Related to: [Activity Tracker - Punchclock & Time Management Gadget]
ScreeperZone would like to wish you and your family a very very happy and prosperous New year.
As we enter the year 2008, I thought I will start off by asking how everyone uses Activity Tracker in their day to day life. I’m constantly trying to improve the gadget and your experiences will greatly help me in doing just that.
Share your experiences.
As for me, I developed the gadget last year to motivate myself to do the tasks that I keep procrastinating. Knowing how much time it takes to pay my bills or do laundry, motivates me to finish it as quickly as possible. Just knowing that I’m being monitored makes me very productive. The gadget then evolved into a professional time tracking gadget that can be used by consultants who have the need to fill timesheets. Nowadays I use it everyday not only to track my general activities but also to track the amount of hours I work for billing purposes.
From the comments and the emails that I received, I understood that different people use it for different reasons. I thought it will be great if everyone can share their experiences and how they use the gadget everyday. This will not only help me to better understand my users, but also will provide innovative ideas for others to follow.
So feel free to leave your comments and share your experiences.
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I’am a student. Came to know about Activity tracker via Study Hacks blog (http://calnewport.com/blog/?p=99) and had been addicted to it since then. I use it to monitor my assignments and other research projects. I had been able to quickly quantify and justify the amount of effort in any research work to my professor - thanks to this Gadget. I will be graduating next semester and hope to use it afterwards as well, as I’am looking to take up a career in program management.
I just use it to find out how much time we waste in meetings
I use it to bill my clients. I normally export the log and copy the data over to my client specific timesheet. I use it as a windows sidebar gadget - so it is always visible and I never forget to punch-in or punch-out.
I use it in 2 tabs under iGoogle. One tab is for my personal tracking and the other tab is for office use. I track my travel time, lunch time etc in the personal tab and office time under office tab.
I use the Activity Tracker to keep track of billable hours per week on specific projects. At the end of the week I access the log and complete my billing timesheet.
I keep track of how many times I visit google.com. My homepage is igoogle.com. Whenever I open my browser I simply click punch-in/punch-out (depends on what state Activity Tracker is in). Towards the end of the day, I just count the number of times I punched-in or punched-out. yeah.. it is a weird way to use Activity Tracker.. but couldn’t find any other gadget that will do this
I recently switched jobs and starting working for an agency for the first time. I’ve never had to track my billable hours, and that was definitely a struggle for me until a co-worker recommended this tracker. I added it to my Google homepage and it has been a huge help in adjusting to agency life, and helping me better be able to gauge (and estimate) my time on projects.
we are 6 developers. We work from different location, but use a common Google account to use this Activity tracker and Todo list. Each developer has a seperate tab for himself with todo list with google maps and activity tracker. When a user starts to work he punches in. When I want to see what other developer is doing , I just go to his tab to see what he is working on from the comments he added. We track both what we are working and who is working ;).
I’m a freelance writer, and I use it to track billable hours, admin hours, and time spent on non-billable projects, like the book proposal I’m working on. I export it into a spreadsheet, where I even made a little graph to show me how much of my time each week is spent on different kinds of work.
I use it to make sure I don’t spend too much time on Google Reader.
I homeschool, so I use it to keep track of how much time I spend with each subject. that way, if I spent more time than usual, i can skip it the next day
I use Activity Tracker to track my billable hours for clients. Previously, I’ve never been able to stick to keeping timesheets, but you’ve made it so easy, and a little bit fun (well, fun for a geek). Thanks heaps!
Good
I use it to track how much time I spend working for my mom’s business so I know how much money to bill them for.
Polyphasic Sleep records.
I take advantage of the online way of tracking to record how many hours I doze off when I oversleep or how long I’m awake when I pass the required time for uberman.
The Activity Tracker has been very useful as I log in and out of client projects. It’s easy to switch from one project to the next and always have an accurate record of who will be billed for the work.
I use it to keep track of time spent on client projects. It is quick and easy to use, and having it as a gadget on my browser home page makes it convenient too. Thanks!!
www.icandoit.ws With my business I can track how long I spend with clients.
With my company I need to report weekly time used on projects. I just between 14-15 projects all during the day and used to keep notes in a notebook and then keyed them into an excell workbook that calculated my time. This would take a few hours a week. Activity Tracker eliminates much work and gives accurate UP TO THE MINUTE information. Wouldn’t want to work without it!
As a freelance writer, who also writes for the local paper, I use the gadget to keep track of deadlines and projects in the pipeline.
I also use it to keep my daily routines in front of me - that way supper does get made and the floors occaisionally get washed!
I use Activity tracker to time how long I spend surfing grumble and once I have found a satisfactory specimen for study - I then use it to track the time it takes to reach vinegar strokes.
I am a medical biller who recentley had a baby and is working from home. Foe me, Activity Tracker is a life saver!!!Before Activity Tracker I had to manually keep track of my hours which was a big hassle, especially when I had to stop what I was doing to take care of the baby. With your gadget I am able to punch in and out as often as I need to and still keep an accurate log of my time. Also, with the log and graph feature I can see how much time I’ve spent on tasks specific to my job like billing and posting. Now, adding up my hours for payroll is a breeze! Thanks for creating such a great gadget!!!!
This is the system I’ve been trying to build for years! I’ve tried Excel, hand-written notes, Access DBs to track where my time dribbles away, but this is so easy. Just click in for an activity and out when you’re done — you can even edit it if you forget to click in or out. Wow, can’t say enough good things about this.
As a freelance web developer, I use this to see how much time I’m spending on clients, versus admin or personal stuff. Plus it motivates me to finish those icky little jobs in one category before moving on to the next. Thanks so much.
Rebecca
Sub-tasks are usually not worked on or handled in an ordered manner. (as least for me). Personally, when i approach a big task (broken down into sub-tasks), i’ll try to complete the easiest or more convenient sub-tasks first and check them off the list.
Hence, it would be great if completed sub-task would automatically sink to the bottom of the list of sub-tasks.
Thank you so much for this great tool!
I use it to monitor the time I spend on email. It’s such a time sucker!
I have also used it to see how much time it takes to do household tasks. I’m surprised to see how quickly so many of those can be accomplished! Why do I procrastinate doing them!?
s:)
Hi, Great tool…is there any way to reset the time on a daily basis without losing the total hours and log from the previous days? That would be a great benefit. Love it, use it every day.