ or your own total income taxes. Let us know at blogfeedback@clockify.me so we can try out your technique next. And, if you liked this blog post, share it with someone you think would be interested in reading it.

You may think that they have sold their soul on the black market.

While that might be true, it’s most likely that they mastered the art of being proactive.

In this article, we’ll go over:

• What it means to be proactive, 
• How to become more proactive at work and in life (+ examples),  
• How to become less reactive, and
• What the benefits of being a forward-thinker are.

What does it mean to be proactive?

According to research on proactive behavior, “being proactive involves self-initiated, future-focused, and change-oriented behaviors.”

In other words, being proactive means thinking about the future and focusing on the things you can control instead of all those you cannot. 

The concept of proactivity was popularized by Stephen R. Covey in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. Being proactive is the very first habit he mentions.

To learn more about the difference between what it means to be proactive and what it means to be reactive, pay attention to the next paragraph. 

Being proactive vs. being reactive

As opposed to being proactive, being reactive means just waiting for things to happen to you. Specifically, circumstances dictate your actions instead of your actions dictating the circumstances. 

According to research on the difference between being proactive and reactive, a proactive person uses “initiative and action”, while reactive people “behave as simple witnesses of their lives.”

In any situation, whether it’s something happening in your private or professional life, there is a stimulus, and there is a response. In between, there is your freedom to choose what your reaction will be. 

Will your reaction be proactive or reactive?

If you’re not sure, here are some additional questions to ask yourself that can help you figure it out:

• Do you have any kind of long-term plan?
• Do you take an active or passive role at work and in life?
• Do you make a decision only when you absolutely have to?
• Do you think about the future and anticipate possible outcomes, or do you have a more live-in-the-moment approach?
• Do you feel like life is just happening to you, and you’re not playing an active role in it?   

If your answers show that you prefer to make long-term plans and predict possible future outcomes, you’re most likely a proactive type of person. However, if you find it hard to make calculated decisions and are not action-oriented, it means that you take a reactive approach to life.

What are the 5 P’s of being proactive? 

In her book The Proactive Professional: How to Stop Playing Catch Up and Start Getting Ahead at Work, Chrissy Scivicque, a career expert, defines the 5 P’s of being proactive (each P of the 5 P’s of being proactive represents an action verb) as: 

1. Predict, 
2. Prevent, 
3. Plan, 
4. Participate, and
5. Perform.

Let’s explain each of them.

P #1: Predict

To be proactive, you need to think about the future and possible future outcomes. 

In other words, you need to develop foresight — the ability to correctly predict what will happen in the future. You need to be ready for any type of problem that might occur.

The first step towards learning how to predict future events is to pay attention to patterns or routines that usually happen. However, there’s a catch.

For example, if you have a certain business strategy that has been proven to work, you still need to be aware of the fact that past results do not always predict future results. Although some things have worked in the past, there is no guarantee that they will work the same way in the future. You always have to leave some room for unexpected circumstances.

As Chrissy says in her book, you should “come up with multiple scenarios for how events could unfold.” That way, you’ll be ready to take action whatever happens.

P #2: Prevent

After you visualize all the possible obstacles that may occur in the future, think about the ways you could deal with them before they become a huge problem.

Don’t be passive and afraid of confronting challenges. Instead, take control of your life, and be more active.

As Chrissy also states, challenges have to be confronted head-on, so try to prevent problems before they escalate and turn into chaos.

P #3: Plan

Planning is another important step towards being proactive. 

In order to plan, you need to shift your focus from the “here and now” to the future. To achieve a future goal, you need to plan your steps carefully toward reaching that goal. Think about what you can do today to ensure positive results later on.

P #4: Participate

If you stay aside and just observe what’s happening, you won’t be able to solve anything. In order to find a solution, you must get involved.

For instance, participate in the discussion with your colleagues, your partner, family members, or friends. Basically, in any aspect of your life, it’s much better to be an active participant than a passive observer.

And remember — everyone’s contribution is equally important when making a decision or solving a problem.

P #5: Perform

The final stage of becoming a proactive person is showing that you’re willing to do the actual work.

Now is the time to stop postponing and make a decision. And when you do make a decision, stand behind it.

To be proactive, you can’t afford to be reluctant. Plan your path toward achieving your goal, consider all possible outcomes, and confidently take that final step.

A proactive person does not act impulsively — they examine and reflect on their actions and, most importantly, recognize that they are responsible for their own choices.

How to be more proactive in life 

Being proactive in life means taking care of yourself and things around you, as well as developing good habits because you realize your life is a product of things you do every day.

To help you make positive changes to your life such as becoming more self-aware and decisive, we’ll give you some tips on how to be more proactive in life, along with some examples.

Tip #1: Stop delaying things

If you want to be proactive, you can’t allow yourself to procrastinate. Also, you can’t ignore reality. For example, if you don’t feel well, and you can see your condition is getting worse, take action. Don’t just wait for your state to improve on its own because the chances of that happening are minimal (if not non-existent).

As the inspirational audio speaker and the author of The Daily Motivator To Go, Ralph Marston said: “What you do today can improve all your tomorrows.”

So, don’t wait for the problem to get bigger, but do your best to prevent what you can NOW.

Think about what might happen if you always delay things. This will save you both time and energy.

Tip #2: Have open conversations with people around you

In relationships with other people, proactive people don’t throw problems under the rug. They don’t take their frustrations out on other people. They regularly communicate about their feelings and needs, and when there is a problem, they actively work on solving it.

At times, you’ll be able to solve a problem by yourself. Other times, you’ll have to work together on solving an issue with the people around you. 

For example, if you’re having trouble organizing an event with your friend because they have a bad attitude, and you’re not sure what the reason for that behavior is, ask them openly. If you don’t do that and just wait for the atmosphere to become positive on its own, you’ll waste valuable time. As a result, you won’t be able to organize the event, and you may even disappoint some other people who depended on you.

When you share your thoughts, and the other party does the same, you have a better chance of successfully solving the problem and being able to move on with the task.

The same applies to your relationship with your partner. Don’t expect your partner to be a mind-reader. If something bothers you, be the one to start a conversation. 

Again, not only will this save you time, but it will also prevent smaller problems from becoming bigger and much harder to handle.

Tip #3: Understand that you’re in control of your own choices 

Even if you sometimes feel like life is too hard on you, try to look at the situation from all angles.

If you encounter a difficulty, and your immediate reaction to it is a negative one, negative thoughts will flood you and make you feel helpless. And if you start feeling helpless, you may even convince yourself that doing nothing about the issue is the only option you have. 

In fact, you always have another option — you just need to focus on the things that are in your control. Ask yourself — “What is it that I can do to solve this problem?” This is what a proactive person would do.

Knowing that you’ve done everything in your power to resolve the situation or minimize the difficulties the situation brings will boost your confidence and put you in the right mindset. You’ll be able to tell yourself — “I’m in control of my own choices” or “I can choose my own attitude,” and approach your life more proactively.

Tip #4: Develop self-awareness

As Lao-Tzu, the famous Chinese philosopher once said: “Knowing others is wisdom; knowing the self is enlightenment.”

Developing self-awareness, that is, understanding yourself and your own strengths and weaknesses, is crucial to becoming more proactive.

While researching for this blog topic, we reached out to Bayu Prihandito, a certified psychology expert, life coach, and founder at Life Architekture. He believes that one of the best tips for being more proactive in life is to focus on self-awareness:

“Being mindful of our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors can better support us to anticipate and adapt to changes in life.”

To be able to act accordingly in any situation life hands you, first, you need to look inward and practice self-reflection — that’s how your personal growth starts. Sitting with yourself and reflecting on your day is beneficial for your self-growth because it helps you analyze your behavior and realize what you could’ve handled differently at the end of the day. 

When you accept your own mistakes, control your emotions, and think about the needs of others, you’re seen as a reliable person who thinks about their own actions before taking them.

Being self-aware is closely related to your personal responsibility — when you have a sense of who you are as a person, it’s easier for you to take accountability for your actions because you’re sure of them. 

Being self-aware also helps you know your own limitations. When you’re honest with yourself, you can always work on things you need to change. In the end, there’s always room for improvement.

Tip #5: Declutter your mind (and your life)

To be able to plan what you want to achieve in the future and how you want to achieve it — you need to do it with a clear mind. With too many ideas in your head, you won’t be able to decide where to begin.

To declutter your mind, do the following:

• Start journaling to get rid of unnecessary thoughts and focus on what’s important,
• Stop trying to multitask, and
• Change your lifestyle and make it more organized.

If your life is not properly organized, you won’t be able to focus on your goals and work on them proactively.

We also talked with a professional organizer Nicole Gabai on the subject of proactivity. Based on her experience, being organized is a key strategy for being more proactive in life: 

“When you are organized, you can stop living life reactively, driven by each little crisis, and instead take a more proactive, intentional approach to directing your own life. I’ve found that getting organized clears your mind so you can get on to the more important things in your life and spend more time doing what you really want to do.”

What is an example of being proactive in life?

Being proactive means taking control of your life, and this is a perfect example of how you can do it.

Let’s say you want to start a side business or pursue an expensive hobby or a passion. 

To be able to make your dream a reality, first, you need to take care of your finances. In other words, you need to:

• Create your budget,
• Track your expenses, and
• Make financial goals.

Then you can consider other factors such as renting a space for your business or buying that pricey scuba gear for scuba diving training you’ve had in mind.

Only when you approach your finances realistically will you be able to make big plans. If you just live in the moment and spend your money uncontrollably, the chances of having enough money for what really matters to you are significantly smaller. 

Don’t just assume you’ll get a promotion right around the time you intend to invest in a side project or make that deal. Instead, make a calculation of all the expenses you need to cover and start saving money today.

If you need to change your spending habits, do it now. Don’t wait until it’s too late.

How to be more proactive at work 

If you wanted a promotion, would you:

• Look up what requirements are and work towards meeting them, or 
• Just wait and think about how it’s unfair that you’re not getting it? 

We’ve already learned that proactive people aren’t the ones doing the latter.

To learn more about how you can be more proactive at work and achieve your goals, check out the tips we’ve provided for you.

Tip #1: Develop your strategic thinking skills

If your aim is to reach certain career goals, such as to earn a promotion or advance to a higher position, you need to start thinking more strategically. 

