Best tools for time tracking?

Question

What is the best/most productive tools you use for time tracking?

Specifically, I'm looking for time tracking tools that:

• Allow you to tag/start/stop time sessions quickly and as automatic as possible.
• Has an efficient organizing feature.
• Take up the least amount of workspace, preferably desktop-based.

The organizing feature is a big point that's missing in most time tracking systems I've tried. Some lets you start a time session quickly but then you'd have plenties of untagged time sessions which are rather useless. Some do have a lot of organizing features but then you'd have to think up of a name and any related tags for your time session every time you start one.

I'm looking for one with a good blend of the first 2 points.

Answer 1

I have tried Timesnapper once. It was cool. There is a free Timesnapper Classic version.

Answer 2

I have this clock that hangs on my wall... ;-p

Actually, the only one i've managed to use consistently for more than a week is TimeSnapper: because it works by recording the time you spend in specific apps, you don't have to interrupt your work flow to tag and organize, you can go back and do it later.

Answer 3

Fogbugz.

Answer 4

@Gulzar that's interesting.

They seems to care about being the zone too haha.

Answer 5

There were some good answers to this on SO# 25707

Answer 6

I sometimes use rescuetime If you work on multiple computers you can install the app on all of them and it will work seamlessly. You can also configure which are 'productive' websites (eg) and less productive ones(eg)

Answer 7

I use a simple AutoIt script to save the active .EXE name / window title every minute in a log file. To analyze that information, I use an Excel worksheet that imports the logfile and generate a PivotTable.

If I need to stop tracking, I simply Pause the script from the taskbar.

This way, at the end of the day I can see how many hours I spend in StackOverflow instead of Getting my Things Done :)

---

Added AutoIt script (better late than never :) )

#include <Process.au3>

$FALSE = 0
$sFile = "ActiveWin.log"

$rStruct = DllStructCreate("uint;dword");
DllStructSetData($rStruct, 1, DllStructGetSize($rStruct));

$nPrevInput = 0

Do
    $nh = FileOpen ($sFile, 1)

    DllCall("user32.dll", "int", "GetLastInputInfo", "ptr", DllStructGetPtr($rStruct))
    $nLastInput = DllStructGetData($rStruct, 2)
    If $nLastInput=$nPrevInput Then
        # no key pressed
        $sProc = "IDLE"
        $sTitle = ""
    Else
        $sTitle = WinGetTitle ("")

        $nPID = WinGetProcess($sTitle, "")
        $sProc = StringUpper(_ProcessGetName($nPID))

        $nPrevInput = $nLastInput
    Endif

    $sLin = @YEAR
    $sLin = $sLin & "/" & @MON
    $sLin = $sLin & "/" & @MDAY
    $sLin = $sLin & " " & @HOUR & ":" & @MIN
    $sLin = $sLin & "|" & $sProc
    $sLin = $sLin & "|" & StringStripWS ( $sTitle, 1 + 2)

    FileWriteLine ($nh, $sLin & @CRLF)

    FileClose ($nh)

    Sleep (60 * 1000)
Until $FALSE

Answer 8

I wrote TimeKeeper specifically for this. I use it every day, as do several other people in our company and I find it works extremely well, and it's extremely simple to use.

Answer 9

If your constantly working on multiple projects simultaneously, I would recommend Klok. It's a nice little Adobe Air app that makes it easy to switch between different tasks, and also generates nice little charts and spreadsheets to make it easier to see where your time is going.

Answer 10

Premember. It's a new generation desktop based time tracking tool. It allows you to look back into time because it saves screenshots during the day. So by this means you can easily fill in your hours at the end of the day or week. There is both a free and trial version available @ hesiodsoftware

Answer 11

I use Tempo. It's web-based but can be accessed for data input through email, widget, twitter or iPhone. There's an easy start-stop timer like you mentioned and it does a great job of organizing through different projects. You can check out the link here: http://zetetic.net/c/tempo-forum

Answer 12

1DayLater! time tracking and analysis tool - http://1daylater.com

Answer 13

Another great one is Grindstone - http://www.epiforge.com/Grindstone2/