Remote teams have a unique time tracking challenge. You can't glance across the office to see who's working on what. You don't have the casual "how's that pr...
Remote teams have a unique time tracking challenge. You can't glance across the office to see who's working on what. You don't have the casual "how's that project going?" moments that naturally happen in person.
Time tracking fills that visibility gap. But only if it's set up in a way that people actually use it.
The biggest mistake companies make with remote team time tracking isn't choosing the wrong tool. It's making the process so annoying that people either forget to do it or start making up numbers.
Let's be clear: time tracking for remote teams isn't about surveillance. It's about visibility.
Resource allocation. When you can't see your team, you need data to understand who has capacity and who's overloaded.
Project health. Is a project on track or quietly eating more hours than planned? Time data answers this early, before deadlines are at risk.
Fair workload distribution. Without data, work tends to flow to the most visible team members. Time tracking reveals actual distribution.
Client billing. For agencies and consultancies, accurate time tracking directly impacts revenue.
Most time tracking systems fail not because of the tool, but because of friction. Every extra step you add between "I'm working on something" and "that time is logged" reduces compliance.
Common friction points:
Too many tools. Your tasks are in Notion, your timer is in Clockify, your communication is in Slack. Starting a timer means finding the right project in a completely separate tool. People skip it.
Unclear project mapping. The project names in your tracking tool don't match what the team calls them. People pick the wrong project or create duplicates.
Batch logging. When tracking is too annoying to do in real time, people log their hours at the end of the day or week. By then, they're guessing. The data is unreliable.
No visibility into what to track. Team members open the time tracker and see a list of every project in the company. They don't know which ones are theirs.
The key principle is simple: make tracking the path of least resistance.
Bring tasks and timer together. Don't make people switch tools. Show them their tasks and let them start tracking from the same screen.
Filter by person. Each team member should only see tasks assigned to them. Not the entire project backlog. Just their work.
Auto handle the project structure. When someone starts tracking a task, the system should handle project and task creation in the time tracker. No one should have to set up Clockify projects manually.
Connect your Notion workspace and start tracking time in minutes.
Get started freeMake it one click. See task. Click play. That's it.
Here's a practical setup for remote teams:
Your project manager organizes tasks in Notion. Each task has a project, status, due date, and assignee. This is your single source of truth for work.
Clockify handles time tracking. Each team member has their own Clockify account. This is your single source of truth for time.
TimeKnot connects the two. It reads your Notion database, shows each team member their assigned tasks, and logs time directly to their Clockify account.
For team members: Open TimeKnot, see your tasks, click play on what you're working on. Done.
For managers: View reports showing time by project, by person, and by task. Compare against estimates. Spot issues early.
For admins: Set up once. Map Notion team members to TimeKnot workspace members. Each person's Clockify tracks independently.
Tools are only part of the equation. For remote teams, time tracking works best when:
Leadership tracks their time too. If managers don't track, no one will.
It's framed as a team tool, not a monitoring tool. The goal is better project visibility, not watching people work.
You use the data openly. Share time reports in team meetings. Discuss what they reveal about workload and project health. When people see the data being used constructively, they're more motivated to contribute to it.
You keep it simple. Don't ask for time tracking at 15 minute intervals with detailed descriptions. Just track which task you're working on and for how long. The details are already in Notion.
If your remote team uses Notion for task management, you already have the hardest part done; an organized system for work. Adding time tracking through Clockify and connecting the two with TimeKnot gives you the visibility layer without adding complexity to your team's daily workflow.
Connect your Notion workspace and start tracking time in minutes.
Get started free