According to an article in Forbes, thinking about larger issues instead of focusing on smaller ones is essential for those who want to advance at work. Strategic thinking includes:

• Thinking long-term,
• Focusing on the bigger picture, and 
• Considering the various challenges that lie ahead.

Before you can reach those career goals you set for yourself, you need to understand what your contribution to the company is. You need to know what your role is within the organization, and what else you can do to prove your value and commitment to it.

Maybe you’re spending too much time on some trivial issues, so instead, try shifting your focus to, for example, developing a new set of skills. You never know, maybe those very skills will lead you to the leadership position you want.

Bayu Prihandito agrees and adds that proactivity and strategic thinking go hand in hand:

“Being proactive at work revolves around strategic thinking. First, you will need to understand the big picture: your organization’s mission, your role within it, and how you can contribute to it. Then, you can take the initiative to improve processes, solve problems, or generate new ideas. This could involve expanding your skill set, networking with colleagues, or seeking out new opportunities for growth.”

Therefore, to reach your career goals, plan your steps in advance. 

Tip #2: Set SMART goals

Having certain career goals in mind is just the first step toward achieving them. You can spend months or even years working tirelessly and still stay in the same spot. This probably means your goals weren’t clearly defined, to begin with.

In other words, it’s not enough to just have goals — you need to set SMART goals. The acronym SMART stands for 5 characteristics of a goal that you need to consider if you want to achieve your goal successfully (each characteristic is represented by 1 letter in the SMART abbreviation):

• S stands for Specific — your goal has to be well defined and clear,
• M stands for Measurable — your goal has to be measurable, that is, you need to set and follow certain criteria that show your progress toward achieving that goal,
• A stands for Attainable — your goal has to be achievable, that is, you need to possess all the tools and skills you need to achieve the said goal, 
• R stands for Relevant — your goal has to be relevant in a way that it holds particular importance in your life (whether it’ll benefit you as an individual or a company as a whole), and
• T stands for Time-bound — your goal needs to have a clearly defined deadline (to create a sense of urgency and keep you on track to success).

If your goal has all these characteristics, it means you’re ready to start working on it. 

By setting clear, well-defined, and realistic goals, you won’t waste time and energy on the wrong things.

Tip #3: Organize your time better

When you take control of your time, you’ll be able to plan your activities and make sure your time is spent in a way that increases the likelihood of achieving the results you want.

By using time management strategies, you can improve your work performance and achieve your desired results faster. Here are the strategies you can use to organize your time better:

• Prioritize your tasks — separate your most important tasks from the less important ones. For example, the Eisenhower matrix can help you decide which tasks to prioritize, delegate, or eliminate.
• Create a to-do list system — whether you’ll use your planner, an app, or to-do list templates, sorting your tasks/projects allows you to have a clear overview of all your assignments in one place. 
• Timebox your work — allocate a fixed amount of time for each task in advance. For example, open your calendar and choose a task you want to timebox (it can be a report you need to write). Then, allocate a certain number of hours you want to spend on that report, and when the time is up, stop writing it. This will help you put a limit to activities that would otherwise take away too much of your time.   
• Eliminate workplace distractions — maintain your focus by eliminating work distractions such as office noise, unnecessary phone notifications, access to social media, etc. For example, use noise-canceling headphones to dampen the disruptive noises around you and install website blockers such as Cold Turkey to restrict your access to distracting websites.
• Automate your tedious and time-consuming tasks — this could mean leveraging automation tools, including email builders, other types of email automation tools, and other resources and tools that help free up your time to refocus on more important and priority tasks.

If you want to be more proactive at work, make sure you spend your time as efficiently as possible.

Tip #4: Communicate effectively with your colleagues

Good communication is the key to success — both in personal and work relationships. If you and your colleagues communicate effectively, you have a better chance of achieving positive results, not only on an individual level but also for the organization as a whole.

According to research on how to develop effective communication skills, effective communication means that you:

• Listen to your colleagues actively, 
• Voice your own opinions, and
• Are open-minded and open to feedback (including constructive criticism).

This type of communication at the workplace allows you to work proactively.

If you share your opinions on a certain matter, and you do it promptly, you can prevent miscommunication and maybe even add valuable alterations to a project you’re all working on.

Also, if you receive constructive criticism and ask for clarification instead of reacting negatively to it, you’ll be able to make certain improvements in time and successfully complete the task.

A proactive person thinks ahead — they anticipate future issues and work actively on preventing them.

Tip #5: Develop a growth mindset 

Being proactive is often intertwined with having a growth mindset. According to Bayu Prihandito, developing a growth mindset is one of the most important steps toward becoming proactive:

“Developing a growth mindset means having a belief that our abilities can be developed and improved over time. This mindset encourages us to actively seek out new opportunities, rather than waiting for them to come to us.”

If you have a growth mindset, you:

• Don’t give up when you face a challenge — you persist, 
• Don’t see failures as a bad thing, but the opportunity to grow, 
• Are inspired by the success of others instead of being envious, and
• Your goal is to continuously grow and improve yourself.

What is an example of being proactive at work?

To be proactive at work, you need to anticipate problems and actively try to prevent them. We’ll give you an example of how you can do it.

Let’s say you have an important meeting, and your task for the meeting is to prepare a presentation about a project you are currently working on. As this is your first time presenting, you’re not really sure how to prepare a presentation properly so you feel stuck. 

So what would a proactive person do in this situation?

First, a proactive person wouldn’t be afraid to admit they lack experience or skills and that they need help. The next step would be to ask your colleagues for advice — the sooner you ask, the better. This will prevent the whole team from wasting time on a presentation that’s a failure. 

So, instead of unsuccessfully trying to complete the presentation yourself, the better option is to seek guidance. There’s no shame in that.

If you want to prevent problems and be proactive, you need to act in advance. 

How to be less reactive

Other than having a proactive mindset, you’ll need to develop a few skills too. Is being proactive a skill, you may ask? Not in itself, it’s more like a set of skills on top of each other with a trench coat on. 

To see which are the most important skills you need to acquire to be proactive, take a look at the list below.

Skill #1: Be aware of the words you use 

Words we speak have a bigger impact on our lives than we realize. Be aware of how you talk and what phrases you tend to use. Do you keep saying the following phrases:

• “I have to”, 
• “If only”, 
• “I can’t do anything about it”, and
• “Things would be different if _________”? 

That’s a reactive language that gives away your power. Try saying these instead:

• “I get to”, 
• “I will”, 
• “I choose”, and
• “I will try different alternatives/different approaches.”

Using these phrases will shift your focus from “what I can’t do” to “what I can do,” which is the first step toward becoming less reactive and more proactive.

Skill #2: Plan ahead 

Whether they use a regular planner or a time-tracking app, proactive people are aware of how they spend their time and use that knowledge to plan their future more effectively.

For example, you can use Clockify’s time tracker to track work hours across projects and analyze tracked time. That way, you can see how you spend your time during a workday.

In Clockify, you can:

• See all your projects in one place, 
• Edit time entries, and 
• Choose how you want to track your time (start the timer when start working or add time manually at the end of the day).

Tracking the time you spend on projects and tasks helps you make better plans for the future. Furthermore, it allows you to see how much time you typically need to complete a particular project/task.  

Skill #3: Prioritize your tasks

Not all goals and tasks are equally important, and you shouldn’t treat them as they are as that might lead to burnout. As we’ve already mentioned in the text before, using the Eisenhower matrix is a great option to prioritize your tasks. 

Prioritizing your tasks can be even easier if you put them in your calendar. This will help you allocate your time effectively and avoid procrastination.

You can use Clockify’s Calendar feature to visualize your day and organize your time.

This way, you can:

• Create time blocks for specific activities, by adding time entries (your time blocks) in Calendar,
• Add and edit time entries as you wish, and
• Open your team members’ calendars to see what their day looked like.

The last item from the list is especially useful because it allows you to stay in the loop with your colleagues — you can see what they’re up to, when they’re available, and make plans accordingly.

Skill #4: Learn to problem-solve 

Proactive people focus on how to solve the problem instead of panicking (panicking for a couple of minutes and then solving the problem is fine too). Find out what exactly the problem is, create a plan, and take the appropriate action.

If you allow your emotions to take over for too long, you’ll feel trapped and incapable of doing anything, which is something a reactive person would do. So, instead of wasting time and stressing about things you think you can’t change, try to make a first step toward getting out of that situation. 

The first step would be to find the root of the problem. When you realize it, focus on what you can do to solve it — the more solutions you find, the better. Then, you can choose the most adequate solution that you can use at that moment.

Skill #5: Take action 

Contrary to popular belief, good things don’t come to those who wait, but to those who take the initiative and work for what they want.

If you want that promotion, for example, don’t just sit and wait patiently for it — use that time to work on your weaknesses and show your boss that you have a desire to improve. 

As research on why proactive employees get promoted suggests, having a proactive personality is beneficial for an employee who wants to get promoted. The employee with a proactive personality shows persistence when facing difficulties, puts effort to resolve problems, and, consequently, shows better work performance.

Skill #6: Learn from past mistakes 

Mistakes are inevitable, and there’s no way to completely avoid them. However, you can learn how not to repeat the same mistakes by analyzing what went wrong and what you can do better next time. You should use the mistake as an opportunity to improve yourself and your knowledge.

According to an article on the subject of learning from mistakes, experiential learning is one of the best ways of learning. Learning through trial and error isn’t a bad thing — in fact, it can be extremely beneficial as long as your focus is on the process rather than the results.

Bonus tip — surround yourself with proactive people. They say we are the five people we surround ourselves with. Seeing how they approach life, what their habits are, and how they think will help you become more proactive too.

Why proactivity can be a double-edged sword 

Proactive people are generally high achievers, and they achieve career success faster if they’re in the right environment.

However, proactivity can be a double-edged sword.

You don’t need to be proactive at all costs, especially at work. Sometimes you have to read the room and figure out if it will be appreciated. 

Not all working environments are open and healthy — in some workspaces, proactivity can bring more harm than good. Therefore, you should be aware of: 

• Envious coworkers, 
• Punitive bosses that will get you in trouble if you make a mistake, and 
• Environments that refuse to let go of outdated systems (you’ll hear things like “Changing things may upset the employees” or “Who do they think they are”).

Building interpersonal skills is imperative because in some instances, being proactive can be perceived as annoying or obnoxious.

