How has 2020 made us smarter?

2020 is that black hole, which swallowed some and took away bread, clothing, and shelter from some. When asked to revisit this year, there’s barely anything positive that comes to mind but for the life lessons. The harder the times get, the stronger one emerges. Going through every day, we have had the opportunity to overcome challenges that we thought could never exist.
Hopping to the corporate arena, the visuals are pretty similar. Before this pandemic, remote working was only meant for ‘Moody Mondays’ and ‘Freaky Fridays.’ Now, the corporate world has gone topsy-turvy, and so have its norms. xTimesheet, meanwhile, has helped a lot in coping up with these challenging times. It has been the perfect tool to manage your company while remote working.

Sitting back at home and organizing the enormous companies is not an easy job. But, it’s still happening. And, in some cases, with better results. Many corporations notified that their company had performed better when working from home, and some even said that they were considering keeping their company a full-time remote working business. A report says that the employees have started working 1.4 days extra in a month than before. Work hours flexibility and working as per one’s suitable schedule has made all this possible. Moreover, sitting at home with a ban on other activities, work is the only aspect that keeps people occupied and connected to the outside world.

The MNCs are saving a lot of money during this pandemic. So, it’s not beneficial for the employees alone. The real estate cost, electricity bills, and the daily needs’ costs, the hours and money spent on commuting to and from work, all have reduced. The extra hours gained could be spent on other essential tasks. Working from home enables hiring people from any corner of the world, allowing diverse yet local talent.
This pandemic gave rise to many companies like zoom. The OTT platforms and sanitary industries like Dettol and Lifebuoy have also seen a boon.

Though the pandemic is still not over, nobody remains a novice. All of us have taken something positive from this nightmare.
As we are slowly inching towards the other riverbank, we need to take care of ourselves, our bodies, and our minds. xTimesheet is there to manage the office part!

Teamwork is Good Work!

Talent wins matches, but talent along with teamwork wins battles. A good team is not the one whose each member is well-versed in one thing or another rather, a good team is the one whose each member knows his/her teammates well, their weaknesses and strengths. Team collaboration and teamwork are highly required in a healthy and effective office environment. But they are not the same. Different scenarios and different tasks need different approaches. A team should be able to figure that out as one whole and work together to find ways to cross that hurdle.

To build a healthy team, the basic step is communication. Every teammate should feel that he has enough space to express his thoughts amongst his team members. This burden falls upon all the other teammates. There should be a proper, effective transfer of knowledge. Respect for every individual and emotional intelligence should be considered to be essential elements in this aspect. A lot of responsibilities are for the leads or the managers when accomplishing teamwork. If the leader knows how to manage, a debilitating team could also be brought back to place. xTimesheet comes handy during such times. It helps the employees be aware of his/her team. This allows everybody to stay on the same page and fill in for a team member if he/she lacks somewhere.

A good team means well-organized problem-solving. Every task gets divided into fragments and turns into numerous, smaller tasks, which are easier to finish. The number of team members is directly proportional to the number of ideas. Moreover, a broader perspective offers easy prototyping. Everybody gets to be a part of the final equation. This helps in acquiring a healthy and warm workplace atmosphere. If there are no unnecessary trifles and cold wars between employees, the total focus is on work chores. When directly implied, this means an increase in productivity.
xTimesheet makes all this possible. It helps to set goals and expectations for the teams to achieve. It allows everyone to be aware of each other’s statuses. If you are willing to attain comfortable work hours and build a powerful team, xTimesheet could act as the perfect catalyst.

Perks of Employee Time Tracking

What is better than setting goals? On a sarcastic tone, achieving one would be pretty nice, would it not? But, how to accomplish this if the employee is submerged with work up to his collar? A known and straightforward solution is to plan a better schedule. With the kind of flourishing work (which is a good thing, indeed), to be motivated to work and complete a daily lineup is a tough job. And, workload and heaps of pending work lead to lack of motivation, which leads to distraction and unproductivity. The employees’ mental health and well being are also affected. To keep all of us in check, time tracking should be practiced.

Even the tiniest entities of any firm should learn to manage their work-life. The sad reality is that the employees themselves are not aware of the differences time tracking can make in their lives. There should be proper awareness programs within the corporations to help the employees and the corporations themselves, benefit from this beautiful and comfortable technique.

