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Ask HN: Do you log your time at work?

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21–26 of 26 posts

Re: Ask HN: Do you log your time at work?

#21
At the end of the week, I look back at the hours/tasks I have allocated to me and I fill them in. Generally, there's no link between how long something took me and how many hours I write in it; I just write all the hours in. If there were 8 hours set aside for it, I write 8 hours in the box. Sometimes I spread it over several days.

If I don't have enough tasks/hours allocated, I look back at anything I did during the week that isn't on the allocated list, and I have it added to the allocated list and then I write the hours in. Sometimes, I'll do this during the week rather than all on Friday.

The purpose is to fill in the boxes and make the numbers match. Nobody ever examines the boxes and numbers, and they bear no relationship to what actually happens. If I don't fill in the boxes and make the numbers match, someone comes to insist that I fill in the boxes and make the numbers match.

In the ones that I get added, I pick the number. Other ones just appear with numbers already in them. Sometimes I like to spread the numbers out. Sometimes I just do them in big blocks.

Re: Ask HN: Do you log your time at work?

#22

I use RescueTime ( https://www.rescuetime.com/ref/386085 ) ( disclaimer : referral link but I am an active and paying user) which can track time based on open/active/focussed app, per-site productivity tracking based on your settings, open API, mobile and offline tracking, focussed mode (block all distracting sites), integrations and much more. I've been a paying customer for over 5years, and well worth EVERY penny!

I use it as well. A few years ago I had to switch to a clunky, oversold time management system (Workamajig) and in addition to the interface being extremely poor, losing my automated RescueTime categorizing setup was painful. (It's still technically there, but Workamajig forbids API access, probably because the internals are a complete mess.)

Re: Ask HN: Do you log your time at work?

#26
post #17

Yes, I use https://github.com/larose/utt Disclosure: I'm the author.

I made almost a similar thingy when I was working for a freelancing agency last summer. Its not packaged like yours, and was meant to be used internally. Since then i have put it on my github[0].

Only thing I am proud of in that project is the firebase support. Since I was managing my tasks on 2-3 computers, I had to build something that syncs itself. I am thinking of packaging this thing, so that other people can use it in thier command line.

[0]:https://github.com/FalloutX/cmd-todo

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