On the other hand, there are situations where it’s better to be reactive. If your friend is venting to you, perhaps it’s better to listen to them and be their shoulder to cry on instead of coming up with solutions and advice (especially if they didn’t ask for it). Sometimes people just need someone to listen to them.

Also, keep in mind that you can’t plan and predict everything, sometimes things just happen.

Maybe your goals have to be altered due to changed circumstances or maybe you came across an unavoidable obstacle that no one could foresee. Life is unpredictable and at times it forces you to be reactive and that’s okay.

The benefits of being proactive

Being proactive brings a lot of positive changes to your life. It helps you become a better version of yourself and overcome challenges confidently.

To see why you should take initiative in your work and life, take a look at some of the benefits of being proactive.

Benefit #1: Being proactive allows you to shape your own life

Being proactive means taking control of your life.

Even though you sometimes feel like your destiny has already been written, that’s not the case. When you have the desire to change certain things in your life, you can definitely do it — you just have to take action.

One of the main benefits of being proactive is that it allows you to shape your own life. As Bayu Prihandito also adds, proactivity empowers us to shape our lives and careers according to our own aspirations:

“Instead of merely reacting to circumstances, we set the pace and forge our own paths.”

When you change your mindset from being a passive observer of your life to being an active participant in it, real changes in your life and work begin to happen. Your life becomes the one you’ve always wanted to live.

Benefit #2: Being proactive leads you to career growth

To show better performance at work and reach your career goals, you need to actively work on it. And you need to work on it every single day.

When you show that you’re ready for change and capable of improvement, success is inevitable.

Being proactive helps you improve your workplace skills such as:

• Time management skills,
• Communication with your colleagues,
• Teamwork skills, and
• The ability to solve problems.

Moreover, our contributor Bayu Prihandito says that being proactive is essential for our career growth: 

“It enhances our resilience, problem-solving skills, and capacity to innovate. This, in return, can lead us to higher job satisfaction, improved performance, and accelerated career growth.”

Benefit #3: Being proactive reduces stress

According to research on how proactivity reduces the possibility of burnout, employees who display proactive behavior are more likely to actually prevent career burnout. By taking the initiative to change and improve, employees take matters into their own hands and thus reduce stress.

If you’re stressed at work to the point where you can’t perform to the best of your ability, you won’t be able to stay productive and focus on your goals. In addition, people you live with will sense your dissatisfaction with work as soon as you enter your home, so your personal life may also be at risk.

Not only does being proactive help you reduce stress but also maintain a healthy work-life balance. When you think about your deadlines in advance and meet them accordingly, you have more time to spend with your loved ones. And this is the perfect balance we all seek.

Conclusion: Being proactive changes your life for the better

Proactive people don’t wait around for things they want, they make a conscious effort to take the right set of actions and get what they want. That’s why continuously working towards your goals always pays off in the end.

Being proactive can bring success into different aspects of your life. It allows you to:

• Shape your life according to your own aspirations,
• Get more career opportunities, and 
• Live a less stressful life.

Proactive people have the right mindset, plan ahead, and take initiative. That’s why they are often the highest achievers.

You can be one of those people, too — it’s not a magical superpower only the chosen ones get. It can be learned and trained like you would train a muscle.

Have you ever thought about what you can do to become a more proactive person? You may have already found the right tips and strategies that have helped you achieve the perfect work-life balance. Let us know at blogfeedback@clockify.me so we can try some of your tips next. And, if you liked this blog post, share it with someone you think would be interested in reading it.

However, taking time off is an integral part of working. Without taking a break from time to time, employees would likely experience burnout much faster and not be able to work effectively.

On the other hand, whenever an employee takes time off, it is the employer’s responsibility to track their absences and manage their requests. This can be quite challenging, especially if they don’t use the proper tools.

As this guide is intended to help both employees and employers keep an eye on and streamline the process of tracking and requesting time off, we’ll explain:

• What a time off request is, 
• How an employee can request time off, 
• Why it’s important to have a clearly defined PTO policy, and
• How employers can manage their team’s vacation, holidays, and other types of leave.

What is a time off request? 

A time off request is a written request an employee hands over to their employer when they want to ask for permission to take a leave of absence.

An employee may ask for time off for different reasons — maybe they need to take a break from work or help a family member who’s seriously ill.

Here are some of the types of leave an employee may take depending on the reasons behind their time off request:

• Sick leave — a time off an employee can take to recover from an injury or illness.
• Family or medical leave — a time off an employee can request to take care of a family member who’s seriously ill or to bond with a newborn/adopted child.
• Maternity and paternity leave — a new mother can use maternity leave after giving birth and to take care of a newborn/adopted child. Also, a new father can use paternity leave to take care of a newborn/adopted child.
• Holiday leave — an employee can take time off during public holidays such as Christmas Day, Independence Day, etc.  
• Bereavement leave — a time off an employee can take to grieve the loss of a family member or close relative, make funeral arrangements, and similar.
• Vacation leave — a time off an employee can take to rest, travel, or spend time with family and friends.
• Sabbatical leave — an extended time away from work an employee can use for various reasons, such as to take care of their mental health or for professional self-development. 
• Military leave — a time off an employee takes when they need to participate in active or inactive duties in the National Guard or as a Reservist of the Armed Forces.
• Jury leave — a time off an employee takes to serve as a juror or witness.

Paid time off vs. unpaid time off

Before we explain how an employee can request time off, let’s differentiate between two main types of leave an employee can take:

• Paid time off, and
• Unpaid time off.

Paid Time Off (PTO) is a type of leave an employee can take while still getting paid regular wages. 

In the US, employers are not required to offer paid time off, but most of them choose to provide it to their employees to boost morale and increase employee productivity.

Moreover, rules regarding how many days off an employee gets and when they can use these days vary depending on different factors, for example, whether an employee is a part-time or full-time employee.

Unpaid Time Off (UTO) refers to time away from work an employee can take while not getting paid.

Employers are generally not required to provide their employees with unpaid time off. However, they may be legally obliged to allow employees to take unpaid leave in certain cases, such as:

• Family and Medical Leave (FMLA), 
• Jury duty, 
• Military leave, or
• Voting. 

An employer can offer unpaid time off to their employees in addition to PTO, but they may also choose to provide only unpaid time off instead of PTO.

How to request time off — tips for employees 

According to the Pew Research Center’s research, nearly half of workers take less time off than their employer offers because they worry they might fall behind at work, among other reasons. 

However, taking time off doesn’t have to be stressful – you just have to find the right way to approach it.

Even if you’re a new employee, you probably already know that requesting time off is much easier when you know you’ve handled all important issues in advance, such as:

• Finishing the task you started, 
• Figuring out a plan on how you’ll cover for missed work, 
• Informing your team members and your manager of your vacation plans and similar.

If you want to avoid stressing over taking time off, you need to make certain preparations for your absence.

In this section of our guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about requesting time off, including:

• Letting you in on some general tips for requesting time off,
• Providing you with advice on asking for time off at a new job, and
• Helping you with requesting a day off at the last minute.

General tips for requesting time off

To successfully request time off, here are some helpful tips you should use.

Tip #1: Read your company’s PTO policy

Before you start planning your vacation, it’s important to check what your company’s policy says about your rights to take time off. 

Most employers offer some form of PTO to their employees — vacation, sick leave, holidays, etc. 

After you read your company’s PTO policy, you’ll know:   

• How you can earn/accumulate time off,   
• When you become eligible for time off,
• How many days you can take for different types of PTO, and more.

For example, an employer can put a clause in their PTO policy that employees are not allowed to use any paid vacation time for the first 90 days of employment. So, make sure you pay attention to every detail in the policy.

Tip #2: Talk to your manager before making plans

Unless you’re a new hire who already had a vacation booked before accepting the job offer, it’s best to discuss your vacation plans with your manager before you start making them. 

That way, your manager can:

• Reorganize and reprioritize your tasks, if needed, and 
• Get prepared for your absence on time.

You can also ask your manager for advice on what the best time for you to take a leave would be.

Tip #3: Check the company’s calendar in advance

If you want to avoid obsessing over work during your vacation, check your company’s calendar in advance. This allows you to see whether your time off overlaps with busy times when there’s a lot more work than usual.

As a rule of thumb, for your peace of mind, try to avoid taking time off if:

• There’s some kind of crisis at the company, or
• It’s a busy season. 

You can also check your team members’ schedules and plan your vacation accordingly. If the majority of the team has already planned to take a vacation around the same period, it may be harder for you to get your request approved. This is another reason why it’s important that you “reserve” your time off as soon as possible.

Tip #4: Make sure there are no gaps in your team’s work while you’re away

Besides talking with your manager, you should also mention your vacation plans to your team members. 

If you’re working on a specific task with a coworker, you can schedule a one-on-one meeting to discuss how you plan to complete your joint task before you go on vacation.

Your absence shouldn’t affect your team members, so make sure you:

• Inform them of your absence in advance,
• Let them know how you plan to cover your workload (for example, maybe you’ll work extra hours), 
• Instruct a colleague that’s replacing you while you’re away on what they should do and how they should do it in your place (if there’s someone replacing you), and
• Offer some sort of availability (via phone or email) in case of an emergency while you’re away.

Tip #5: Submit a formal request for time off

After you’ve talked to your manager and your team about your leave, the final step is to submit a formal request for time off. 

You can submit your time off request through:

• A formal letter,
• An email, or
• Using your company’s vacation tracking system.

Some companies will require that you make your request in writing, while for others, it may be enough that you make a request in person. It all depends on the company in question, so make sure you’re familiar with all the time off request rules in your organization.

How do you ask for time off at a new job?

Although it can be a bit uncomfortable to ask for time off shortly after you start a new job, it’s important that you do it properly and not procrastinate on it. 

You may even be in a situation where you have to ask for time off during the job interview itself, that is, even before you accept the job offer. 

A couple of tips can help you handle every time off situation, regardless of whether you need to ask for time off:

• Before you start working, or 
• Shortly after you start working.

So, let’s take a look at what exactly you can do.

How to ask for time off before you start working

Maybe you had already planned a family vacation months before you got this job opportunity, and now it’s pretty hard to cancel your plans. 

If you’re wondering how to approach this type of situation, it’s very easy — just let your new employer know about your plans in advance. Being open about your plans during the interview gives the impression that you are an honest and reliable person, and the employer will likely appreciate that. 

