Figure Out Just Where The Time Goes
Here's a new service still in private alpha that promises to tell us how we spend our computer time and to give us goals to set for improving our efficiency.
The folks at TechCrunch have pointed out – correctly, I think – that one of the limitations in existing calendar and time management services is that it takes time to set them up. As TC put it, “the structure of these offerings are mostly reliant on manual user input. In the pursuit of more efficiently managing your own time you’re actually using this time to input what you are doing, and in my case that's often only resulted in one thing: that I don’t have enough time to input the data and use the time or project management tool.”
RescueTime says it requires no data entry. After you install the service on your computer, RescueTime will “magically track all of your time usage.” Sound like Big Brother is watching? Maybe, but if it helps us answer the question, “Who Knows Where The Time Goes?” it may be worth it.
Comments
Thanks much for the coverage!
We're VERY sensitive to the "big brother" issue. A couple of ways we're dealing with this:
1) The installed data collector has a "pause" button.
2) The user is going to have a "nuke data" option where they can wipe data in any particular time range.
3) We are making a tool for individuals... Not for bosses to scrutinize individual people's timespend... It's optimized for YOU to understand how you spend YOUR time.
4) We aren't asking for any identifying information. We don't want to know who the heck you are.
5) The data collector is going to work in the background, but it's not going to be so subtle that it could be installed on your machine without you being aware of it.