Online time logging tool

Question

Duplicate:

• How do you track your hours?
• Best tools for time tracking?

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Although this question isn't strictly program related, I think a lot of developers are often put into a position to quickly recap what we've been up to. I'd like hear recommendations for a free, easy-to-use online time-logging tool. Nothing fancy, must be easy to use with close to zero setup.

Essentially something like

"9 am - worked on proposal for ABC co
10:30 am - Talked to Joe about his work on XYZ GUI
11:00 am - started work on status report for project y
1 pm - lunch
1:30 pm - Did some programming on Admin service

etc.

Ultimately it should probably be downloadable to a spreadsheet or something that can be reported automatically.

Answer 1

I can recommend a java based installed application (not online) - "Time Keeper", found here http://www.softwaremonkey.org/Program/TimeKeeper (though the site appears down at this very moment). This is from our very own s.o. member software monkey.

TimeKeeper creates one log file per day on the local PC, and prompts you every so often to ask you what you are doing. Rather than logging the clock time, it outputs the amount of time you spent. E.g.

Time   Project     Activity Description (2009/05/06)
------------------------------------------------------------
 0.17  OVERHEAD    emails+.
 0.54  ABC         testing a theory on yesterday's problem.
 2.38  ABC         testing upgrade of xxxxxxxxxx and various angles.
 0.51  CUST1       reading latest design doc and preparing for meeting.
 1.52  CUST2       yyyyyy help.
 0.71  CUST2       looking into yyyyyy problems.  
 0.41  ABC         testing new version xxxxxxxxxx, old version client.
 0.43  CUST2       looking into yyyyyy problems.  i do not see why thier
                   should be diffeernt than ours.
 2.61  CUST1       prep, meeting, followup.
 0.59  ABC         testing new version xxxxxxxxxx, old version zzzzzz.
 0.51  XX&YY       discussing wwwwwwwwwwww www needs with aaaaa
 0.16  OVERHEAD    looking at settings example.

Again, while this is not an online tool, having it installed on your PC has some benefits:

• It is always there (you don't lose it when you close your browser)
• It harasses you periodically by trying to get focus and by beeping
• The time log files are on your PC, and you can combine them, sort them, analyze them in any way you wish

You can also see from above sample that it has built in support for tracking projects.

Answer 2

I like to write down all my activities (including time taken) in my "big red book" - that's not an application with a cute name, it's actually a big red book. That way I don't have to worry about the network being down or the computer crashing or data being corrupted (unless my dog gets his grubby little teeth into my book).

Then, at the end of the week I use that to fill out the timesheets. If the boss wants more detail, we can look at the book together. And I don't allocate less than two hours to any task - the way you're doing it, you'll be spending 2 hours a week allocating your tasks to charge codes for the timesheet.

Seriously, do you really think an application is going to improve your productivity or life that much? You should be working on something of value to the company that employs you :-)

Answer 3

Google Spreadsheet on Google Docs. Have it online, organize it how you want. Share it, or export it to spreadsheet no problem.

Google Docs

Answer 4

I think that very strict time tracking doesn't worth. Strict time tracking means that you count the hour halves or lower you spent on a particular task. Strict counting will take some time, which adds up. Eventually, you'll spent a significant amount of time on tracking the time than doing what you're supposed to do.

When estimating a task, the estimations should contain real time, not ideal time. Real time includes small interruptions and other "human related" factors.

A more relaxed tracking will introduce some errors for a tracked task (if you record one hour for a task, and the real time spent is 50 minutes, you'll have a difference of -10 minutes), but overall, if you summarize, the errors compensate.

If you need to use the tracked time to improve your efficiency and performance, it doesn't matter too much that for a small task you spent 5 minutes more or less. What it matters is that the overall difference between the estimation and the actual work is not too much.

Later edit

If you need to use the tracked time to justify your activities on the project, I used to proceed in a different way. I wrote down the significant, "non-obvious" activities (various meetings, administrative stuff, team discussions, coaching, etc.) that I had to do on the project, and made a separate tracking for those activites.

Answer 5

timepost pushes to unfuddle.

Answer 6

I have actually created a simple web site to do the trick, currently http://russds.com/w.php it has a very simple login (so you can access it from your phone, multiple computers etc.) and a simple box to put what your doing, and a list of what you've done. Very, very, very simple. Since I'm a big fan of uncluttered, clean UI, this is as basic as it gets. I'm still working on some of the reporting, and other features, but the logging works great, and personally I find it very useful. Hopefully it helps someone else out there.

Answer 7

I use SlimTimer (and Bubbles to interface with it). I have entries for all of my projects, and creating new tasks is quick and easy. Then, when my boss needs to see my hours for various projects, I can use their report generator to build an invoice or timesheet on any combination of them for any time frame, output to CSV, and send it to her in seconds. It's been incredibly useful, and it's free.

Answer 8

I use a text file that I edit using notepad or whatever:

+HH:MM-HH:MM What I did

The first time is when I started, the second when I was done. I then copy paste this into a small app. that calculates a sum of hours and minutes.