For the productivity obsessed, there’s no dearth of tools to track and dissect precisely how the workday is spent. Software like Toggl can parse your tasks down to the second; Excel spreadsheets can transform a scattered log of minutes into a tidy pie chart; and, for Luddites, a pencil and pad of graph paper work just fine.

Time tracking is a necessity for professionals who bill by the hour, but the practice has devotees in a range of industries–and has garnered enough support to buoy a growing crop of apps and services.

But are they always a boon for the overworked and overwhelmed? Perhaps that sometimes-compulsive attention we pay to the day’s vicissitudes is sapping our productivity, not boosting it. Imagine a timesheet with this self-defeating entry: “Time spent tracking time: two hours.”

Fast Company spoke with a slate of productivity experts about the perks–and perils–of entering that tricky realm of time tracking. Their advice? Tread carefully.

“Why are we wasting time figuring out how much time we’re wasting?” says Laura Stack, the author and speaker who operates under the moniker The Productivity Pro. “People are spending far more time creating these elaborate systems than it would have taken just to do the task. You’re constantly on your app refiguring, recalculating, recategorizing.”

“A better strategy would be [returning] to the core principles of good time management,” Stack adds. “Block out time on your calendar for the non-negotiable things. [Or] have an organized, prioritized task list.” Stack does note there are cardinal exceptions: Time-tracking apps can be a panacea for payroll professionals, or those who charge clients on an hourly basis.

For those who do decide to document their days, there should be a clear motive, says Dave Seah, the designer and blogger who develops productivity tools. “Tracking anything at all saps time and attention,” he says. “Without a context for why one is tracking tasks, tracking is a waste of time.”