Moreover, when you ask for time off, make sure you:

• Tell your employer exactly when you plan to take a break and how long it will last, and
• Let them know you’ll try your best to integrate into the organization as smoothly as possible. 

That way, you’ll show your appreciation and commitment to the company, despite taking days off before you even started working. 

How to ask for time off shortly after you start working

You may also feel uncomfortable asking for time off during the first couple of months at work. Many employees fear asking for time off at a new job because they think it might lead to a perception that they’re slacking off. 

To navigate this type of situation and still make a good impression, follow these guidelines:

• Inform your manager as soon as possible — this will leave your manager with enough time to plan and organize your work tasks accordingly. 
• Get familiar with the company’s culture — by seeing how often your coworkers take time off or how early they ask for it, you’ll get the feel of how others in the organization handle their leaves. This will also allow you to ask for time off without much pressure or guilt. 
• Pay attention to the timing — if your team has a lot of work to do during that particular period and you’re able to postpone your plans, it may be the best option to do so. However, if you can’t postpone your plans (e.g., you have an important doctor’s appointment or your family member suddenly fell sick), find a way to alleviate the burden of your absence by asking a coworker if they could cover some of your assignments while you’re away, for example.
• Organize your workload — before you request days off, you may want to finish as many work tasks as you can. You can also suggest to your manager that you work extra hours before you leave.

By thinking in advance, you’ll leave a good impression and show your manager how dedicated you are despite taking days off soon after you got the job. 

How do you request a day off last minute?

Although requesting time off on short notice is usually not recommended regardless of the industry, life is complicated and you never know when you’ll be forced to do something like that.

So, you may ask: What is the best way to request a day off last minute?

Well, here are some useful guidelines that could help you: 

• Avoid asking for a day off on the day itself — the best option is to give your manager at least one day’s notice. Requesting a day off on the same day should only be an option in extreme situations, should they arise.
• Be respectful and professional — talk with your manager respectfully and with a certain caution. Remember, even if your mood isn’t the best at that moment, you can’t let your emotions affect your work relationships. And don’t forget to say “Thank you.”
• Be specific about your reasons for time off — if you clearly state your reason for taking a day off on short notice, your manager may be more understanding of your request.
• Offer your availability via email/phone if something urgent comes up — your team members or your manager might need quick assistance from you while you’re away, so you can offer it in advance. This shows that you’re aware of your responsibilities and don’t want your absence to affect your or somebody else’s work.

How to track time off — tips for employers

To be able to manage employees’ time off successfully, an employer has to:

• Establish a clearly defined policy regarding time off, but also
• Be aware of how many used/unused days off each employee has at any given time.

If you’re an employer and you don’t have a clearly defined PTO policy, it’ll be extremely hard for your employees to understand their rights to take time off. Consequently, you won’t be able to manage their absences accurately. 

Also, if you want to make tracking time off as easy as possible, using a PTO and vacation tracker could help you automate the process of keeping an eye on everyone’s leave.     

To make it easier for you to manage your employees’ time off, in this section of our guide, we’ll cover:

• Why it is important to have a clearly defined PTO policy, and
• How you can use Clockify as a PTO and vacation tracker to monitor your employees’ absences effectively.

The importance of having a clearly defined PTO policy

Having a clearly defined PTO policy is equally important for both the company and its employees — it allows everyone to stay informed about the rules regarding time off. 

Therefore, if you’re an employer, you first need to define your PTO policy to be able to manage your employees’ time off.

Your policy can fall anywhere between:

• Traditional — with a set number of days or hours, and
• Unlimited — where employees can take as many off days as they like.

Regardless of your PTO policy pick, what matters the most is to clearly define your PTO policy so that:

• Employees know how best to use their PTO, and
• You can easily manage your team’s time off.

Once you define the policy, you can rely on a PTO tracker to make sure it falls into place.

How to access Time off feature in Clockify

Since employers have to be careful when managing their employees’ time off and do it accurately, using the right tool for tracking time off is always of great help. 

Clockify’s Time Off feature allows you to easily manage vacations, holidays, and any other type of leave you can think of, directly in the app.

To access and use the Time Off feature, you need to upgrade your workplace to one of the following paid plans:

• Standard,
• Pro, or
• Enterprise.

Once you do that, you need to activate the feature in your workspace settings by doing the following:

• Open your workplace settings,
• Scroll down to the page and find “Time off,” and
• Activate the feature using the toggle button.

Once you enable the feature in your workspace settings, it will appear in your sidebar. 

This is where you will:

• Create, 
• Access, and 
• Manage all your leave policies.

In the following sections, we’ll explain in detail how to use Clockify’s Time Off feature to create different leave policies and track your team’s time off with ease.

How to track your team’s vacation time in Clockify

Since vacation usually takes up most of the employees’ PTO, we’ll illustrate how to track your team’s vacation time in 7 steps. They include:

• Creating the policy,
• Managing the policy,
• Adding balance,
• Requesting time off,
• Managing requests,
• Viewing the team’s time off, and
• Managing balance.

Step #1: Creating the policy

To create your first time off policy, go to the Time Off feature in the sidebar. 

The following window will appear on your screen.

By clicking on the “Create Policy” button, you’ll get to define your policy.

You can define all the relevant elements of your vacation policy, including:

• Name — in our case, “Vacation,” “Collective vacation,” or similar,
• Assignees — who can use the policy,
• Time unit — whether vacation time can be used in days or hours, and
• Approval — whether time off needs to be approved and by whom.

If this vacation time applies to everyone in your organization, you can select all in the drop-down menu under “Assignees.”

Alternatively, if different departments have different vacation policies, you can select a particular team/teams this policy applies to.

You can even create a policy that applies to specific team members by selecting only them from the “Users” section in the drop-down menu.

Also, you can set up an approval system for taking vacation time by ticking the “Requires approval” box.

Once you check that box, you’ll be given several options as to who can approve your team’s time off. 

You’ll be able to appoint admins or team leads — or both. You can also choose the “Specific members” option and appoint a specific team lead from the list.

If you select the “Team managers” option, all the users with the team manager role in Clockify will be able to approve the request.

Apart from admins, only users with the team manager role in your workplace can approve time off requests.

When you’ve entered all the details, click “Create” — and your policy is all set.

You can also further customize your policy by choosing one of the available colors or making a custom policy color for each policy you have.

Step #2: Managing the policy

Once created, you can access your time off policy by clicking the settings icon in the upper-right corner of the Time Off page.

This way you’ll get the option to manage your policies.

There, you’ll be able to see all the leave policies you’ve created, including your vacation policy.

By clicking on the three dots next to your policy name, you get two options:

• Edit the policy, and
• Archive the policy.

When you archive the policy, it will appear as crossed off in your Policies section. You can use this option to archive last year’s vacation time, for example.

Once a policy is archived, you can still view its history — who used how much time and when. But, your team will no longer be able to select it when requesting leave.

If you archive a policy by accident, you can easily restore it by choosing the Restore option from the three-dots menu. 

Apart from restoring it, you can also:

• Edit the archived policy, or
• Delete it.

Remember, if you choose the latter option, you delete the policy’s entire history — i.e., all the requests, withdrawals, and approvals.

Step #3: Adding balance

Now that you’ve set up your policy, you need to add a precise number of days or hours your team can use as per the policy.

To add everyone’s balance, go to the Balance tab on the Time Off page and select your vacation policy from the drop-down menu.

Once you do that, you’ll get an overview of all the employees with the right to your vacation policy.

From there, you can add individual balances by clicking “Add” for each member.

A window will appear, asking you to input the exact number of days to add to a person’s balance.

There, you’ll also see a field where you can add any notes concerning the balance.

Alternatively, if all team members get the same number of days to start with, you can add their balances in bulk.

You can do that by selecting the entire team and choosing the “Add to balance” option.

As you can see from the screenshot above, there’s also an option to remove balance in bulk if you’ve made a mistake or need to change the balance for whatever reason.

You can also do it for individual team members by choosing that option from the three-dots menu next to the user’s balance.

In time, as people start using their vacation days, in the balance tab, you’ll be able to see their:

• Accrued time,
• Used time, and
• Time off they have left.

In the balance tab, you can also view your team’s individual balance by selecting a specific team member from the drop-down menu.

There, you’ll be able to see their balance for all the active leave policies in your workplace.

Step #4: Requesting time off

When you’ve set up your policy and added a balance for each team member, they can easily request vacation time.

On their Clockify profile page, they’ll have the same Time Off option in the sidebar. 

Once they click on it and get to the Time Off page, they can click on the request button in the upper-right corner of the screen.

They’ll get a request form to fill out with the following information:

• The leave policy they want to use,
• The date range for their time off, and
• An optional note on using the time off.

When your team members select the policy, they’ll be able to see the number of days available.

Once they select the date range, the form will calculate the total number of days they want to request, excluding any weekends or holidays in the range.

Bear in mind that weekends automatically count as non-working days — but you can change that in your workplace settings.

Once your team members fill out the form, they press submit, and you receive their request.

Step #5: Managing time off requests

When a team member requests time off, those responsible for the request approval (workplace admins, all workplace team managers, or specific team managers) will get an email notification.

You can access the request either through the request email or by going to the “Requests” tab on your Time Off page.

There, you can see all the requests in detail, as well as their status:

• Approved,
• Pending, and
• Rejected.

You can also filter your requests by status — for example, if you only want to see the pending requests.

You can also see when a request was approved and by whom by hovering over the “Approved” status.

To approve a request, simply click on “Approve” next to the request.

If you want to reject or withdraw a request, you can do that by clicking on the three dots on the side and selecting the appropriate option.

When a request has been approved, the team member who made the request will get notified via email. The team leader will also receive an email about their team member’s time off.

If the request is rejected or withdrawn, the team member will also be notified via email.

Step #6: Viewing the team’s time off

To have a clearer overview of your team’s time off and see if there are any overlaps, you can go to the Timeline tab on your Time Off page.

There, you’ll be able to see who’s got any vacation time in the following week or filter your search by applying a specific date range.

In any case, you’ll only be shown people who do have some time off in the selected period.

The time off will be displayed as lines across the calendar in different colors:

• Green — if vacation is approved, and
• Yellow — if vacation is pending approval.

There’s also gray for holidays (more on them later).

