RescueTime – What Do You Do All Day?

We all have the desire to save time and that’s exactly what RescueTime helps you do. To get started, register with the site (it’s quick) and download the application. Once logged in the application will start tracking the software you use on your computer. The application scans your system every couple of seconds and sends updates to your online dashboard every half hour. You can change this interval if you wish. Once your data is loaded on the dashboard, things start to get interesting. RescueTime provides a snapshot of the web sites and software that consume most of your day, so you may find that you spend a lot of time using Microsoft Word or playing with Facebook.

This is a great way to uncover time-wasters and you’re bound to get some surprises. To get more out of RescueTime, explore the options in the list view which allow you to tag and categorize the places where you spend your time. You’ll soon be able to see whether you are truly productive. The best thing about this program is that it works seamlessly. You don’t even know it’s there which means it doesn’t slow down your other programs. RescueTime is also available for corporate use and is a great way to improve employees’ efficiency.

Practical Uses

• Discover how much time you really spend answering emails
• Set limits for the amount of time you spend on entertainment sites versus legitimate work-related destinations
• Use RescueTime to track business productivity by creating a group for you and your colleagues

Insider Tips

• Set goals or caps on the time you want to spend at certain web sites to keep yourself focused on the things that are really important
• Create email and RSS alerts to monitor your goals
• Use the tagging features to better organize the information presented within RescueTime
• Rank the categories to determine which ones are most productive for you (this will feed into data on your weekly and monthly productivity reports)

What We Liked

• RescueTime starts working almost as soon as you install it – and it’s unobtrusive
• You automatically get a weekly email report of how you spend most of your time and can drill down further if you wish
• There are customizable widgets for activities or apps and sites which you can embed on other web pages

What We Didn’t Like

• There’s nothing we didn’t like about RescueTime

Alternatives

• 8aWeek – http://8aweek.com
• Ididwork -http://www.ididwork.com
• Toggl – http://www.toggl.com

Company Info

• Launched: April 2007
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Seattle, WA
• Founded by: Tony Wright, Joe Hruska, Brian Fioca
• Website: rescuetime.com

Costs

• Free

Rating

• 5 out of 5 (wow)