As banal as it sounds, it is an essential attribute. To make this cliche task easier, xTimesheet allows the users to track time and be aware of their daily schedules. It helps him/her plan a day, set goals, find out which products need more attention and which are the ones that are being overworked upon. This way, the employee can quickly figure out the areas where time wastage is happening and what all departments need more effort and hours. This simple application makes time tracking and hence, time management possible. With a better time organization, the employees will be able to finish their work on time and stay ahead of their schedule. This also helps them to find some leisure time and prevents them from becoming a doleful worker. If the employee is happy, the workplace has an air that is filled with zeal, enthusiasm, and productivity.

Why is Emotional Intelligence important for a successful business?

Now, everyone has heard and is aware of the term IQ (Intelligence Quotient). There exists a sister entity to IQ, called EQ or the Emotional Quotient. Emotional Quotient or Emotional Intelligence or Emotional Leadership or Emotional Intelligence Quotient is the ability of a person to be aware of and manage his/her as well as other’s emotions. It is still a less heard of the term, let alone known. The less it is known, the more it is important. EQ forms a very important element of healthy and productive professional environments. Good EQ is directly proportional to peaceful interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships. It is important for a lot of factors, like:

Leadership: If any employee can understand what he/she and his/her team needs to progress in the right direction, that person should be able to manage the team effectively. EQ allows the leader to be empathetic towards the team and vice versa. This way, everybody knows where to fill in for others and where they need to pull back. Everybody understands their tasks better, and this saves trifles and cold wars amongst employees, which are mere distractions.
Mental Health: Many times, what happens is that the person he/she cannot narrow down to the issue that bothers him/her. With a generous EQ, this problem is solved. Not only the person understands but also tackles the issue, which results in effective working. Office quarrels are saved.


Growth: The blessing of being able to recognize one’s feelings should always be valued. Unfortunately, only a handful of people know how to do this. To crack this chest open, there should be awareness programs run in the office premises on this particular topic. There should be more and more people educated in it. A healthy office atmosphere will lead to high success rates.

xTimesheet is an inexpensive and helpful approach regarding this issue. It makes the job easy and improves the progress graphs. It allows uncomplicated solutions to such problems and makes the working air optimistic and homely.

Why do Bookkeeping and Tracking Time go hand in hand?

There’s cut-throat competition for everything in today’s world, and the last thing one would want is to be swindled. That’s why bookkeeping or keeping a tab on the financial transactions forms the backbone of a corporation. It not only creates an integral part but also is a delicate department. With the numerous tasks that show up in this procedure, one can quickly lose track of time. To avoid getting caught up in this mess, xTimesheet allows efficient tracking of time.

The firms that have a great number of clients, and have to deal with multiple of them regularly have a lot to keep up. And, if they are not managing their time well, by being everywhere and nowhere truly, several big and small tasks are spoiled. The various companies with their varying rapports, all need individual attention. And with this kind of overwhelming schedule, it is only human to botch up the accounts. If there is proper time-tracking happening, the accountant could know about the fumble and mistakes and also figure out if he is paying less attention to important firms and/or overworking on the ones that have been satisfied. Don’t bother thinking that xTimesheet would add to the list of chores. Instead, this digital time tracker is a piece of cake. You would not have to put in any extra effort to learn this application or figure out its functions. It works in the background. It will only be a blessing and no less.

Another icing on the cake of digital time-trackers is that it functions beyond time-tracking. Not every fish in the pond is the same. Not every client has the same billing rates and patterns. xTimesheet features personalization when it comes to this issue. Hourly billing and customization of the prices for differently paid employees are available. It makes this fuzzy task a pumpkin. Which, in turn, makes accounting easier.

Tracking time could result in a well-organized WFH

Be it a kindergarten student or the CEO of a company, and by this far, everybody is accustomed to the perks and drawbacks of work from home. The happiness of getting up late and still attending that 11 o’clock meeting is beyond expression. And, at the same time, the work pressure after wasting the whole long day is overwhelming. Amidst this chaos, some of us are managing to maintain a work routine and some of us are messing up badly. Some colleagues are working hard and performing well, so much so that their performance is better when working from home. Some corporations released data, which says that they have experienced better employee conduct during the lockdown period. However, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Working less than required is bad, but working too much is worse.
xTimesheet provides easy tracking of time so that employees don’t make a hash of their time. It lets the person work just in the right amount and helps him/her squeeze in time for leisure and other activities.