By default, workplace admins can see everyone’s time off, whereas team leaders can only see their own and their team members’ leave.

Regular users (those without admin or team manager roles and permissions) can also see their own time off, as well as that of their team members (i.e., their team manager’s users). 

However, you can enable all the users to see everyone’s time off in the workplace settings.

Step #7: Viewing time off history

If you want to see a team member’s time off history as an admin, you can do so by: 

• Going to the Balance tab,
• Clicking on the three dots next to a team member, and
• Selecting History from the menu.

There, you’ll be able to see:

• All their past and current time off requests, along with their status and any additional notes, and
• All changes in their balance, who made them, when, and even why (you’ll see “why” in the notes section — e.g., “Added a day due to overtime.”)

Apart from admins, no one else can see everyone’s accrual history.

Individual team members who are regular users can only see their own balance and balance history. Team leads (those with the team manager role in the app) can see their team members’ balance and balance history — but they can’t edit it.

You can also get all balances and requests in CSV & Excel by clicking on the “Export” drop-down menu in the top right corner of the Time Off page.

If you want to see your team’s attendance, including daily hours, breaks, overtime, and time off, you can do so by selecting Attendance in the Reports section.

This will allow you to see exactly who’s available and when and who’s taken time off, which is useful when delegating work tasks. 

How to track your team’s sick leave in Clockify

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2022, paid sick leave was available to 70% of employees working in smaller companies and to 91% of employees working in larger companies. 

If you’re one of these employers that offer paid sick leave to their employees and you want an easy way to track it, you can do that in Clockify too.

How you track your team’s sick days in Clockify depends on your sick leave policy.

If you want to adopt an unlimited policy, that is, allow your team to take an unlimited number of sick days, you can enable a negative balance in your policy. 

By allowing a negative balance, your employees can ask for as many days as they need.

The rest of the steps are the same as in the vacation policy example.

However, when the negative balance option is disabled, your team can only use a predetermined accrued number of days per policy. This type of policy is a limited policy.

If you want to allow a predisposed number of sick days per pay period (let’s say, 10 days a year), you’d make a sick leave policy in Clockify the same way as you would a vacation policy. 

So, if your sick leave policy allowed everyone 10 days per year, you would add 10 days in bulk to everyone’s balance and disable the negative balance option.

This way, if anyone wanted to use more than that — they simply wouldn’t be able to. The app wouldn’t allow it.

How to track your team’s holidays in Clockify

Except for federal employers who have to provide their employees with 11 days of paid holidays annually, US employers are not required to offer or pay for holiday time off. However, some choose to provide paid holidays to motivate their employees.

If you’re one of those employers who want to offer time off for holidays, you can manage and track those days easily in Clockify for your team.

Here are the steps you need to take to track your team’s holidays in Clockify.

Step #1: Defining working days

By default, your work days are set to Monday through Friday, therefore Saturdays and Sundays are non-working days. 

However, if your team follows a different schedule, you can change the standard working days in the settings.

Step #2: Adding holidays

Adding holidays is similar to adding vacation time.

Go to the Time Off page, click on the settings, and choose “Manage holidays.”

From there, you’ll be able to define as many holidays as you like by clicking “Create new” and inputting relevant information.

The information you need to define regarding a holiday includes:

• Holiday name (e.g., Boxing Day),
• Assignees (select everyone, different departments, or different individuals),
• Period (be it a day or a longer period), and
• If the holiday occurs annually.

The last option lets you avoid having to set up recurring holidays time after time. You only need to set them up once, and they’ll be there in the following years.

You can edit or delete holidays by clicking the three dots next to their date and choosing the appropriate option.

To add a different color to each holiday you offer, click on the drop-down menu right beside the “Holiday name” section. You can either choose a color or make a custom one.

Step #3: Viewing holidays

In the Timeline view, holidays will appear as dark gray areas in everyone’s calendar. That’s how you can tell them apart from other types of time off (which will be green if approved or yellow if pending).

On the other hand, weekends are marked by a lighter shade of gray.

Hovering above the dark gray area lets you see which holiday it is.

It’s important to note that when people request time off, holidays and weekends (or other non-working days) don’t count.

For example, consider the following scenario. 

Someone requests a vacation from December 30th to January 4th. As December 31st and January 1st fall on the weekend, and January 3rd is a holiday, although the person technically won’t work for 6 consecutive days, 3 of those days are non-working days. That’s why they only request 3 vacation days.

How to track other types of leave in Clockify

As you could probably have seen from the examples above, a time-tracking tool like Clockify can help you track employee time off, no matter your leave policy.

That being said, apart from vacations, holidays, and sick days, Clockify lets you manage many other specific types of leave, such as:

• Maternity leave,
• Bereavement leave,
• Unpaid leave, or
• Wedding leave.

You would create any of these leave policies the same way as you would a vacation policy outlined above.

Now, let’s take a look at some more specific types of time off and how you would configure them in Clockify. 

We’ll go over the following:

• Religious days,
• Half-day time off,
• Unlimited PTO, and
• Time off in lieu (TOIL).

How to track your team’s religious days

People tend to celebrate family-specific holidays across different religions. So, companies sometimes opt to give their employees a religious day off — apart from the ones already defined as holidays by the company.

This way, employees can choose a specific day they want to use as part of the “religious day off” policy.

To implement this policy, you have two options.

The first option is to create a religious days policy the same way you would create a vacation policy.

Once you do that, assign all team members a day (or more) within the policy and allow them to take that day off whenever they want.

Another option is to ask all team members to choose a specific date they want you to count as their religious day. 

Then, you would add user-specific holidays to the calendar, which would automatically count as non-working days for those employees.

How to track your team’s half-day time off

Companies often allow employees to take half-day time off to promote better work-life balance. This option can come in handy when people need to run some errands or take care of a personal matter.

Some employers in the US even offer half-day Fridays — or so-called Summer Fridays — to their employees to reward them and boost their morale, especially during the hot summer months. 

Clockify gives you the option to allow your employees to use their vacation or other types of leave in half-days too.

To make half-day time off possible, you simply need to enable that option while creating the relevant time off policy.

How to track your team’s unlimited PTO

According to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, unlimited PTO is still a rarely offered PTO option in most US workplaces — only 6% of employers offered it in 2022.

Unlimited paid time off is a leave policy that doesn’t assign a specific number of days to each employee. Instead, they can take as many vacation days as they want to, as long as their work doesn’t suffer.

This rather liberal policy puts a great deal of trust in each individual employee. 

However, in practice, employees usually can’t just take days off without any notice. They can request time off as they see fit. But someone (usually their team leader) needs to assess if the employees’ time off will affect the team’s performance.

That’s why two things are critical when creating an unlimited PTO policy in Clockify:

• Allowing negative balance, and
• Enabling time off request approval.

For this type of policy, you don’t need to add a specific number of days to your employees’ balance — simply allow a negative balance.

This way, employees will be able to request as many days as they want, and the appropriate person can then approve or reject the request.

How to track your team’s time off in lieu (TOIL)

Time off in lieu (TOIL) is a time off policy based on overtime work.

In other words, it’s an arrangement that enables employees who have worked overtime to take extra time off instead of being paid for their overtime work.

Usually, the time off an employee can take matches the exact time they spent working beyond their regular hours.

For example, let’s say an employee has a 7-hour workday, and one day, they worked 9 hours.

This means that the employee worked 2 hours of overtime that day. Consequently, they get 2 hours of TOIL they can use when convenient.

When your team members get into a habit of tracking their work time in Clockify, it’s easy to create a TOIL policy. You’ll just need to:

• Create a regular policy on your Time Off page and name it Time off in lieu (TOIL),
• Set the time unit to “Hours,”
• Set those responsible for approving TOIL requests, and
• Allow negative balance.

As with an unlimited PTO policy, you don’t have to add any predetermined number of hours per user. 

Simply allow the negative balance option and let employees request an appropriate number of hours based on their overtime.

Once employees request TOIL, you can go to their timesheet and check if their logged hours match their TOIL request.

If the Timesheet confirms their request, you can approve it.

Alternatively, you can ask employees to notify you of any overtime hours — which you can then add manually to their TOIL policy after you check their timesheets. With this option, you don’t need to allow the negative balance.

Wrapping up: Requesting and tracking time off is simple with the right steps and tools

Whether you’re looking for the simplest way to request time off or you’d just like to keep up with your team’s leaves, following the right set of steps coupled with a handy time off tool could automate these processes and even save you time in the long run. 

If you want to successfully request time off for yourself, make sure you’ve reviewed your company’s time off policy and informed everyone about your leave in time. 

In case you’re an employer looking for the right way to track and manage your team’s leaves, we hope our step-by-step guide has helped you achieve just that. 

Just don’t forget to define and create your time off policy beforehand, inform your team on all the details, and let the PTO and vacation tracker do the rest. 

Do you track your team’s time off? Have you tried Clockify for keeping track of your employees’ leave? We’d like to hear your thoughts. Write to us at blogfeedback@clockify.me, and we may include your comments in this or another blog post. And, if you liked this blog post, share it with someone you think would be interested in reading it.

On the other hand, what some people may not know is that you can utilize Chrome’s web store to make your day more efficient and productive, simply by installing an extension.

We’ve taken it upon ourselves to find some of the best Chrome extensions that can increase your productivity levels, whether you’re a student, a full-time employee, or a freelancer. 

So, let’s see them.

1. Clockify — best for tracking time

Clockify is a time tracker and timesheet app used by millions. It lets you track work hours across projects easier than ever.

What is Clockify?

Clockify is a time-tracking app that allows you to accurately track your activity across apps and the web with a single click at the start of the day. To make matters even easier, the extension further simplifies the process. 

There’s no need to open the Clockify app or go to the website. Simply start the timer at the extensions bar, and get started with your day.

Why use Clockify?

Aside from tracking time, Clockify lets you:

• Organize time entries,
• Add task descriptions,
• Sort time entries by projects/tasks,
• Analyze your day, 
• Track billable hours, and 
• Export reports in PDF, CSV, and Excel.

Clockify helps you improve your time management skills by allowing you to measure time spent on your daily activities. You can also track your time by selecting any text in the browser (for example, an email subject in Gmail or a title of a document in Google Docs). Just follow these steps:

• Select any text, 
• Right-click on it, and 
• Start the timer with the selected text as a description.  

