First Impressions: RescueTime
I recently started using RescueTime after hearing about it countless times on Hacker News. Simply put, RescueTime is like Google Analytics for your time. It automatically tracks where you spend your time while computing and helps you become more productive by showing you where your time goes.. or you can use it to log how much you game during the week, your call.
After installing RescueTime’s application and logging in with it, I went back to working for a few hours. Then, I checked back in the dashboard. I had a genuine “that’s pretty neat” kind of reaction. Coming from a person that isn’t exactly obsessed with boosting productivity or getting down with GTD, that’s impressive. Similar to how I called Nike+ a user interface for running, RescueTime is an equally elegant information visualization tool showcasing how my time divvies up.
The best part about RescueTime compared to other time tracker/management tools is that I don’t have to do anything. It’s all automatic. At most I just go in and add some tags, such as tagging Gmail communication, TextMate as work and Google Docs as school.
There’s not much else to say about RescueTime. I like it. Does it solve a problem for me? No, but I’d consider it a useful novelty if that makes sense. However, I am sure RescueTime solves a lot of problems for other people that are trying to carpe diem it up. People that have a personal goal of only spending one hour per day on email or 30 minutes a day reading blogs will appreciate RescueTime.
Does RescueTime solve a problem for you? What do you spend most of your computer time doing?
This seems to be the best of this type of software, there have been several released in the past year or so but this one looks like it does everything it needs to and looks good doing it.
Sounds interesting. I’m checking it out. :)
Putting this into my FollowUp folder. Interesting to see how it slices up what app “has my attention.”
Thanks Paul for the head up. I’m already testing it. Looks promising and besides tagging it really needs no user intervention. The application works effortlessly at least in my Mac.
I’m not sure if I wanna see my surfing habits on stats…
I am currently trying out the software (downloaded it after I read your post). I’ll be working with it for a week or two, trying to figure out how it would be beneficial to me. I’ll probably post a review on my blog as soon as I have enough information to write one.
Checking it out now. Had never heard of it before.
do you know if/how it handles multiple computers? i installed it on my home computer and wonder what it would be like incorporating my work computer too.
@annie I have it on two computers with the same account– works like a champ. Alternatively, you could set up two different accounts if you wanted to see the breakdown.
cool. it would be really nice if it could do a composite *and* a breakdown between machines.
I tried RescueTime several months ago when it was first released, used it for a few weeks and had pretty much gotten everything out of that I wanted. My goal was to gauge how much time I spend on actual work while at work; after three weeks I had pretty consistent results that the vast majority of my time at work was, indeed, work-related. Question answered, so I uninstalled it, since I didn’t see a long-term point to RescueTime.
My biggest issue with the application was around idle time. For example, if I locked my desktop when I went to a meeting, it would continue to record time on whatever application was last opened rather than knowing I was away from the machine, skewing results.
Yes, it can achieve a specific goal if you have one, but it still needs work, IMO.
Michael’s comment above pretty much answers the only question that I had about it - what happens when the computer is idle. I wonder if minimising everything to the desktop before you lock your computer would make a difference to what’s being logged.
Yeah, that can be an issue. But I am quite impressed on how detailed RescueTime reports are.
I’ve been using it for 3-4 months already, and it doesn’t solve a problem for me, but I’m a statistics junkie (even though I don’t actively check them, I like to know that I can get them if necessary), and I find the data interesting. :)
I imagine it can be very enlightening to see statistics like this. But I think the hardest part is something programs like this can’t do - identifying why the time is being spent that way. Are you goofing off because you’re just lazy or because you’re in the wrong line of work and should change fields? Are you doing a lot of email to distract yourself or because you are lacking in social connections and need to move or make a bigger change in life.
Interpreting the stats could take a psychologist :)
what the bennifits of this, say over wakoopa?
Wow, I was in the middle of writing a review for Rescue Time too.
Really get service!
Sweet. With a 16 mo old daughter, and another one on her way any day now, I have become very scattered with work. So this might help me keep track of hours per day. I tend to way overwork when I work scattered because I always feel like I’m always not able to work. Maybe this’ll help. It’ll probably keep me from gaming too much too =P
RescueTime is a good product but has this one BIG problem - it shares my data online - No way I am going to use RescueTime and send my computer usage information to a 3rd party who are probably selling my info…
IMHO RescueTime’s idea is great - the design is very bad - If the application was offline then ….
If someone knows an offline product that has similar functionality of RescueTime please let me know :)