My computer activities have been monitored for the last few weeks, not by some keylogging stalker but by Rescue Time, with my full permission. I was drawn to use this time tracking application by their home page claim “Clobber procrastination with Goals & Alerts and watch your efficiency grow.” The jury is still out as to whether procrastination is my problem or a need to explore what is new coupled with being involved with too many online activities,. Whatever the reason, I certainly need to improve efficiency. Rescue time takes the form of a downloadable program which sends data on your computer usage. Data is analyzed and available via your online account. Customization allows you to categorize and tag the information to suit your needs..
I am impressed with depth of information it is possible to generate, although the time required to produce such minute detail for myself may end up being counterproductive, because of the nature of my use. Categories are automatically added for recognized applications and major sites, Although categorization of applications is thorough, I visit a great number of sites that I either need to manually add categories to or reclassify to suit my needs. Being a web developer and blogger the automatic category News/Blog, for example, covers work, blogging and personal use. I need to split this up by recategorizing. To produce further classification, tags need to be added to each site visited and each application used; which means that for me, to date, many are not tagged..
Although I have recently spent a couple of hours classifying and tagging, after doing similar last week, you can see from the Rescue Time Tag Widget below how much I did not tag. This relates to a large number of sites that I have visited; sites of blogging contacts and those visited for research for blog posts and a new project I am working on. I spent time on tagging sites that I visit regularly rather than those I may not go back to again. Over time the results should be more meaningful and more patterns will emerge.. All of the results below relate to last week although data and charts can be produced for a chosen week, month, all time, the current week or today.
Tags
The following data,detailing individual applications used, is more comprehensive for me, as this is automatically produced; with no input needed. Further interpretation is needed (for example Dreamweaver and MSN Msgr has been used for work, volunteer work,blogging and personal use) but this is where categories and tags come in.
Application and Site Use
Other charts are available to make your data more easily understandable: . Your dashboard can be customized to include the charts of your choosing. For example:
Top Categories
Overview
In addition to the charts, full listings are provided. It is via these listings that you add and edit categories and tags.
The real beauty of this application is that you do not have to analyse the graphs and raw data to work out how efficient you have been or whether you are meeting desired goals. Rescue time provides ways of doing this.
It generates details of your efficiency compared to others. I don’t consider that I was particularly efficient so I need to look further into how this is calculated.
You are able to set goals and alerts by determining how much or how little time you want to spend on particular categories or tags. If you want to track these goals, you can be set up daily goal summary alerts via RSS or real-time email/SMS messages. Various widgets allow you to display information on your blog or other websites (e.g. iGoogle, Netvibes, Yahoo desktop widget) There is even a logger allowing you to manually add details of the amount of time you have spent on the phone or in meetings.
As you can see below, I have a way to go yet before I meet the targets I have set for myself.
Overall this is a very impressive application and could prove very useful if you are keen on improving your efficiency and are willing to spend some time setting it up to customize it to your needs. Setup time will vary depending on your computer usage. For me that time is most likely a fair amount longer than the average user because I am a computer nerd who uses the PC for work, leisure, news and socializing.
Rescue time is developing the application further to include such information as how your time is being spent in “general” applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, or Outlook and by hour breakdowns of “flow” throughout a day, week, or month. Rescue Time is free for individual use but plans are also available for small businesses and enterprises which include team tracking.
Alternatives
Slife – a free desktop based application which seems to have similar features to Rescue Time. I have only just started using this and will report on it when I have had time to gather data and analyse its usefulness.
TimeSnapper, a desktop based application, which calls itself an Automatic Screenshot Journal. To get the same sort features as Rescue Time purchase of the professional version is needed although at $24.95 it is not expensive for individual use.
Please let me know if you want further details on Rescue Time or if you use a different time management application for helping you keep on track.
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Too bad none of these apps are available for linux. I use windows only when there is no other option, so that would mean in less than 1% of the cases. They seem fine application though.
There are various time tracking programs for Linux although I am not sure if they have the same level of features as those mentioned above.
Thanks for posting this Sue. I often times find myself surfing for “much needed information” when in fact I’m simply procrastinating. I’m going to sign up. I just checked and I see the sign up is free (even better).
~ Colleen
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I can really relate to the “much needed information” phrase. I would blog much more regularly if I did not have to keep looking that bit further for more.
I hope my blog readers at least benefit from me being thorough (and writing about software that impresses me rather than that I have been paid to review.)
Hi there, enjoyed your post. Although I must admit that I am a bit skeptical to try the software as I don’t really want to see how much time I spend doing stuff on the pc, because I know it would be a large amount of semi-wasted time.
I could see uses for this software in many different professions that require you to use your pc all day. Perhaps even employers could use it on their staff’s pcs to make sure they are doing what they should be, not spending half the day on Facebook.
I was drawn to it in an attempt to work out where my time goes because I have not been efficient lately. I know where I should be spending more time – on jobs that don’t get finished or are completed at the last minute.