The Clockify extension is free, and as such, it offers several functionalities, such as integrations with Gmail, Asana, Trello, Todoist, and more.

Clockify’s highlight features

Some other Clockify features that can help you stay productive are:

• The Pomodoro timer to set intervals for working/studying and taking breaks, 
• Idle detection to eradicate laziness, and
• The clock-in clock-out system to automatically start/stop the timer when you open/close the browser.

Apart from the extension, Clockify is also available as a desktop and mobile app.

You can use Clockify’s free version for an unlimited number of users. In case you want to get access to extra features, for a relatively low monthly price, you can upgrade to one of the advanced plans.

2. Google Keep — best for note-keeping

Google Keep allows you to make notes and lists, and quickly record what’s on your mind. Seemingly a basic app with few features compared to some bigger apps, Google Keep still manages to satisfy everyone’s needs.

What is Google Keep?

Google Keep is an excellent Chrome extension for keeping all your data neatly organized. Its primary function is to help you take notes and create to-do lists, but you can also save images and pages and then add notes to them. 

Moreover, you can even take notes by making voice memos that are later transcribed.

Why use Google Keep?

If you often keep a large number of notes and you’re constantly shifting between tasks, Google Keep’s color-coding system will surely be of help to you. 

In the screenshot below, you can see how I created five different notes for five different purposes — from a work-related one to a to-do list to remind me what groceries I need to buy when I go to the supermarket. This allows me to find what I need at any time. 

Furthermore, all your data can be synchronized across devices, if you have the app installed.

Google Keep’s highlight features

Let’s take a look at some of the most notable Google Keep features:

• Location-based reminders to activate your notes and lists based on your location,
• The collaboration feature to share your notes with others, and
• Checkboxes to tick all the completed items from your list.

In addition to the extension, Google Keep also offers several other platforms.

One of the best things about Google Keep is that it’s completely free. You just need to have a Google account to be able to use it.

3. Grammarly — best for grammar and spell-checking

Grammarly is a tool that helps you be confident in your writing. You can use Grammarly to proofread or edit your documents but also to write with more clarity.

What is Grammarly?

Every student in the modern era has either heard about or used Grammarly at some point. Grammarly is a software that possesses the ultimate grammar knowledge, combined with:

• Spell-checking capabilities, 
• Advanced suggestions, 
• Clarity corrections, and 
• Style adjustments.

The Grammarly extension follows you on most websites that have text fields, and it’ll start running as soon as you start typing.

Why use Grammarly?

Grammarly is an excellent accessory for everyone — students, teachers, reporters, and even office workers. It can significantly cut your typing time, improve your overall writing performance, and leave you worry-free when you have to send an important email.

Grammarly’s highlight features

Some of the most important Grammarly features are:

• Plagiarism detection to cross-reference your text to thousands of other web pages to find identical sentences or phrases,
• Tone suggestions to tailor your tone to your reader, and
• Word choice to strengthen your writing with the right words. 

Grammarly is also available as a desktop and mobile app.

4. Todoist — best for task management

Todoist is a powerful task manager and to-do list app with more than 30 million trusted users. It helps you organize your work by managing all your important tasks and projects.

What is Todoist?

The Todoist Chrome extension is a simple but useful task manager. It allows you to keep track of your projects and manage all your tasks by organizing and delegating them directly from your Chrome.

With Todoist, you’ll never again worry about missing deadlines — add due dates, set up reminders, and build productive habits with Todoist’s recurring-date option. 

Why use Todoist?

To fully utilize every second of your time, in Todoist, you can color-code your projects, create sub-groups and sub-projects, and really micromanage your daily workload. 

What I particularly like about Todoist is the ability to create tasks and sub-tasks because it allows me to break larger tasks into smaller ones and have a better overview of each step that I need to complete.

Moreover, you can use the extension to collaborate with other people — create projects and share them with your co-workers in an easy and straightforward way.

Also, if you want to prioritize your tasks, Todoist has the ‘Priority’ option where you can choose different priority levels starting from the most important task (marked as a red flag) to the least important task (marked as a white flag).

Todoist’s highlight features

Let’s see some of the Todoist highlight features:

• The ‘Quick Add’ feature to add a certain website or part of the text from a certain page as a task,
• Priority levels to highlight the most important tasks of the day,
• The ‘Add tasks via email’ option to centralize your workspace by forwarding emails directly to Todoist and labeling them as “tasks” or “comments”, and
• Completed task archive to follow and enjoy your accomplishments.

Besides the extension, Todoist also offers some other platforms.

5. AdBlock — best for blocking ads

AdBlock provides you with a distraction-free Internet experience. AdBlocker will block different types of ads and pop-ups and help you do your work without annoying interruptions.

What is AdBlock?

If your daily assignments require you to do a bit of online research, you know how frustrating it can be trying hard to find something, only to be ambushed by a bunch of ads and sponsored videos.

That’s where AdBlock comes to the rescue.

The name speaks for itself — the AdBlock extension runs in the background and blocks out all the annoying ads and pop-ups that welcome you when you visit websites such as YouTube or Facebook. It’ll do it automatically and you don’t have to click anything — just let the extension do its job.

Why use AdBlock?

Aside from helping you focus on your work, AdBlock will also keep you safe by recognizing and blocking out malware and malicious pages. 

Moreover, in the AdBlock settings, you can turn off ad blocking on websites of your choice.

AdBlock’s highlight features

Here are some of the best AdBlock features:

• Customization options to choose different themes and make your AdBlock pop-up menu more colorful,
• Dark mode for a viewing experience that’s easier on the eyes, and
• The ‘Custom image swap’ option to substitute blocked pages with pictures of your own selection.

Aside from the extension, AdBlock also offers some other platforms.

6. Hypercontext — best for business collaboration

Hypercontext allows you to have meaningful, productive meetings and improve team performance. It’s a super handy tool for team collaboration.

What is Hypercontext?

Hypercontext is a software solution that empowers over 100,000 managers and their teams to be high-performing by:

• Defining quarterly team goals, 
• Setting weekly team meetings, and 
• Measuring employee engagement.

Why use Hypercontext?

With Hypercontext, you’re able to:

• Build collaborative meeting agendas for one-on-one, team, and cross-functional meetings, 
• Access hundreds of conversation starters, and 
• Hold everyone accountable for sharing feedback at every single meeting.

With the Hypercontext Chrome extension, you can add items to your meeting agenda, manage your agendas and steps through Google Calendar, and use your agenda directly in Google Meet. 

Hypercontext helps your team collaborate in real-time and thus ensures greater productivity and better results. 

Hypercontext’s highlight features

Let’s see some of the greatest Hypercontext features:

• The ‘GSD Mode’ feature to stop you from getting distracted on social media and get you to focus on preparing for your next meeting instead,
• Post-meeting surveys to check your meeting’s effectiveness, and
• Scratchpad to add public and private notes about the meeting.

Hypercontext is also available for Android and iOS devices.

7. Bitwarden — best for managing passwords

Bitwarden is a great security solution for both individuals and businesses.

What is Bitwarden?

Most of us save all our passwords on our Google accounts. But what happens when you forget the password to access your Google account? 

That’s where Bitwarden steps in.

In addition to keeping track of all your passwords across devices and the web, you can use Bitwarden’s organization vault to save sensitive data, and share it directly with another person within the company.

Why use Bitwarden?

Bitwarden uses strong encryption to protect your data and provides you with data breach reports so you can see whether your personal information has been exposed. With its vault health reports, you can reveal reused passwords.

Bitwarden also generates strong passwords and sends you suggestions on how to improve existing ones.

What I especially appreciate about Bitwarden is that its paid plan is quite affordable (less than $1 per month per user) which is practical for individuals who don’t really want to spend a lot of money on apps.

Bitwarden’s highlight features

Some additional features that Bitwarden offers:

• The ‘Auto-fill’ option to auto-fill your credentials and save time,
• PIN or biometrics unlock, and
• The unlimited storage of logins.

In addition to the extension, Bitwarden also can be used on some other platforms.

8. Noisli — best for work/study relaxation

Noisli helps you mask annoying noises and focus better at work. Choose one of its relaxing sounds, and stay calm and productive throughout the day.

What is Noisli?

Noisli is one of those Chrome extensions specifically designed to boost your productivity.

To focus better on the task at hand, you just have to choose the sound combo you find most inspiring. 

This can be the sound of:

• A falling rain, 
• A storm, 
• Coffee shop chatter, 
• Wood noises, 
• Fire crackling, 
• White noise, 
• Wind, 
• Crickets, and more. 

The list of sounds that Noisli offers is really extensive, and you can combine whatever number of sounds you want.

Why use Noisli?

Noisli is especially useful if you’re working in an open office where the background noises are likely to divert your attention away from the task at hand. Just switch on the extension, choose a sound combination you want, and put your headphones on. 

Furthermore, Noisli lets you divide your work sessions into blocks, therefore helping prevent burnout and helping you finish your tasks in time.

Even if you don’t work in a noisy office, Noisli can still be helpful. Even though I work remotely and don’t really get distracted by my surroundings that often, I like using Noisli while I’m working — I just click on the Productivity playlist, and the tender sound of rain relaxes me but at the same time keeps me focused and makes working more enjoyable for me.

On the other hand, Noisli’s free plan is limited — only 16 sounds are offered — so if you want access to the rest of the sounds (28 in total), you may consider upgrading to one of the paid plans.

Noisli’s highlight features

Here are the most popular Noisli features:

• The advanced timer to schedule the duration of each background sound, when it will start/end, and how gently you want the sound to stop at the end of each session, and
• Favorite combos — create mixtures of sounds for different needs and situations and even share them with other people.

Apart from the extension, Noisli is available for some other platforms.

9. Momentum — best for customizing new tab pages

If you need a little bit of inspiration to really get you going, Momentum is a perfect solution for you. Not only does Momentum help you get motivated but also reminds you of your goals for the day.

What is Momentum?

Momentum is a browser add-on that lets you customize your new tab and transform it into a personalized dashboard where you can add everything you deem important — from inspirational quotes and beautiful backgrounds to reminders and to-do lists.

Why use Momentum?

Momentum helps you maintain your focus and achieve your goals more consistently. It gets you back on the task with friendly reminders and keeps you motivated with new inspiring mantras each day.

