5 Surprising Things We Noticed Once We Started Tracking Our Time

We didn’t expect a time tracking experiment to change how we work—but it did.

At first, it started small. A few team members installed the Time bot for Slack to gain clarity on how their day was actually being spent. The goal? More transparency, less burnout, better time awareness.

What happened next was eye-opening.

We started noticing patterns. Productivity myths were busted. Team rituals changed. And most importantly, we started making smarter, data-informed decisions—both individually and as a team.

In this article, we’ll take you behind the scenes of what we discovered after we began tracking our time—and why these insights just might change how you think about work.

1. We Were Spending Way More Time in Meetings Than We Realized

We knew meetings were eating into our focus time—but the extent? Wow.

Once we had actual data, it turned out that 27% of our working hours (more than 2 full workdays a week) were tied up in meetings. What’s more, many of these were recurring status updates that often ran over time.

This aligned with research from Microsoft, which found that employees are in three times more meetings now than they were pre-pandemic. And Atlassian reports that the average employee attends 62 meetings per month, half of which are considered unproductive.

Armed with data, we started pruning aggressively:

• We cut or shortened recurring meetings.
• Adopted async standups using Slack threads and Time bot notes.
• Kept meetings under 25 minutes when possible.

The result? More time to actually do the work we were meeting about.

💡 Pro tip: Use Time bot to categorize “Meeting Time” so you can spot patterns and reclaim your calendar.

2. Our “Busy” Days Weren’t Always Our Most Productive

You know those days where you feel like you never stop moving, but nothing gets checked off the list?

Time tracking exposed this trap. Some of our busiest days—full of messages, meetings, and fire drills—actually had the least amount of deep, focused work.

We started measuring our days not just by hours worked, but by quality of work hours. How much time was spent in:

• Deep work?
• Admin or email?
• Context switching?

This insight helped team members:

• Block focus time more intentionally.
• Batch small tasks together.
• Say no (or “not now”) to distractions.

🧠 A UC Irvine study found that it takes 23 minutes to refocus after a distraction. No wonder we were exhausted but unproductive!

Now, we optimize not for “doing more,” but for doing what actually moves the needle.

3. We Were Working More Than We Thought—Especially Remotely

The flexibility of remote work is amazing… until it quietly bleeds into your evenings.

Once we started tracking our actual work hours (not just “logged in” time), we found that many team members were unintentionally racking up 9–10 hour days—often without realizing it.

This matched broader trends: A Harvard study found that the average remote worker logs 48.5 minutes more per day than they did in-office.

This led to a few key changes:

• We implemented Time bot reminders to log off.
• Leaders modeled healthier work boundaries.
• We tracked and celebrated time off and recovery days.

Burnout isn’t a badge of honor. And thanks to better visibility, we caught early warning signs before they turned into full-blown fatigue.

4. Context Switching Was a Bigger Productivity Killer Than We Knew

We always suspected that hopping between tasks was costly. But seeing the numbers made it undeniable.

One team member’s day looked like this:

• 10:00–10:25: Code review
• 10:25–10:45: Slack responses
• 10:45–11:00: Project planning notes
• 11:00–11:15: QA testing feedback

That’s 4 tasks in an hour, none requiring the same mental mode.

Time tracking revealed that we were spending 30–40% of our time in a state of context switching—hurting focus, quality, and creativity.

Now we:

• Schedule longer time blocks for single-tasking.
• Group similar tasks together.

🎯 According to the American Psychological Association, switching tasks can reduce productivity by up to 40%.

Recognizing this helped us protect our most valuable resource: attention.

5. We Got Better at Setting Realistic Goals

Before time tracking, we’d often overload our weekly goals—because we didn’t know how long things actually took.

Now, we can reference past time logs to estimate more accurately. For example:

• Writing a blog post = ~5.5 hours
• Designing a new feature flow = ~9 hours
• QA round + revisions = ~3.5 hours

This led to:

• Better sprint planning
• More reliable roadmaps
• Happier teams (less guilt, more clarity)

Goal-setting stopped being a guessing game. It became evidence-based.

Bonus: It Strengthened Team Communication

We didn’t expect this, but sharing time data improved our collaboration.

When someone said, “I’m slammed today,” it had data to back it up. When someone was quiet in meetings, we could see they were heads-down in deep work. It made conversations around bandwidth, burnout, and prioritization easier—and more empathetic.

It also helped us:

• Spot team-wide overloads before they became a crisis
• Celebrate quiet contributors doing crucial background work
• Encourage fair workload distribution

In short, tracking time made our culture more human—not less.

Final Thoughts: It’s Not About Policing, It’s About Empowerment

We get it—time tracking has a bad rap. For years, it’s been associated with micromanagement and outdated timesheets.

But the Time bot flipps that narrative.

It wasn’t about surveillance. It was about insight. It gave us the data we needed to: ✅ Work smarter ✅ Protect our time ✅ Communicate better ✅ Prevent burnout ✅ Deliver real results

And perhaps most importantly, it helped us feel more in control of our workdays again.

Ready to Try It for Yourself?

If you’re curious about where your time really goes, or you’re looking to help your team work more mindfully, give Time bot for Slack a try.

With friendly reminders, and easy reporting, it’s the simplest way to start tracking time—without disrupting your flow.