Let us shed some light upon the aids:

Vigilance: The most important thing is that you’re subconsciously watched by yourself. If your work hours are being tracked, you would know about your performance, about the time you’re misspending or if you’re working too much. This will help you balance everything in the right proportion and time.

Record: Another important thing is maintaining records of the number of hours of work. This would be useful in tracking the overtime hours and if the employee is getting good pay. It would also be helpful to track the hours of work not done. This creates transparency between the employer and the employee, which is much needed in a healthy work environment.

Thriving Routine: xTimesheet helps one make the most out of his/her ’24hrs’. Procrastination, futile multi-tasking, and hours going in vain doing nothing can all be taken care of now. The chance of spending an organized day with everything in the right amount and the willingness to participate in every area of life should be cherished in these hard times.

Why are timesheets better than spreadsheets?

There are two widely used options for managing the workflow, namely, timesheet apps and spreadsheets. Spreadsheets have been in use for a very long time now. For many, they are the most trusted and preferable option. People who have been using them over the years have grown more and more used to it and find it to be a reliable medium. However, on the contrary, timesheet applications have proved themselves to be much more efficient and more comfortable. Their comprehensive set of options and automatic functioning are accurate and quick and require less manual attention. One of such apps is xTimesheet. xTimesheet provides speedy and convenient delivery of the work commands. It does not need the user to enter everything manually; instead, a one time command is sufficient.


Let’s figure out ways in which timesheet apps are better:

Suitability: Even though xTimesheet is a newer option, if picked up now, the user will very quickly get accustomed to it. He/she will experience a vast difference between handling and convenience of both the media, how most of the tasks have become mechanized and automated, and how accuracy has increased, without any re-checks.
Price: Unlike spreadsheets, timesheet apps could be free of cost. Since they are apps, they are generally free up to a specific number of users. Even if there are charges, they are very nominal and affordable. So, directly implied, xTimesheet is a cost-effective option.
Speed and Accuracy: To err is human. So, even if a flawless person is in charge of the spreadsheets, there will still be some mistakes that happen incognito. To check and again double-check them, manual assistance is inevitably required, which adds up to the speed issue. To get away from this, automated, one time commands are offered by xTimesheet. Speedy and accurate results are provided by these applications.

Now is the right time to switch to xTimesheet for a hassle-free experience if you’re still crawling with spreadsheets. It would be a change that will prove worthy of the effort of learning something new.

Prioritizing Work Items – a Critical Component of Managing Workforces

Getting showered with clients and having the reputation of being the best in the field is demanded by all. However, the success rate of the company is directly proportional to the workload. The phrase ‘too much on my plate’ turns out to be a good one in such times. Being drowned into work up to the collar brings a different kind of zeal and passion into our work lives. But, if every morsel is not planned and timed well, the work balance gets shook and the efficiency falls apart. Every work is equally essential and outdated, and it doesn’t help with the modern-day work structure. Dealing with all kinds of work simultaneously and giving undivided attention to all is not possible. In this procedure, we end-up spoiling the task, which required our utmost attention, and bag negative points for the team. Looking at all of them together makes the task tedious and more challenging.


Giving equal importance to everything could make our focus crash all over the place, leaving us overwhelmed with the workload and then eventually ruining even the more straightforward tasks.

That is when priority comes into the picture. Prioritization of work items can turn a heavily loaded, hotchpotch program into a simple water slide. One can easily glide from top to bottom, finishing the essential tasks first and gradually moving to the simpler ones by the end of the day, or vice versa. It helps in productivity, minimizes workload, better manages time, and hence, efficiency, and maintains a work-life balance. Inducing this asset into our workplaces could turn out to be a boon. Those places where a lot of work needs to be done in less time could use this technique to save distraction and stalling.

How to prioritize work is an old struggle and requires proper attention paid to it. xTimesheet helps in tackling similar problems in an effective and accomplishing way. It offers economical and easy solutions to such issues, making our everyday work more comfortable. If one master the art of prioritizing work items, he/she can easily handle a rough schedule in a neat, spick, and span manner.

Brushing-up distant workplace communication skills

A few months ago, a lot of us did not bother about ‘distant’ workplace etiquettes. Seeing our colleagues around us and immediately reacting to different hurdles showing up daily is what we were used to. COVID-19 has brought all kinds of changes to our lives, the majority of them being work-related. Dreaded by some, the ‘WFH’ style is in fashion these days. No matter how good and accustomed to work etiquette we are, remote working has more to it. There are unheard of situations and challenges. And as far as remote working is concerned, communication dominates the domain. Time clash, mode of communication, network challenges are just a few, to begin with. There are many more, which need our attention.

Basic Communication
We all must have had at least one office/work-related video call or voice call on different platforms offered these days. And all of us must have suffered some network problem on our end, or someone else’s in the call. The first and foremost point that goes here is to be polite when complaining about similar issues. Along with masks, network-issues are another ‘new normal.’ While organizing meetings, one should be mindful that one platform might not be comfortable for everyone. To overcome this, there should be tutorials of the platform in use circulated; this would help everyone move forward together. New communication tools should be adopted for efficiency and management.

Proactiveness
Being away and managing everything like it used to be is not a piece of cake. Be the lead or the team, and everyone needs to get out of their lethargy pants and try to know more about their daily schedule. Although the leads are required to push a little extra, think about sending motivational messages and update the team status. One should be aware of the teammates’ positions too.
Setting new goals, huddling up, and organizing questionnaires daily would help everyone be on the same page.

Micromanagement
Micromanagement, in itself, is not believed to be a very friendly practice. During remote working, it could be more baneful. During these difficult times, there are enough reasons to be worried about. On top of that, if the employee feels caged and excessively time-bound all the time, this could turn out to be frustrating for him/her and then eventually affect his performance. The lead should be vigilant and observant in a way that does not hamper his/her teammates’ basic work rights.

Although most of us have managed to cope with these arising issues, some of us are still struggling and figuring out ways to make our lives easier. xTimesheet, a product by XRM Labs, can efficiently and inexpensively solve these problems, whereas most solutions at hand are complicated or expensive to teach.
Being aware of these minute things could help develop interpersonal and intrapersonal skills.
Prioritizing video calls should be a must because seeing each other’s faces could help keep the office environment alive at home.
We should not let technology meddle with our work relations. And we should not let distance spoil what we have augmented for so long.

Overcoming the challenges of remote working

A majority of office-based groups in the world have been working remotely last many months due to the Covid pandemic. While educational institutes and shops are now open, it could be longer for offices – Specifically larger workplace, because of the potential safety risks, By now, your team has no doubt settled into remote working, but this doesn’t imply that it’s without difficulties. Over the last months, you may have encountered some common issues with a temporary setup, but the good news is that most obstructions to remote working can be easily overcome. How about we look at what management can do to overcome common barriers posed by remote working.

Struggling to adjust work and home commitments:

The odds are that remote working will be more hectic for employees with families or busy households – it’s undoubtedly hampered efficiency. If any employee has told you that they are finding it tough, or maybe you’ve noticed in their work output, at that point, work with them and find a solution.  Now, like never before, it’s essential to be flexible – explore the chance of things like flexitime, split or decrease hours, or condensed working to help them strike that balance. Offering flexible working to employees needn’t make an additional burden for you or your HR team.

Lack of communication with a person:

Communication is probably going to have slipped a little during the lockdown. Still, it stays as ever to maintain an adequate level of touch with your team and individual employees. If a particular employee or staff has been slipped off the radar somewhat, the main thing is to speak with them and check that they are coping well and needing any additional support from you. Besides that, you could:

* Set up a weekly meeting and getting a chance to discuss work and address any queries.

* Communicate the importance of communication, particularly during a time like this.

* Assign an employee every week to share what they’ve been working on and any beneficial distant working tips.

* Online setup channels where employees can share information, talk about activities yet also have general catch-ups.

Bring the team together:

Motivation may have slipped because team morale is lacking during the lockdown. An employee might miss the social viewpoints and camaraderie of being with their colleagues; thus, consider ways to bring the team together – albeit digitally. A bit of team spirit can work amazing things in boosting motivation.

Focusing on development :

A lack of progression or opportunities to develop can hit motivation and productivity, especially among the more optimistic employees. We can start by asking the question: “Do you feel satisfied with the work that you’re doing?” If their answer is “No,” start considering how you can help them progress. Talk with the employee about the skills they’d like to build on and how they see their role progressing. From that point, it’s about recognizing how you will uphold them, pointing them toward a better direction, or even offering any new course to them and bearing the cost so they can improve. It demonstrates that you’re an employer who invests in their people, which itself can be a genuine inspiration supporter. Ideally, these tips will help refocus your team and continue making remote working a success until we’re back in the office.