A work log template is a structured way to record, track, and organize your work activities. This is usually done in a chronological way (say, a daily or a weekly log), or on a project basis. At its core, a work log lets you capture essential details about tasks; from time spent and progress made to any challenges you want to overcome in the future.
At WordLayout, we created a versatile template for Excel and Google Sheets that you can easily customize to your individual needs to log work activities.
Now, let’s go over each functional feature of our template:
Time Tracking Features
Time management is the process of consciously planning how much time you want to spend on a task, taking into account factors such as the nature of the task and the amount of coordination or human resources it needs. From an organizational persepctive, good time management is key to running things in a smooth and efficient manner.
For this reason, all work logs include a date and time for each entry. This allows you to keep the sequence of tasks organized. Once you have entered the ‘Start Time’ and ‘End Time’ for each individual task in our template, we automatically calculate the total duration you have spent on each.
Note that your total durations for each task are also automatically added, and reflected in the Total Hours section visible at the top right of your mainsheet.
Remember, you need to enter time using the format “3:45 PM”. If you do not include the AM or PM, Excel assumes you mean AM, unless you enter 24-hour time, such as 15:34. The space before the AM or PM is also required.
Now that you have a snapshot of how much time was consumed by each task, you are in a better position to compare each task duration, its status, or priority – optimizing your overall workflow.
Task Priority Level
Tasks can have different priorities. While some may be an urgent priority for a client with the fate of a whole project counting on it; others may be better off on the back burner, say, minor bug fixes or responding to irrelevant emails.
Decide which tasks mean more to you by assessing the level of priority you want to assign each based on a calculation of project needs or client demands. Then, use our drop-down menu to prioritize tasks within a single project using three options: ‘High, ‘Medium’ and ‘Low’.
But that’s not it. In addition to the priority level you assign to each task individually in the main sheet, our template also allows you to graphically visualize the overall number of tasks of each kind that have been completed. This gives you a broader sense of how much work you still need to do, and how fast it needs to be done.
Task Status Checker
No matter how urgent or trivial, every task comes with a deadline. Whether you work in HR and want to track tasks to report to the company’s board every month, or a local bakery owner responsible for procuring, cooking, and packaging your sweets all by your lonesome – keeping track of task status is vital to every business.
Our template allows you to track the status of each task by selecting one of the three following options:
- Complete: A task is complete, and all requirements have been met.
- Pending: A task is scheduled to happen but has not yet started, or has been approved and started but needs to pause temporarily.
- Open: A task is not yet resolved and needs to be further worked on.
But what about the more nuanced or miscellaneous aspects of task delivery? Let’s say, you ran into a challenge your team did not foresee. Or perhaps you had a suggestion based on your own experience of what the task entailed.
That’s exactly why we include ‘Notes’ as the last section in our spreadsheet. Use this space to record any difficulties or challenges encountered, or any additional comments you want to bring to the attention of your team leader, or even suggestions, ideas or observations you may have to improve the efficiency of the task in the future.
You can also think of this section as a place to identify any follow-up or next steps pertaining to the task, reminding you of any pending actions or tasks related to the logged activity.
Who Is this Template For?
Our versatile template has been designed to support the needs of various individuals. Thanks to the use of generic categories, our template can easily fit into the work-related needs of multiple people such as:
- Project Managers who can use it to track project progress, ensure tasks are on schedule, and document work for reporting to stakeholders.
- Freelancers/Consultants who can document the work done for clients, track billable hours, and create reports for invoicing.
- Team leaders will find it helpful for recording individual contributions, and tracking overall team progress.
- Researchers and Students can use it to document their research activities and study routines.
In fact – even if you are not a professional, this template can be a great way to track personal tasks (such as gym classes, or daily walks) and assess how effectively you are using your time as an individual.
Plus, our template comes with a configuration sheet you can use to change, add and delete options to the dropdowns – giving you more flexibility and maenuvaritiblity to adjust the template to your own individual context & needs.
To Sum Up…
Work logs are a systematic record of your work. From project management to research, both individuals and teams can use it to track accomplishments, challenges, and progress over a period of time.
Lucky for you, our template is a one-size-fits-many solution to your problems. All thanks to an automatic time calculator, generic lists denoting Status and Priority, as well as simple graphic tools that adjust to developments within a task as you move along.
Our editable template can be instantly accessed in .xlsx, .xltx and .ods formats. Be aware that spreadsheets are somewhat prone to error. Even if the spreadsheet is completely free of errors at the time you download it, there is always a possibility that you might accidentally introduce errors as you edit it. With that said, download and enjoy!
