Teams | Collaboration | Customer Service | Project Management

I’ve built a lot of dashboards in Google Sheets. Sometimes out of necessity, sometimes because it seemed like the fastest and most convenient option. One time, I needed a quick way to track weekly campaign performance across paid, organic, and email channels. I threw the data into Sheets, built a few charts, and had a working marketing dashboard ready in under an hour. It wasn’t fancy, but it worked.

Effective project status reports are the best way to keep your stakeholders aligned and in the loop during your project progress. These high-level updates proactively let your team know if a project is on track, at risk, or off track—so you can course correct if necessary to hit your deadlines every time. Learn how to create project status reports in a few easy steps, plus check out a template you can use right away.

Criticism, though often difficult to accept, is key for personal and professional growth. Constructive criticism is feedback that is specific, actionable, and focused on improvement rather than personal attacks. What if we told you you’re not perfect? Obviously, you know that already—but it still kind of stings. Criticism of any kind can be hard to swallow, especially when it comes to something you spent time and energy on. Inherently, we all want to do a good job.

You’re not just losing time. You’re bleeding it quietly, invisibly, hour by hour. And in high-compliance industries like healthcare, banking, or finance, those lost hours aren’t just costly, they’re risky. It often starts small. A compliance audit flags questionable browsing during billable hours. Then, a client requests detailed time logs you cannot confidently provide.

Excel is one of those tools everyone just expects you to use. It’s already on your desktop, your team knows their way around it, and most of the time, someone before you was already using it to track projects. So, you open a new spreadsheet, start plugging in tasks, and keep using it out of habit. But just because Excel is familiar, doesn’t mean it’s the best tool for project management.

Time Doctor wins three Stevie Awards for innovation, leadership, and the future of work. This week, we’re celebrating a milestone in our journey — our first-ever Stevie Awards win. Not just one, but three awards from the 2025 International Business Awards, honoring our leadership, innovation, and impact in shaping how remote and hybrid teams work.