Tracking time when I am not using the computer

I think 2 is too disruptive..and too much SMS. I like (1). This means some gaps would be explained automatically. If you could tag calendar entries as 'lunch', etc. just as you tag applications, this would help categorize other time.

Related to this, right now the day display is not optimal, since it draws activities as averages based on an hour, rather than sharply delimited blocks, which I guess are mostly either 0% or 100%. What about gaps not explained by ical? Probably needs to be the option to label and tag any unexplained blocks.

Integration with ical would have other potential benefits: by reading future events it would be possible to work out how much free time you have available looking forward. Knowing that (and comparing against how much you have to do) gives an idea of how much capacity you have for new projects. Ok, rescuetime seems to be more able analysing what has happened, whereas this is getting dangerously into planning, but I haven't found anything that helps me plan with respect to how much time I really have ahead...

Thanks for the ideas. What I had in mind is much simpler

The RescueTime monitor would have a table of in it with room for say 6 to 10 entries. The user could assign a text description to these entries.

Examples could be Leisure, Family, Meetings, Sleep, Travel, Exercise etc

When the user changes their activity from a computer based one to another mode they hit the button for that activity from the table of activities.

RescueTime uses the existing format for telling the server what computer program you are running to send a message to the server containing the text for that activity.

RescueTime then reports it the same as any computer program except that it stays in that mode until the user either selects another activity from the table or returns to computer tracking mode (this could be automatic but probably better that the user makes a conscious decision to return to computer tracking mode).

That would meet my requirements admirably.

Beyond that I would like to be able to set targets which would show in the Dashboard for each activity, so that the user could see how they are performing against those targets. So you might set a target of say 10 hours exercise for the week and only 4 hours for watching porn movies and be able to see whether you were actually being able to achieve these ambitions.

That would then take you into reporting percentages as well as absolute hours which is a whole different ball game.

Ah, I knew I couldn't have been the first one! I like both of these options! Is that OK? or do you have to choose one? I don't think 2 is too disruptive, especially if you could set how long too wait before sending you an sms. Or otherwise prompting you, such as the app flashing a prompt on your screen.

#1 seems risky, because calendar's represent plans, and meetings go long, we forget them, and other things happen. But as long as we could tell RT what really happened after it logged the time off the calendar, then I think it would be great.

I agree - 2 sounds pretty good to me, especially if you could configure the mode of communication. I would love a chat. Some people might like an email. Another option, have a segment in the dashboard for these questions of time-away-from-the-computer time accounting.

Great app, thanks!

I think #2 is too annoying and #1 is imperfect. Also, for #2, I don't remember what all my tags are. Can I just say "lunch" and tag it later? I don't speak RescueTime-ese :)

What about this:
3) At the end of each day, send the user an email with all times where I was idle from the computer for over (say) 15 minutes. For example, you'd send:

"Hey, what were you doing today during the following times

11:03am to 12:15pm: ________
12:40pm to 1:17pm: ________
2:58pm to 3:18pm: ________
4:00pm to 5:11pm: ________ "

And I'd reply by filling in the blanks (you could redirect me to some web form, or specifiy the format of my reply email so you could parse it).

What do people think of that?

#1 is a good solution - of course then your productivity would go down b/c you'd spend more time documenting your down time.
I'm really not crazy about #2 - the ui could be too "harassing," and if you don't think you'd fill in an im asking what you were doing for the last x minutes, why on earth would you fill out a daily survey asking what you were doing during times x,y,z,... ?

An interesting problem, as both of these solutions may push the limits of intrusiveness, and maybe it's just me but the best thing about this app is that it's hands-off.

Artist's idea for creating 'hibernate' categories is a simple, elegant, hands-off solution. I like it a lot.

One thing I'd add to that idea is that if there is no active app for x minutes, and the user has not specified they're at "lunch" or "meeting" or whatever, the next time they become active a notification would come up saying "You've been inactive for x minutes, 1. log time -->"lunch"... (present a list of selections based on frequency) or 2. no logging." Not entirely hands off, but it would handle more use-cases with less intrusiveness if the ui was well done. And it could be a one-time deal to minimize intrusiveness, like a "remember this setting" check box.

This could also allow you to log time to the last active app, say for example when you are away from your desk chasing someone down for an answer you need to continue with what you had running when the computer went inactive...

how about create an iPhone app that knows where you are via GPS and then allows you to tag locations for different types of productivity. So you can set one location as your bedroom -- where you sleep, or you could look up your location in google and it will tell you if you are in a grocery store or not, and you can tag stores as another type of productivity

#1 is pretty good. And I would add the option to change the "auto-ratings" (as determined from calendar). So, when RescueTime notices that you have returned to the computer, pop up and ask whether the Calendar entry reflected the correct tag, and allow the user to select something else (or even, multiple entries).

Say you left the computer and went to lunch first, then had a meeting. When you return, it would prompt you for 2 missing hours and ask:

You just returned to the computer. What did you do in the mean time?

[ ] I did not do anything
[ ] I had "Meeting with customer" (read from Calendar)
[ ] I did something else: ___________________

Give it some way to tick both "Meeting with Customer" and enter "Lunch", and select how the time was partitioned between those two.

I like Max & Aneesh's suggestions a lot. Artist has a great idea too. Some combination of these would be great. Mining calendar info ... maybe useful. But I would be inclined to prioritize it lower than getting actual feedback from the user, since it's likely that many users are not diligent in calendar upkeep.

Maybe later some way to feed selected data back into a user's calendar would be handy though!

Hi,
I had the same question too. For me I think the best solution is just a (configurable) panel of buttons, or menu, on that I can just click when I start doing something. RescueTime is great at tracking my current application, but if I pick-up the phone, or start reading a paper document, or stop for a coffee break, then it's no longer correct. Having a popup panel / menu that I can launch from the task bar would solve all my problems.
Thanks