Momentum keeps your new tab page clean, with only essentials to help you do your best work. It keeps everything you need for a productive workday in one place:

• To-do lists, 
• Local weather info, 
• Time, and 
• Favorite website shortcuts. 

What I personally like about this app is how it uses mantras to motivate you to keep working even if it’s not one of your best days and you have difficulty concentrating on the task. It may not seem very likely, but something as simple as a mantra can significantly boost your confidence and make your day more productive.

Momentum’s highlight features

Momentum also provides you with the following features:

• The Countdown widget to keep tabs on your upcoming events and deadlines,
• Metrics to add useful personal or professional data to your dashboard, and
• The ‘Bookmarks Bar’ feature to import your existing Chrome bookmarks into Momentum and use them within the extension.

Aside from the extension, Momentum is also available for iOS.

10. Nimbus Capture — best for screenshots and screen video recording

Nimbus Capture is a perfect solution for all of you who are looking for an intuitive and easy-to-use screen capture tool. 

What is Nimbus Capture?

Nimbus Capture is a screen recorder that helps you do your work efficiently and explain things faster and better. It lets you easily capture screenshots and screencasts — video and webcam bits.

Even though most operating systems have an integrated screenshot tool, Nimbus Capture is designed to meet all your needs. It allows you to:

• Trim and crop,
• Edit and annotate,
• Convert videos into MP4 or GIF,
• Share the results online, 
• Customize videos, and
• Collaborate with others.

Why use Nimbus Capture?

Aside from its editing prowess, Nimbus Capture also integrates with many popular apps, such as Google Drive, YouTube, and Dropbox — these integrations let you instantly post and share your results.

Nimbus Capture’s highlight features

These are some other Nimbus Capture features worth mentioning:

• Keyboard shortcuts to make the screencast editing process even faster,
• The ‘Save screenshot’ option to save screenshots as PDF or image (JPG or PNG format),
• Watermarks to add your own logo to images and videos, 
• The countdown timer to create delayed screenshots, and
• The blur option to conceal certain sections of a screenshot.

Other than the extension, Nimbus Capture also offers some other platforms.

11. ClickUp — best for task management, note-taking, and overall productivity

ClickUp is an all-in-one productivity app designed to manage everything — from your daily to-dos to complex projects, even your business’ entire workflow. 

What is ClickUp?

Teams of any size and across industries rely on ClickUp for its powerful customization abilities and feature-rich experience to optimize processes, manage tasks, and collaborate smarter — no matter what project style you use.

ClickUp also packs six of its most dynamic tools into its free ClickUp Chrome Extension, accessible from virtually anywhere with one simple click. With this extension, you can:

• Easily create a new task or save a website to a task, 
• Track time, 
• Capture and annotate screenshots, 
• Attach emails to tasks, 
• Bookmark websites, and  
• Use the Notepad to take unlimited notes directly in your Chrome browser.

Why use ClickUp?

One of the greatest benefits of ClickUp’s Chrome Extension is that it’s directly connected to your workspace — meaning every action you take with the extension is automatically added to the platform in real-time. Whether you’re taking notes, editing screenshots, or creating tasks, ClickUp’s Chrome Extension will boost productivity by eliminating the need to open, close, or click between tabs as you work.

Efficiency is at the core of every ClickUp feature — and the ease of creating tasks from ClickUp’s Chrome Extension will change the way you organize action items in any project.

ClickUp’s highlight features

Some of the most interesting ClickUp features are:

• Rich text editing to add special details like headings, banners, and buttons to your notes,
• The time tracking feature to be exactly sure how much time you’re spending on tasks,
• Notepad to instantly save ideas, and
• A default location option for every new task to make organization in your platform a breeze.

In addition to the extension, ClickUp is also available on some other platforms.

12. BlockSite — best for blocking distractions

If you’re unable to stop yourself from accessing your favorite websites during work hours, BlockSite will help you eliminate any temptations.

What is BlockSite?

As the name suggests, BlockSite blocks all unwanted sites that distract you and disrupt your productivity. 

You can customize your lists to include all tedious websites, as well as some of your favorites that you don’t want to be available to you during your work shift.

Why use BlockSite?

BlockSite has become appealing to many users due to its “scheduling” feature that lets you set up specific time intervals when you wish for certain websites to be blocked. 

For example, you can use this feature to plan out your breaks during the day, when you’ll be able to access websites such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

BlockSite’s highlight features

Here are some of the most prominent BlockSite features:

• The ‘Focus Mode’ timer to control your schedule via the Pomodoro technique and plan out your day, divide it into timeblocks, and set appropriate breaks so you don’t get too caught up in your work,
• The ‘Custom Block Page’ feature to write yourself a message and remind yourself of your goals, 
• The ‘Block by Keyword’ option to block apps and sites using a keyword, and
• ‘Insights’ to find out which websites take up most of your time.

Besides the extension, BlockSite also offers some other platforms.

13. Forest — best for staying focused

Forest is an interesting productivity app that motivates you to finish a task at hand. By gamifying the whole experience, Forest helps you stay present and focused.

What is Forest?

Forest can be argued to be a combination of a productivity app and a mobile game. The gist is simple — set up a timer for a specific task, plant a virtual tree, and watch it grow.

Once you complete the task, the tree will be added to the forest — a visual representation of all your completed tasks.

Why use Forest?

You can use the ‘Blocklist’ option to enter the websites you want to block (for example, Instagram, YouTube, or similar). If you try to cheat the app and use some of these websites during your planting session, your tree will wither and you’ll be left with naked branches in your forest. This way, the app encourages you to stay focused while making it fun.

Forest motivates you additionally as it gives you the opportunity to earn coins and use them to open some new interesting tree species to make your forest even more beautiful and diverse — the more you stay focused, the more coins you earn.

In the screenshot below, you can see how Forest helps me with my productivity. It allows me to watch how my trees grow with every focus session, which motivates me to keep working on my tasks. 

The only thing about the Forest extension that some may see as a drawback is that you need to download a mobile app and sync your extension with it to unlock extra features such as new tree species. However, the mobile app is not that expensive (for iOS users, it’s $3.99 from the get-go, and for Android users, you can use a free version or make a one-time purchase of $1.99 to get extra features), so you may still consider downloading it.

Forest’s highlight features

These are some of the most notable Forest features:

• The gamification factor,
• The option to tag and add notes, and
• The Trees for the Future initiative where you can donate and have real trees planted around the world.

As we’ve already mentioned, Forest is also available for iOS and Android users.

14. OneTab — best for handling multiple tabs open

OneTab is the quickest way to reduce a bunch of open tabs into a single tab. You can manage your list of tabs easily and do your work more efficiently.  

What is OneTab?

Most of us have been forced to turn to dual-monitor setups or a PC/laptop mix when working or studying. 

Why? Well, there’s simply no room to work with all the tabs.

The OneTab extension does exactly that — with a single click, it converts all of your tabs into a list and frees up work memory that slows down your Chrome. Then, once you open the list, you can manage your tabs from a single place, restore them, export/import them as URLs, and more.

Why use OneTab?

OneTab helps you manage your tabs and save up to 95% of your memory. It is a simple yet effective solution for all those who have a tough time dealing with tab clutter. OneTab speeds up your computer by reducing tabs, but at the same time lets you restore them individually or all at once, lock a tab group to prevent deleting tabs, and re-order tabs for a better organization.

In addition, another important benefit of OneTab is that it’s free of charge.  

OneTab’s highlight features

Let’s see some other OneTab features you can use to increase your productivity:

• The ‘Share as a web page’ option to turn your tab list into a web page and share it with other people or devices, and
• The grouping option to tag tabs into groups, name them, and keep them even more organized.

15. Vimium — best for optimizing shortcuts

Vimium allows you to navigate the web without even touching the mouse. With the help of keyboard shortcuts, access everything you need much faster.

What is Vimium?

Vimium is a Chrome extension that enables you to use the keyboard to navigate all your online work.

By default, you can use “J” and “K” to scroll down and up your Chrome page. You can also use “Shift+F” to indicate that you want to follow a link, so Vimium will show you all the links you can click on that page, and the letters you should type in to open these links in new tabs. 

You can also easily open Google searches, bookmarks, and history by typing “O”.

Why use Vimium?

In essence, once you install Vimium, you’ll no longer have to bother with the mouse, as all internet content will be just a keyboard shortcut away.

Vimium’s highlight features

Some useful Vimium features are:

• The command repetition to, for example, close multiple tabs by pressing multiple “x’s”, and
• A smart highlighting method to navigate the web using links. 

16. Save to Pocket — best for keeping important content close by 

Save to Pocket simplifies your life by enabling you to save everything — from articles to images and videos that you find interesting or important — in a single place, and access it whenever you want.

What is Save to Pocket?

Save to Pocket is a great tool that allows you to easily save articles, videos, and other important items and read or watch them later on. Mark items as ‘viewed’ or ‘not viewed’, add tags to sort and find stories in your Pocket, and save links, memes, or even recipes — all with a single click.

Why use Save to Pocket?

Chrome’s Save to Pocket extension lets you save important items and focus on them at a more convenient time. If you’re in a hurry or handling an important task, but you don’t want to lose that interesting article you came across, just click the Pocket button in your browser, and save it in an instant.

The Save to Pocket extension for Chrome allows you to see the content you saved across all devices in an easily accessible way. With Pocket Premium, you can also use custom fonts and layout options for a better reading experience.

Save to Pocket’s highlight features

To see some other Save to Pocket features, take a look at the list below:

• The highlight feature to highlight a certain passage of the text and make it more prominent, 
• The ‘Suggested tags’ option to find what you’re looking for even quicker in your Pocket, and
• A permanent library to save a copy of an article so you can open that version even if the article changes in the meantime or is taken offline.

In addition to the extension, Save to Pocket also offers some other platforms.

17. Scribe — best for creating visual step-by-step guides

Scribe lets you explain even the most complex processes in an easy way. It automatically builds step-by-step guides by following your mouse movements. 

What is Scribe?

Scribe is a great tool for anyone who wants to improve their workflow and stop wasting time creating numerous screenshots and documents. Scribe’s Chrome extension helps you create step-by-step guides and explain any process extremely easily.

Why use Scribe?

Scribe is ideal for team management as it allows you to:

• Create guides to share important information with your team,
• Edit each guide, 
• Collaborate with your team members in real-time, and more. 

With the power of AI, Scribe follows your each step and automatically creates useful guides to make the whole team more productive.   

