I have the RescueTime application running on my laptop.
The basis of RescueTime is so that you can see what you’re doing on your computer and where you can better spend your time.
I get a weekly report of my digital activity (online and on my computer) and of course I can check the Rescuetime.com web site whenever I like to see my logs too. There’s even a iGoogle addon now so you can see your activity whenever you go to your iGoogle homepage.
Of course you have to refine your tags as time goes on and the reporting becomes a little more accurate as you do.
Like any reporting, RescueTime isn’t perfect but it gives you a good idea of how much time you spend doing what.
Maybe this is an issue though – as far as I know RescueTime reports when you spend more than 5 minutes on something. right now I have 3 applications and 7 FireFox tabs open (wow) I flip between tabs a lot and rarely spend more than 5 minutes on any of them. Does this affect the reporting much if at all?
Either way, RescueTime is well worth a download. It’s free. Check it out at RescueTime.com
You can report daily, weekly or monthly activity.
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What’s nice is that it seems to report only when you’re actually doing stuff on your computer i.e when there are active windows and activity.
It’s good to see that I do actually put in about a 40 hour week (well, maybe a little less) it’s just over a different time period than most of the ‘typical’ workforce.
Ask some people however and they’ll tell you I’m always on my computer and always chatting! ha! wrong!
Remember though that I do work away from my computer too. I fix a air number of computers during my week too, attend meetings, events, consult and much more.
I can see RescueTime being really useful in both personal and business settings.
In business you can personally see where you are spending most of your digital time and try to refocus if necessary, also your boss can see reports too :-s (ut oh) at home you can simply see what you’re wasting time on and see what you do most.
Take December 21st for example – I got quite a bit of stuff done but spent most of the day out of the apartment. (being my birthday it should be that way :-p� )
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Today already I’ve clocked two and a half hours! (it’s only 1030)
