Keep Losing Track of Time? Try These Fixes (Ranked by Effort)

Time has a way of slipping through our fingers – especially at work. Before you know it, billable hours dissolve, meaningful tasks go untouched, and frustration builds. But this isn’t about latent laziness or poor organization – it’s 100% about awareness. Most people, myself included, don’t even realize where their time goes until it’s already vanished.

According to reports, only 18% of people use an effective form of time management. That leaves a whopping 80% of poor lost souls, grappling with no form of systematic time management system in place at all… Those who do use one, find The Eisenhower Matrix among the best tools for setting priorities for projects based on their relevance and urgency.

Given that so many professionals have yet to adopt a decent time management method, this article takes a practical, judgment-free approach to tackling the problem. We’ll break down common time traps, illustrate real-world examples, and explore why lost time impacts productivity. Most importantly, we’ll rank actionable solutions based on how easy they are to implement – so you can start making changes that actually stick.

Causes of losing track of time

So. Many. Causes. There are, in fact, too many to mention here. For instance, we could discuss the impact of diet on one’s ability to manage time. It’s true. Consuming protein in the morning can tee you up for a more productive day as opposed to horsing into the carbs, which could leave you in a brain haze, but perhaps that’s a blog post for another day. Some of the other root causes for time loss include:

• Time blindness: This is the inability to perceive time passing and is frequently associated with the common experience of losing track of time. It’s caused by a variety of factors, ranging from commonplace distractions to neurological disorders like ADHD, which cause attention shifts that make time management particularly difficult.
  
• Technology: Unsurprisingly, this is one of the main offenders. Whether browsing social media or delving into a rabbit hole of research, it’s very common to lose track of time when using the internet.
  
• Multitasking: Context switching coupled with unavoidable interruptions at work can cause you to lose track of your work hours. And for those of us who track our time professionally, it may even result in lost billable hours…
  
• Memory lapses: Losing track of time and struggling to remember how the hours were spent when days blend, one fading into the next. Don’t worry, we have another handy blog for that here. 

Real-life examples

From forgetting appointments to realizing hours have been sucked up by mindless tasks, these are just two losing track of time examples. While frustrating, rest assured, it’s all normal. However, understanding how and why you’re losing time can help you to regain control.

Although it isn’t exactly work-related, this example encapsulates the extent of my time blindness quite well. Imagine this: I was due to pick up my youngest from school after completing a task. I decided to treat myself to a quick 20-minute nap because, after all, I had “an entire hour” to spare. I put on some meditation music, muted notifications, and zoned out entirely.

Twenty minutes later, reality set in. When I turned off my alarm, I discovered no less than three missed calls from the school. Somehow, my brain had rewritten time so that it believed I had completed my work at 12:55pm rather than 1:55pm.

Other less fretful but no less jarring examples of losing time include: 

The illusion of a “fast” task

You think pulling together a report or presentation will take about 30 minutes, but this singular thing takes up your entire afternoon, preventing you from doing other important things.

Being engrossed in “busywork”

You focus on short, easy tasks because you think you're making progress. By the time you realize you haven't accomplished anything of any significance, your day is almost done.

Unstructured collaboration

Although brainstorming sessions and group discussions can be productive, they can go on forever in the absence of any kind of framework. If there are no clear objectives or due dates, meetings and group projects can drag on for hours without producing noticeable results.

Blanking priorities

You don't have a clear plan and instead handle tasks as they arise throughout the day. Without a well-structured workflow, time is lost on pointless activities while the most important deadlines go unnoticed.

Extended breaks

You take a brief respite, but because you are preoccupied with conversations, looking through your phone, or zoning out entirely. No judgement, we’ve all been there, be it a beach in your brain or thoughts of crawling back into bed. Having your activities captured in real-time for you to see can help mitigate this.

Losing track of time – our nine fixes ranked

So, without further ado, let’s rank fixes, starting with number 1, which is easiest to implement. And you’ll NEVER guess what it is…

1. Track your time – with zero effort

We’re guessing, if you’re here reading this blog, that you’re already halfway converted to the merits of time tracking. It’s, quite literally, a game-changer. It captures the minutes you’d otherwise forget. However, if time keeps slipping away, manual tracking is the last thing you need.

That’s where Memtime’s automatic time tracking comes in. Once activated, it works quietly in the background, logging every minute while pinpointing exactly what you were doing throughout the day:

It helps you to:

• Recall your time without the hassle of remembering it manually.
• Spot the tasks that drain your time the most and put better safeguards in place.