Scribe’s highlight features

Let’s see some of the greatest features that Scribe has to offer:

• The customization options to add text and edit screenshots, 
• The branding option to add a custom logo, and 
• The ‘Pages’ feature to combine multiple guides into a single document and create, for example, a perfect training manual for your new employees.

Scribe is also available as a desktop app.

18. Calendly — best for scheduling appointments

Calendly helps you automate your appointments from start to finish. Sync Calendly with your other calendar apps and schedule and book meetings in a few steps. 

What is Calendly?

If you need a solution for scheduling events, Calendly will do that and much more for you. Calendly acts as your personal scheduling assistant — it connects with your calendar, checks your availability, and creates a scheduling link that you can easily share with others. 

Why use Calendly?

Calendly eliminates the hassle of back-and-forth emails and makes booking meetings much faster.

Create a meeting poll to choose the time that works best for everyone included in the meeting in a few simple steps: 

• Choose times for the meeting that you want to offer, 
• Set up meeting details, and 
• Share your meeting poll link with all the participants. 

Once they have voted in your poll, you can confirm the details and book a meeting. 

To further increase your productivity, integrate Calendly with Zoom, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and other popular platforms.  

Calendly’s highlight features

To see what else Calendly has to offer, check out the following list of features:

• An option to send automated emails to all meeting participants so they can confirm their attendance,
• Availability preferences to customize exactly how and when you’re booked and be in control of your time, and
• A single-use link option to create a link that expires after someone schedules a meeting with you, for even greater control over your availability.

Aside from the extension, Calendly is available for some other platforms.

19. Zapier — best for automating workflow

Zapier can help you connect all the apps you use for work and thus streamline your processes while saving your precious time.

What is Zapier?

Zapier is a workflow automation tool that integrates with more than 5,000 business apps and automates repetitive tasks to save you time that you can use on more important tasks. 

With Zapier’s intuitive editor, you can create Zaps — automated, multi-step workflows — and tailor them according to your needs. You can also reuse existing steps, duplicate them, or reorder them, to make the whole process of creating a workflow even faster.

Why use Zapier?

Zapier allows you to increase your productivity by finishing routine tasks much faster. With this extension, you can:

• Create automated workflows and share them with your team,
• Manage and delegate your tasks,
• Automate recurring emails, and more.

With Zapier’s ‘Paths’ feature, you can create conditional workflows and add multiple outcomes (or Paths) to one Zap. Take a look at the example below to see how conditional logic works in Zapier.

In the third step of this workflow, there are several possible options (A, B, C, D) regarding how the workflow may finish — click “Edit”, and set rules for each option with specific rules that will activate it. 

Zapier’s highlight features

Some of the best Zapier features are:

• The ‘Paths’ feature to build conditional workflows using if/then logic,
• The scheduling feature to trigger your Zap to create a new task on a recurring schedule (i.e. daily, weekly, or similar), and
• A history log to see all the previous Zaps you’ve created.  

20. Google Dictionary — best for easy access to word definitions

Google Dictionary is an online dictionary service that provides you with word definitions in a matter of seconds.

What is Google Dictionary?

Google Dictionary allows you to find the meaning of words from different languages in an instant. If you can’t remember the meaning of some word from the text you’re reading, or if you simply want to learn how to pronounce it, highlight or double-click it, and the pop-up with a full explanation will appear.

Why use Google Dictionary?

With Google Dictionary’s Chrome extension, you don’t have to look up words manually. To quickly find your answers, you can either:

• Select a given word on a page and click on the Google Dictionary’s icon in your extensions bar, or
• Double-click it, which is an even quicker way. 

This allows you to save time and remove the extra step of having to open a separate tab to look up the meaning of a word.

Aside from the useful features it offers, Google Dictionary is also completely free, which is always a plus.

Google Dictionary’s highlight features

Let’s see some useful Google Dictionary features:

• The complete definition overview, and
• The Word history option to store words you look up and have them all in one place.

21. Water Reminder — best for staying hydrated while working

Water Reminder is a simple Chrome extension that can significantly impact your well-being and help you stay productive while working.

What is Water Reminder?

According to research on the importance of staying hydrated at the work site, dehydration can negatively affect worker productivity and concentration. With Water Reminder, you won’t have to worry about forgetting to drink water during the work day (or any other day).

Water Reminder’s Chrome extension allows you to have an audio, visual, or audio and visual reminder to stay hydrated, together with a notification sound that you can select from their list.

Why use Water Reminder?

Water Reminder helps you take good care of yourself while being busy with work. Not only does Water Reminder improve your well-being but also your productivity. With Water Reminder, you can:

• Choose the type of reminder you want to have,
• Set reminder frequency, and
• Track your water intake.

Water Reminder’s highlight features

Let’s see the best Water Reminder features:

• The automatic countdown system to track your water intake as soon as you enter the time in minutes, and
• The reminder frequency option.  

22. Win the Day — best for goal setting

Win the Day is an easy-to-use app that helps you track your habits and meet specific goals.

What is Win the Day?

If you need a productivity tool to help you achieve both your smaller and bigger goals and stay focused while doing that, Win the Day will surely be of help.

With the Win the Day’s Chrome extension, you can create your daily targets, set the time for your goals, and monitor your time as it passes. You’ll be able to see your progress every time you open your browser. 

Why use Win the Day?

With Win the Day, you can start working on your productivity by setting daily targets that you wish to accomplish each day, and then you can gradually move towards your end goal. 

Not only does Win the Day enable you to set your goals but also stay focused during the day. Its ‘Focus Mode’ feature allows you to temporarily block distracting websites and leave a note for yourself as a reminder of your priorities. 

What I find useful when it comes to Win the Day’s Focus Mode is that it shows how many minutes you have left before your focus session expires. For example, when I was working on an article, I decided that I wanted to stay fully focused for 35 minutes and use that time to add two more paragraphs to it. I set a reminder of my task for that focus period, chose a duration of 35 minutes, and started the timer.

This way, I used up those 35 minutes in the most productive way possible because this tool helped me discipline myself. As I watched the time pass by, I had the urge to hurry up and complete the task in time.

And, what’s even better, Win the Day follows you whenever you open a new tab, so you’re always reminded of the task you should be focusing on.

Win the Day’s highlight features

Here are some important features Win the Day has to offer:

• The habit tracking feature to try to incorporate some new helpful habits into your everyday routine, 
• The ‘Focus Mode’ feature to set a time period when you want to focus on a certain task, and
• The ability to cross out your targets as soon as you reach them and track your progress.

23. Ghostery — best for privacy protection

Ghostery is a privacy and security browser extension that can help you block annoying ads and browse the web in a safer and faster way. 

What is Ghostery?

Ghostery’s Chrome extension is a great way to finally get rid of annoying ads and cookie consent pop-ups that interrupt your work. Ghostery allows you to browse the web in a faster way by removing unwanted ads and decluttering your surfing experience.

Why use Ghostery?

Ghostery allows you to browse the web without having to worry about possible threats to your privacy. It also removes suspicious ads and speeds up your web browsing.

With Ghostery, you can:

• Block trackers, ads, and pop-ups, and
• Declutter pages and make them load faster.

Ghostery’s highlight features

Take a look at some of the best Ghostery features below:

• The ‘Never-Consent’ feature to remove intrusive cookie consent pop-ups, 
• The extremely detailed insights for optimal security, and
• The option to “trust” or “restrict” certain websites.

Apart from the extension, Ghostery can be used on many other platforms.

24. Buffer — best for easily sharing content to social networks

Buffer is a great solution for anyone who wants to schedule and share content on social media faster, from anywhere on the web.

What is Buffer?

Buffer is a social media toolkit that can help you share content directly from any given page to multiple social accounts. You can post the same message to all accounts or customize each message according to your needs. 

If you want to add a piece of content to your queue, click on the Buffer icon in your browser and select “Create Post” from the dropdown menu. Buffer’s composer will open, and you’ll be able to choose the social channels you want to include. The page title and the shortened URL will be automatically pulled, and after you finish composing a message, you can schedule your post to publish.

Why use Buffer?

Buffer helps you increase your productivity by enabling you to create a smooth scheduling process. 

With Buffer’s Chrome extension, you can plan, schedule, and share your content across popular websites such as:

• Instagram, 
• TikTok, 
• Facebook, 
• Twitter, 
• Pinterest, 
• LinkedIn, and more.

Buffer also has analytics that you can use to see how well each of your posts perform.

Buffer’s highlight features

Here are some of the top Buffer features:

• The ‘Ideas’ feature to help you save any interesting content you stumble upon while googling, so you can review it later,
• Analytics to analyze your social media performance, and
• The ‘Buffer Selected Text’ option to buffer even faster by right-clicking on the highlighted piece of text.

Apart from the extension, Buffer is also available as a mobile app.

25. Dark Reader — best for better browsing at night-time

Dark Reader is an eye-care extension that enables you to use dark mode for every website and work more comfortably during the night.

What is Dark Reader?

Dark Reader is a very convenient tool for people who want to stay productive during the night. It inverts bright colors, increasing the contrast for night reading. Dark Reader provides you with a better browsing experience by allowing you to use filters and adjust the mode, brightness, contrast, sepia, and grayscale settings. 

Why use Dark Reader?

Dark Reader is extremely easy to use, and it also allows you to reduce eye strain at night. If you work during the night and need to stay in front of a computer for a long time, the easier it is for you to look at the monitor, the more productive you will be.

Dark Reader’s highlight features

These are Dark Reader’s main features:

• Adjustable filters, and
• The ‘Invert listed only’ option to set Dark Reader to work only on listed websites.

Besides the extension, Dark Reader can also be used on Android and iOS devices.

Closing words: Using Chrome extensions increases your productivity and enhances your browsing experience

If you ever got bored enough to browse through Chrome’s web store, you’ve probably noticed that there are simply too many extensions to choose from. 

It is a bit annoying, especially if you don’t know what you’re looking for, but look at it from the bright side. 

You don’t need to spend money on life coaches and gurus to help you become productive — install some of the best Chrome extensions and they’ll do most of the work for free.

 If you like our selection of Chrome’s extensions for productivity, we’d appreciate it if we could get some feedback from you about the extensions you use on a daily basis. Let us know at blogfeedback@clockify.me and we may include your choices in our future posts.