I was in need of such software as although I have always known that a lot of time is semi-wasted it did not effect my overall performance as it is doing now.
Each of the applications mentioned above have premium features that can track staff time.
This seems like a neat idea. It is so easy to waste hours doing nothing when we think we are working. Stats never lie. Haha.
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This is very interesting and written in a very formative way too. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge and experience.
I’ve just installed it and are looking forward to see the outcome…. and even notice like Colleen, its’ for free.
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Isn’t it better to write down every bit of work and corresponding amounts of time on paper?
Surely, you won’t get those fancy graphics, but still you’ll get enough information to think about…
p.s. Something’s very wrong with your template. All the widgets are under the post… Perhaps, it’s my browser (FireFox), but check it anyway.
Jack, why would you want to spend time tracking your time on paper when you could have it done automatically? As an attorney who tracks ever six minutes throughout the day, I appreciate software that helps automate the process, giving me greater efficiency.
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I have tried to do this on paper, and it takes a lot of time tracking it throughout the day as well as a lot of time adding it up at the end of every day.
Perhaps, that’s just the matter of personal preference
Sorry, it’s my browser’s fault. Everything’s fine with your template. And sorry for double posting…
So in essence is this like a Google Web Master Tools but specifically tracks actions your own personal computer???
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It’s probably more like Google Analytics by the way it tracks your computer while online or in applications.
This sounds quite interesting.
I may have a try myself
I still find the old fashioned pencil, paper and the plan your work and work your plan method the most useful. This is primarily because, I spend much less time at the computer than away from it for my work. These applications seem quite effective but more perhaps for people who spend a great deal of time in front of computers.
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i always wonder about these types of things, whether or not all the time invested in setting them up will actually pay off in time savings once it’s done.
You raise a good point. For a work computer, the software can be very useful, such as for those who work from home. I’m not sure how helpful the software would be for the person who only uses the computer at night and on weekends for leisure activity.
I just heard about Rescue Time from someone seeking to better manage employees in other countries. This looks helpful for managing others, and as you pointed out, managing your own time better. Thanks for the thoughtful review.
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Rescue Time is free for a single user, but it is fairly expensive for a small team—$55 a month for up to 6 people. I suppose the justification is it helps save time (which equals money) by using it.
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Wow. Thanks for breaking out the charts. GO DREAMWEAVER!
I can see this type of thing being of great value. If it works that is. It is so easy for me to be ditracted on the web and just stumbling along instead of doing what I should be doing.
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I agree. For many people, the results will be very enlightening.
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Yes, it’s interesting to have yourself compared to others using the service and see how you rate.
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Think I’d be a little scared to run this!! Good to run on the staff computers though
Oh wow this sounds like such a great idea. I have tried a few different aps and firefox plugins to achieve something similar to this, but not with so much detail.
I really need to track my time closely, with so much going on offline at the moment my online goals are really struggling to be realised.
I might have a search around for something less time consuming to set up at the moment but thanks for the insight I can definitely see myself using this in the future!!
It seems like instead of wasting time on useless website you’ll be wasting it orginising and tagging stuff. I guess that’s a way to fight with procrastination but it would be much more effective if you could just spend that time on your work.
You only tag an activity once. For example, you tag CNN.com under a particular tag and every time you go there in the future, your time for CNN.com is tagged accordingly. Sure, it takes a little time in the beginning. But most efforts to organize, prioritize, and examine productivity require at least a little time.
This rescuetime seems like a great concept, the only question that comes to my mind before I go to try it out is “how safe is it?” I suppose I am concerned about privacy issues.
Till then,
John
It certainly does look rather interesting and its great idea : to rescue me or resuce time; just wonderful.
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Interesting tool. I am newbie about it and will use this application. Thanks for information.
And if you want to track your offline activities, this tool might be a good solution:
http://www.timemanagementrocks.com
It calculates how much time is spent on each activity daily, weekly, monthly and yearly.
Very interesting. Rescuetime is a wonderful idea, and I love the pictures of the stats.
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It looks quite interesting and its great idea : to rescue me or resuce time; just wonderful.
Rescue Me Rescue Time, a nice title. Maybe I will try it for myself since you think highly of it. Who knows it might be very important to me.
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Nice application there.. I also dealing with time management issue.. But it looks like you don’t have one ^^
I wish I can be more effective in time just like you..
Thanks for sharing…
Maybe I will try it for myself since you think highly of it. Who knows it might be very important to me.
Rescue Time can be a very useful tool for assessing your own use of time on the computer.
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There are various time tracking programs for Linux although I am not sure if they have the same level of features
Nice post about rescue time. I like your blog very much because it has very interesting articles of different topics like testking 642-736, testking 642-741 and testking 642-746 and their tips and tricks. I am a very big googler and search on different topics. Between searching i found your nice blog. Thanks for your this great blog.
I like this tool – it helps us to save our priceless time! And in the modern world time = money:)
This seems like a neat idea. It is so easy to waste hours doing nothing when we think we are working. Stats never lie.