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7

I once had a cool little Java program that allowed me to name each task, and toggle back and forth between tasks to track the time spent on each. At the end of the day I could export the data and totals for the day into a simple spreadsheet.

I have used/previewed multiple applications over time, but wonder if anyone has come across an application like this. It doesn't have to look pretty, I just want the functionality. Haven't really found anything that fits the bill. Have you?

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I notice in the FAQ it doesn't mention what to do if there is more than one correct answer. Once I have a checked out the wonderful suggestions below (thank you to all who are sharing suggestions), there will likely be more than one that fits the requirements of what I personally am looking for. Anyone know what happens if, say for example, three of them fit the bill? – Dallas Jan 11 '12 at 1:46
BTW... I wouldn't be adverse to native apps for mobile devices if anyone has a program they like/use. I have used a few on my iPod, and like "Time Everything". It doesn't do any exporting, and you can't reset time on tasks, but it does the bare-bones of allowing me to name a task and toggle back and forth and spit back the total time spent on that task that day. – Dallas Jan 11 '12 at 4:07
You can decide which answer is best for You or overall most useful. People still can vote on other answers, even answer not picked by You can have more up votes. In general if You pick one answer, You signal that more or less topic is closed from Your point of view, but it still can live if there will be demand from community. At least I think it works like that :) – Damian Melniczuk Nov 14 '12 at 6:23

10 Answers

up vote 8 down vote accepted

ManicTime is a time tracking application that allows you to collect your time spent, use it to denote what you spent your time on and analyze where you spent your time. This allows you track your tasks, and more than that if you feel it could be useful in other parts of your life.

Auto tracking of computer usage

Manictime sits in the background and records your activities, so you can just forget it is there and focus on your work. When you are finished you can use collected data to accurately keep track of your time.

Keep track of your work hours

After you have finished working, you can use MT to keep track of your hours. That means no more "punch-clock" like software, where you always forget to start or stop the clock. Just sit back and do your work. After you are finished, you can easily use collected data to accurately keep track of your time.

Simple and intuitive UI

During the course of the day average user can switch back and forth between applications more than a 1000 times, which means ManicTime gathers a lot of data. Using our timeline technology Manictime presents the data in an easy to understand way. You can drag on the timelines to select time or just mouse over to see hints about underlying data.

Powerful statistics

See which applications you use the most or on which web sites you spend the most time. Also easily figure out how much time you spent working on projects to accurately bill your clients or just keep track of your work.

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Looks pretty nice, here is comparison between free and paid versions: manictime.com/BuyNow – Damian Melniczuk Nov 14 '12 at 6:27
up vote 6 down vote

I would check out TSheets. It's a one click process between each task (each task can have your preferred title) and it will easily generate a daily report to reflect your totals...

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Cool stuff...you wouldn't know about a free version? – silvermaple Jan 6 '12 at 0:19
Actually - I believe they have a free option at TSheets. Not sure what features you're looking for @silvermaple but it might work for you! – Kmed Jan 9 '12 at 17:04
Yeah, they have a free trial, but it expires in 14 days. It's not something I'm actively searching for, I just use a LibreOffice spreadsheet to keep track of my time...but it has it's limits :) – silvermaple Jan 9 '12 at 19:35
up vote 2 down vote

I’m the developer of a program called yaTimer (not free but reasonably priced – if you can’t afford it send me a message using the contact form and we’ll work something out) that does what you need, it's very simple to use and let you quickly create and switch between tasks - it also let you export the data to a spreadsheet if you don’t like the built-in reports.

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50 USD for a timer == reasonably priced?.. – Olegs Jeremejevs Apr 2 at 9:49
@OlegsJeremejevs - short answer - yes, it's reasonably priced. Long answer - it was cheaper back then, since then I focused on people who need to track their time for business reasons, for them 50 USD is a very reasonable price for software that solves a very annoying problem and saves them much more than $50 worth of time. – Nir Apr 3 at 21:04
up vote 2 down vote

I've tested many and ended up using taskcoach, freeware, open source.

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up vote 1 down vote

If using an online tool is not a problem for you, you can try toodledo. The free version gives to - do lists, with a timer for each task. However, you cant make subtasks unless you have a pro version, so if you work on the same tasks on different days time tracking may be confusing (it just sums up the time). Sorry, I'm not sure about export

EDIT: I am particularly interested in the issue and I have done some extra research. You may find interesting this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_time_tracking_software

I am also trying Grindstone2 (http://www.epiforge.com/Grindstone/). I think it's closer to what you need. It is a desktop application where you can enter your tasks and record the time with a stopwatch interface. You can generate a record to be exported in csv or pdf format.

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You may be also be interested to this discussion productivity.stackexchange.com/q/2002/2246 (but it's not windows only) – laika Jan 8 '12 at 23:57
up vote 1 down vote

You should check out Crisply. Crisply is a revolutionary approach to time tracking and billing. The service is in private beta and being uses by many companies in production today. Join the beta here. There is no cost to use Crisply.

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up vote 1 down vote

Active Spoon TodoList. Freeware.

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up vote 1 down vote

You Should Try "Rescue Time", it is very efficient.

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up vote 0 down vote

I'm making a freeware/shareware to utilize pomodoro-technique to track daily tasks. Do you want to be my beta test user?

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up vote 0 down vote

The tool I ended up going with was MultiTrack Stopwatch Version 2.3.1 (Freeware Edition). It did everything I was looking for, and has a nice simple UI that will output to .txt file. Considering freeware was not necessarily a limiter, I am accepting ManicTime as the best option offered, which also had the most descriptive answer.

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