Time tracking

May 10, 2006 4:14 AM

I am looking for a simple, free, time tracking solution. Online would be nice - offline ok.

I have read most or all of the other ask.metaflilter threads on this subject but none of the answers have been to my liking. Most of the suggested apps or sites are way to big and intended for project-management. Thats not what i am looking for. I just need a spiffed up version of the exel-sheet i am currently using to track my time.

posted by FidelDonson to Computers & Internet (13 answers total)

Here's an awesome daily [pdf] paper timesheet. There's also an hourly [pdf] one if you require that level of granularity but I find the daily one does a fine job at hourly tracking and gives me less crap to manage. Here's an article that discusses them both. It's the only timesheet system which I've managed to keep up to date regularly. At the end of the week it makes submitting my electronic timesheet a breeze.
posted by furtive at 4:22 AM on May 10, 2006

Oh, you can change the logo by loading the timesheet in illustrator.
posted by furtive at 4:22 AM on May 10, 2006

Pardon me for stepping in, but the solutions furtive linked to are pen and paper timesheets. I would love something just like what FidelDonson is looking for as a windows application.
Small footprint preferred. (I believet that when FD wrote "off-line" he meant not connected to the web.)
posted by oddman at 6:34 AM on May 10, 2006

Why not just use the daily version of Kiko or a similar calendar. No need to reinvent the wheel. :)
posted by bim at 6:41 AM on May 10, 2006

It doesn't get much simpler than the Job Timer widget for Yahoo Widgets.
posted by geeky at 7:30 AM on May 10, 2006

I've been using Titrax (the Windows version) for the last 3 years to track my time. Basic, simple, yet incredibly useful.
posted by howling fantods at 7:33 AM on May 10, 2006

Microsoft Outlook's calendar works pretty well too. It's really designed more for scheduling than time tracking but I regularly add appointments so that I can keep track of daily activities.
posted by pierow at 7:36 AM on May 10, 2006

I've been using the freeware version of Timewriter for several years and find it easy to use and very useful for time tracking for about 20 clients. Reports are great to send with invoices and can be customized to whatever level of detail you want. Download page is here - ignore the paid versions, look for the older, freeware version at the bottom.
posted by valleys at 7:40 AM on May 10, 2006

Harvest.
posted by everichon at 8:07 AM on May 10, 2006

There's a Palm app called Hours that's been incredibly useful for time tracking by client. Data exports as CSV, eventually to Excel for invoicing.
posted by omnidrew at 9:48 AM on May 10, 2006

Response by poster: Thank you all very much - im sure something here fits my needs.
posted by FidelDonson at 10:09 AM on May 10, 2006

I found out that most time tracking applications don't work for me. What did work for me, was doing a screenshot every 10 minutes, and then summing up the time at the end of the day. It only takes 2-3 minutes to go through 10 hours of screenshots, and you always know where all time went.

It might feel a bit weird spying on yourself at first. You can use software such as X-Shot.
posted by Sharcho at 1:03 PM on May 10, 2006 [1 favorite]

I set up a python script that does one of two things. I set a time and a task name, and it acts as a timer. When time runs up, I have the current timer action set to opening a "Times Up!" page on my web browser. Then when the time runs out, or I kill the program pre-emptively, the program writes the task name and the time spent on that task into a .csv file. I'm still tweaking it, but it's been working great so far in keeping me on task and tracking my time.
posted by phr4gmonk3y at 3:06 PM on May 13, 2006