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Show HN: Automatic private time tracking for OS X

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Re: Show HN: Automatic private time tracking for OS X

#211
post #2

I was not happy with features and UX of other productivity trackers. Most of the time tracking software is made for controlling employees or for billing clients and I just wanted an automated productivity measurement. I tried RescueTime before but it was too expensive for its functionality ($72-108/year) and also collected all my tracked data on their servers. There is standalone ManicTime on Windows but OS X standal…

What is your long-term monetisation plan here then? One-time payment won't last forever, as we've seen from different programs lately.

For a solo developer a one-time purchase model can do pretty well. 60 million+ Mac users is a big market. Speaking from experience.

A desktop app with no server component doesn't necessarily need aggressive monetisation because at a certain point it reaches feature maturity and doesn't need much more work. It sells itself while the developer works on other things.

Of course if you're looking to go beyond a "micro-isv/lifestyle" business and want huge growth it's a different sorry.

Re: Show HN: Automatic private time tracking for OS X

#212

Fwiw, I developed a very puristic similar project: https://github.com/albertz/timecapture So far, it's only tracking the time and recording which app is in the foreground and what file / url is currently opened in there. It doesn't have any GUI and it won't show you nice statistics like Qbserve. But it shouldn't be difficult to calculate any statistics you want from the data. Python, Open Source, easy to add support…

FWIW, there's already https://github.com/gurgeh/selfspy which seems to offer the same features as your tool (and a little bit more).

Re: Show HN: Automatic private time tracking for OS X

#213
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Re: Show HN: Automatic private time tracking for OS X

#214
This looks very useful, I am preparing to be a little shocked by the results. I will probably be buying after the trial.

One thing, this app seems to interact strangely with Spectacle (OSX Window controller) whereby browser windows move very slowly across the screen rather than the instant snap that I am used to.

Re: Show HN: Automatic private time tracking for OS X

#215
post #214

This looks very useful, I am preparing to be a little shocked by the results. I will probably be buying after the trial. One thing, this app seems to interact strangely with Spectacle (OSX Window controller) whereby browser windows move very slowly across the screen rather than the instant snap that I am used to.

Have been running the trial for a few hours and am really satisfied so far. I see the same issues with Spectactle, though. Hope this can be addressed in a future version, as I'd love to have both apps running permanently.

Re: Show HN: Automatic private time tracking for OS X

#216
post #2

I was not happy with features and UX of other productivity trackers. Most of the time tracking software is made for controlling employees or for billing clients and I just wanted an automated productivity measurement. I tried RescueTime before but it was too expensive for its functionality ($72-108/year) and also collected all my tracked data on their servers. There is standalone ManicTime on Windows but OS X standal…

It would be awesome if you could correlate this with songs playing on Spotify. Allow me to explain.

I'm listing to Spotify all day while writing code, listening to playlists like "Discover Weekly" or the "Radio". I find that some songs often make me much more productive than others. With all the data you collect, you could easily determine what songs are playing while I'm "productive" --such as while an editor (Atom) is open for a period of time. Then, those songs could get added to a "productive" playlist that I can use later when I need to really focus.

The problem currently is that we don't know what songs are playing when we are super productive because the truly great songs making us productive don't distract us, and thus never get added to a playlist as "productive" songs; they just keep playing in the background acting as a muse.

Re: Show HN: Automatic private time tracking for OS X

#217
post #214

This looks very useful, I am preparing to be a little shocked by the results. I will probably be buying after the trial. One thing, this app seems to interact strangely with Spectacle (OSX Window controller) whereby browser windows move very slowly across the screen rather than the instant snap that I am used to.

Yes, there're some issues with multiple application using accessibility. I'll see what can be done, thank you.

Re: Show HN: Automatic private time tracking for OS X

#218
post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How? My options seem limited to "Productive, Neutral, and Distracting."

Sorry, missed your reply. Please go into the category tab in the Details and select a required category. There will be an "Always track time" checkbox. It prevents the app from going idle during activities in this category.

I have the opposite issue, actually. ScreenSaverEngine shows up in "neutral," but it shouldn't be counted in any of those three buckets. It's just idle time.

Re: Show HN: Automatic private time tracking for OS X

#219
post #2

I was not happy with features and UX of other productivity trackers. Most of the time tracking software is made for controlling employees or for billing clients and I just wanted an automated productivity measurement. I tried RescueTime before but it was too expensive for its functionality ($72-108/year) and also collected all my tracked data on their servers. There is standalone ManicTime on Windows but OS X standal…

It would be awesome if you could correlate this with songs playing on Spotify. Allow me to explain. I'm listing to Spotify all day while writing code, listening to playlists like "Discover Weekly" or the "Radio". I find that some songs often make me much more productive than others. With all the data you collect, you could easily determine what songs are playing while I'm "productive" --such as while an editor (Atom)…

This is an interesting idea but sorry, it's too much for the app to become a separate feature.

We will have export in future and you will be able to match data from Qbserve and data from Spotify to see which tracks create the flow for you.

Re: Show HN: Automatic private time tracking for OS X

#220
post #2

I was not happy with features and UX of other productivity trackers. Most of the time tracking software is made for controlling employees or for billing clients and I just wanted an automated productivity measurement. I tried RescueTime before but it was too expensive for its functionality ($72-108/year) and also collected all my tracked data on their servers. There is standalone ManicTime on Windows but OS X standal…

It would be awesome if you could correlate this with songs playing on Spotify. Allow me to explain. I'm listing to Spotify all day while writing code, listening to playlists like "Discover Weekly" or the "Radio". I find that some songs often make me much more productive than others. With all the data you collect, you could easily determine what songs are playing while I'm "productive" --such as while an editor (Atom)…

Cross the data with last.fm scrobbler? (Connect your spotify to last.fm, sync timestamps with data from tracker)
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