More info for the summary line on the main page

OK: on #1 (more info in summary), I guess there's two ways of doing this...

• (what you described) Elapsed time between the first and last bubble.
  
  • However, this would be subject to errors if someone tracks stuff past midnight.


• (what I meant) Count up the columns that have ONE OR MORE bubbles, then multiply by 15 minutes to get the total amount of actual time covered by BubbleTimer.
  
  • If there is NO multitasking, then this equals the same total that is already shown: number of bubbles times 15 minutes, and so there's no need to say "in X hours". Thus, people who don't multitask will not even notice this change.
  
  
  • If there IS multitasking, the summary shows the difference between actual time tracked (the thing I'm proposing to add), and the amount of "time value" obtained within that time (the thing currently displayed). I currently find it nearly useless to know the thing currently displayed, because multitasking makes that number have no relation to reality. However, you didn't like the idea of showing actual time *instead*, so I'm begging you to include both. :)

On #2 (summarizing column info): changing the colour yet again is an interesting idea. Would it be enough? I'm not sure. I'm not even sure that the current colour change is enough, actually, and I think that partly inspired my wish to see some kind of column total. Maybe instead of ticks, it could be dots, like dots on a dice... that might look neat.

• Or maybe the colour change could be applied to the whole column of empty time bubbles as well:
  
  • slightly greyed bubble outlines means there is already a bubble filled in the column;
  
  
  • slightly dotted-grey means there is more than one bubble filled in that column. Hmm...

On one-click versus two-clicks for multitasking/change-of-mind, I see your point. I know you hate having too many settings, but would it be worth considering an option for "one-click multitasking" versus "one click to change a bubble to another"? The wording needs work, of course.

I just still find myself multi-tasking more and more! A new one for me is gaming and socializing. I have to be careful not to do too much gaming, and also not too much socializing, but both are necessary releases of stress. When I can do both at once, I feel like the socializing is more productive than usual -- thus I feel it makes my time spent *worth more* than just regular time. Maybe it's goofy, but somehow it works for me.

on #1, now that I understand what Qrystal is talking about here - multitasking - then my answer is different because I don't believe in using bubbletimer for multitasking! what you say @sean makes sense, to have "in X hours" be total since you started tracking time, but then that should equal my Daily total anyway, so I don't need it (unless it were to indicate how much time I had forgotten to track since I started, but I can see that by the red dots).

I strongly disagree with this whole multi-tasking usage that @Qrystal is suggesting. You have to decided what you are trying to achieve with tracking your time and stick to it. So in my case I want to see that I am productive towards developing my business, so that if, while I am listening to a valuable podcast, I get the washing up done (as a personal bonus), I will track that time as Research/Reading instead of housekeeping. I don't give myself any points for housekeeping so I don't need to track it.

In terms of multi-tasking I think you need to consider which is the task you are doing that contributes to your end goal and choose to track that one.

Well, see, my problem with productivity is that I have trouble with staying aware of where my time actually goes. So I track everything that I do.

Afterwards, I can compare how much time I spent working versus cleaning house versus random websurfing versus playing games versus hanging out with friends versus hanging out with my husband. Oh and sleeping: it's been really helpful to see how sleep affects my productivity.

With BubbleTimer, it's so easy to track ALL of this, that I just do it and don't want to have to think about it -- that's the point, right? Just record it, don't overanalyze. However, I just want to glance down at the bottom of the screen and see right away whether I've tracked ALL my time: all 24 hours of it, by the time I'm done the day. Or if it's only 6pm, I want to know that I've tracked all 18 hours that have passed.

That's all I'm asking. I just want to see how much time has actually been recorded. I don't skip time columns, because I don't want the number of hours of activity to be LESS than the number of hours tracked. I resisted multitasking for awhile, because I didn't want the number of hours of activity to be MORE than the number of hours tracked.

But then, I noticed that some activities really did overlap, and I want to just track them, not have to choose between them. Since these times are then counted more than once (i.e. it's "multitasking") my total is sometimes higher than the number of hours that have passed, and this throws me off. I find myself going back to check over the day, counting up the multitasked time slots to make sure that the total shown is actually equal to the number of actual hours that have passed plus the number of times that are counted twice. Maybe I'm a little OCD, but does that make me wrong? :)

I tried pointing out that the summary time is misleading, and suggested that maybe it should just show the number of actual hours that have been tracked, instead of the amount of activity. The response was that I should just count multitasked time as "bonus": I'm actually getting more hours out of the day than there actually were. So, okay, I started doing that. In fact, I am now finding it really inspiring to know that I can count some things as two things at once!

For example, I want to be a writer, and so writing regularly is one of my goals. But I also have to finish my thesis, too, and that involves research and meeting with my advisor and reviewing my notes, and -- I count that all as thesis. However, when I'm actually *writing* my thesis, it also counts towards my writing goal. Since I've started getting excited about tasks like these that count as "double time", my motivation has gone way up!

However, I still want to know how much *actual time* has actually been tracked! I think this is more important than knowing whether I've multitasked or not during the day. The only reason I'm asking for the summary line to say both is because I've already tried asking for it to only say the *actual time* and I got shot down. :P

How about something like this?



Instead of adding something completely new and possibly vague, this proposal is just a slight adjustment to the images used when the time has been bubbled: add a line across each. Not only does this clearly show the contiguous time periods that have been bubbled, but also this makes the unbubbled ones stand out so much more.

Since you're talking about making it easier to scroll to see the whole day, something like this might end up being enough.

Also, the realization just came to me that categories are probably going to be coming soon, and that in itself might drastically change how I use BubbleTimer anyways. Or it might make more people realize how nice it would be to see "28h 45m in 24h" ... ;)

I might have lost the thread a bit here but that drawing of how to show when time has been allocated for (as a line crossing dots out) looks good! A lot clearer. Sometimes I don't notice if I've missed a bubbled (difference black vs grey colour not being very obvious).