2. Establish an achievable routine

Armed with your time tracking data, you can now see a pattern highlighting your most productive day/times, and you can plan accordingly around that. 

Try an analogue planner or a daily planner app. When organizing your tasks, meetings, and to-do list, you can determine whether you followed the plan or strayed from it after a few days of scheduling... Understanding when and why time elapses can help you make adjustments. For example, you can try moving a late meeting to an earlier time or dividing lengthy tasks into smaller ones.

3. Use those cues

Be they visual, aural, or trigger in nature, if you get into a routine of using cues to remind you to check the time or wrap things up is important.

• Audio/visual cues: It could be as basic as having different clocks/time displays in your direct eye line or setting alerts to regularly utilize your calendar; these cues remind you to take a beat and stock of where you are in terms of getting things done. We all know flow state is a wonderful place to be, but only if it’s on something productive. 
• Exit cues: Assign specific tasks to certain triggers. For example, make it a habit to check the time and what you’ve done when your *insert applicable beverage here* cup is empty. Other examples include stopping your brainstorming session when your playlist ends or wrapping up a report when your laptop battery reaches 20%. The point is, time drifting can be prevented with the aid of these organic stopping points. Have a think about which ones feel most natural to you.

4. Make “hard stops” your norm

Similarly to the above, instead of using flexible scheduling, consider employing "hard stops." This involves establishing a concrete deadline, such as "I must shut my laptop at exactly 5:30pm," rather than merely aiming to finish work "around COB." Time control is bolstered when you define non-negotiable cutoffs.

5. Embrace smaller milestones

You’ve invariably heard this before, but by segmenting more complicated projects into smaller, more quantifiable milestones, you’re more likely to get things done within a specified timeframe. By way of example, try aiming for "completing three slides by lunch" rather than "finishing the entire presentation today." Over time, little victories keep things moving forward and visible.

6. Employ a transition ritual

When switching between tasks, a lot of people lose track of time, either prolonging the previous activity or becoming stuck before starting the next one completely. Simple transition rituals, like writing down a one-sentence synopsis of your most recent task or going for a quick walk or bathroom break before beginning a new one, can help you mentally reset and maintain time awareness. 

7. Apply the proven methods

We mentioned previously that the Eisenhower Matrix is among the most popular time management methods used to keep on top of your workload. Other such methods we’ve addressed in depth in our other blog posts include:

• Time chunking
• Pomodoro technique 
• Pareto principle 
• Kanban
• ABC method
• And, failing all that, “Eating the frog” (hey, don’t know it till you try it!)

8. Develop your sense of time

I know this may seem counterintuitive to our third point about using visual cues like clocks, but you won’t always have an array of clocks in your eyeline. So, over time, it’s worth honing your innate sense of time. What I mean is, try testing yourself; estimate how much time has passed before actually looking at the time. This lessens time blindness over time by raising your awareness of how you unconsciously process durations.

9. Create time accountability partners

Time tracking apps and other digital tools offer visual accountability, which makes it simpler to identify inefficiencies. Refocusing attention can also be aided by basic automated reminders, like prompts that ask, "Are you on track?" Distractions are easier to identify and address when time management becomes evident.

Having a time planner app to keep you on track is one thing; actually sharing your daily objectives with a mentor or coworker naturally promotes proper follow-through. So, checking in with them on a regular basis also helps to strengthen your focus.

Wrapping up

Although it takes practice to become proficient in time management (apart from using an app like Memtime, which does it all for you, just sayin’), the correct methods can have a significant impact. There are solutions for every degree of discipline, from basic timers to more sophisticated techniques like structured accountability. Small changes, like establishing transition rituals or recognizing time wasters, can help keep focus and stop hours from passing without being noticed.

Raising awareness of time management is crucial. Schedules are only one aspect of effective strategies; another is identifying habits and improving methods that promote productivity. Every fix offers an additional degree of control over daily routines, whether it be through structured tracking, external cues, or thoughtful adjustments. Even one of these strategies can help you stay focused, manage stress, and maximize each hour. 

Without interruptions or timers, Memtime tracks your activities across programs while operating in the background. By integrating with task tools and turning tracked actions into time entries, it facilitates more efficient project management.

To gain a better understanding of your work habits and how you manage time, head this way: