Time Tracking in Toggl

The Timer Page

The Timer page is your main workspace for time tracking. To access it, click the Timer icon in the left navigation bar.

The page has two main areas:

• Timer bar (top) — start a new time entry or see what's currently running
• Entry views (below) — switch between Calendar and Log history to review your logged time or create entries

Use the date picker to navigate between days or weeks.

In Calendar, you can show Day, 3 Days, 5 Days or a full Week. The Week view starts on the day set in Start week on. The 5 Days view shows your work week: Monday to Friday by default, or Sunday to Thursday if your working hours run Sunday to Thursday.

What's in a time log

Each time log can include:

• Description — a short note about what you were working on (typed directly into the timer bar)
• Task — a specific task the entry is linked to
• Project — the project the entry belongs to
• Tags — for categorizing your time
• Billable — mark the entry as billable, independently of its task or project. Unless chosen otherwise, the time entry inherits the billable setting of its task or project. You can also set billable status while the time is still planned, before you log it.
• Start time, end time, and duration
• Date

You can log time with just a description, just a task, just a project, or any combination of the above — pick the level of detail that fits your setup.

Choosing a project and task

Projects, tasks and subtasks are all in one picker. Choose a task and its project is filled in for you, so you don’t pick the project first.

1. In the timer bar, click Project or task, or type + or @ in the description.
2. Search by project, task or client, or browse the list. While you search, the picker shows only the projects, tasks and subtasks that match, with the matching text in bold, and hides everything else. When you browse, each project shows how many tasks it has. Expand a project to see its tasks, and expand a task to see its subtasks.
3. Select a project to log time to the project only, or select a task or subtask to log time to it and its project. Tasks without a project are listed under No project.

When a task or subtask is selected, the chip shows Project | Task. When only a project is selected, the chip shows just the project. Clicking the chip reopens the same picker, so you can switch to a task in a different project without clearing anything first.

When you reopen the picker, the project of your current selection is listed first, under Selected, so you can see straight away what the time is logged to. Your pinned projects come next, and Show pinned projects only narrows the list to them. If you can create projects or tasks, Create project and Create task in [project] are at the bottom of the picker.

The same picker opens when you set the project or task on a time log or planned time in the Calendar view.

Ways to log time

Real-time timer In the web and desktop apps, start typing a description and a five-second countdown begins. A ring fills around the play button, and the timer starts automatically when the countdown ends. Keep typing and the rest of the description is added to the running entry; the field stays focused. Press Enter or click play to start immediately. To cancel, clear the description or click away before the countdown ends.

The countdown stays off while the project, task or tag picker is open, during a Pomodoro break, in Log time mode, during onboarding tours, or while another timer is running. If your workspace has required time-log fields, the countdown begins only after they are filled in. Until then, the play button tooltip lists what is missing.

Screen readers announce “Timer starts in 5 seconds” when the countdown begins. With reduced motion enabled, the ring advances once per second instead of sweeping.

From a task Open any task and click the play button inside it to start a timer directly linked to that task.

Manual Mode Flip the switch beside the play button (or press M) to put the timer bar in Log time mode, then type a duration or pick a start and stop and press Enter. See Manual Mode.

On the mobile app Tap + in the Timer or Calendar header to open Log time with the last 30 minutes selected. In the calendar, a slot in the past opens Log time, while a slot in the future opens Plan time; both sheets use the time wheel.

In Calendar view Click any empty slot in the calendar to create a time log for that time. You can also click an existing time log and hit the play icon to start a new timer with the same details.

From planned time or a calendar event: Open a planned entry or a connected-calendar event, add a task or project, tags and billable status, then select Log time. Everything you set carries into the time log. You can also mark planned time as non-billable without linking a task, and it stays non-billable after you log it. To set these details automatically for recurring meetings, use matching rules.

Continue a previous time log In the Log history view, click the three dots on any past time log and click the continue button. This starts a new timer with the same description, task, project, tags, and billable setting.

Browser extension Start timers directly from tools like Jira or Asana without switching tabs. Learn more here.

Smart Suggestions (desktop app) The desktop app surfaces suggestions based on your recent activity, so recurring work can be logged with a single click. Learn more here.

Automated time tracking (desktop app) The app detects which apps and websites you're using and suggests time logs automatically. You can also mark a scheduled time block as done in My Time to auto-track it, or do this for an entire day at once. Tracked vs. planned time is displayed under each day in the calendar view. Learn more here.

Timer modes

Choose how your timer runs before you start it. In the timer bar, click the timer mode button next to the play button, pick a mode, then press play. The timer starts in the mode you picked. You can also switch modes while a timer is running.

The timer mode button is also available next to the play button inside a task, as long as no other timer is running. It's hidden in Log time mode, because a timer mode only applies to a running timer.

• Count up from zero

 The default. Timer starts at 0:00 and counts upward until you stop it. Best for open-ended work sessions where you want to capture exactly how long something takes.

• Count down from set time

 Set a duration before you start — the timer counts down from that time to zero. Useful when you've given yourself a fixed window to complete something. You can set the time limit before you press play. If you don't, the countdown uses the task's estimate.

• Pomodoro

Work in focused intervals separated by short breaks. Each focus session is saved as its own time log, breaks are not tracked, and the next focus session starts when you press Start after the break. You can customize both the focus and break durations.

• Focus mode 

Cut out distractions while a timer is running. Click the Focus mode button in the timer bar to hide everything except your current entry — clean, minimal, distraction-free.

Which tasks you can track time on

When you pick a task in the project/task picker (in the timer bar or the calendar) or in search, you’ll see:

• Tasks assigned to you
• Tasks assigned to a team you belong to
• Tasks with no assignee

Unassigned tasks also appear in the Recent and Existing tasks suggestions when you type a description. You don’t need to assign a task to yourself before you track time on it.

Tasks assigned only to another person, or only to a team you’re not in, don’t appear. Project access still applies: an unassigned task in a project you can’t access stays hidden.

Timers running in another workspace

A timer belongs to the workspace you started it in. If you belong to more than one workspace, a running timer stays in the timer bar when you switch to another workspace, and you can stop it from there. When you stop it, or start a new timer over it, the time log is saved in the timer’s own workspace, not in the workspace you have open. To see it, switch to that workspace.

Workspace marker

• When the running timer belongs to a different workspace from the one you have open, a workspace icon shows in the timer bar. Hover it to see This timer is running in and the workspace name.
• When you stop that timer from the timer bar (the stop button or S), a message names the workspace that saved the time log: Time entry saved to and the workspace name. Click Go to workspace to open that workspace. From a project page, it opens that workspace’s Tasks page.
• If the workspace name can’t be shown, the message reads Time entry saved to another workspace, without the button.
• A workspace that is the only one in its organization is shown by the organization name, the same as in the workspace switcher.

With only one workspace, you won’t see the marker.

Keyboard shortcuts

A few shortcuts worth knowing:

Quick tips

• Use the 3-dot menu on a running log to discard it 
• Keyboard shortcuts work when no input field is active
• A timer you stop is kept even if it only ran a few seconds. Starting a new timer over a running one stops the running entry at that moment and saves it, unless it has run for less than 10 seconds.