How does RescueTime detect idleness? It didn't log all my hours yesterday and I was wondering what it's threshold was. Thanks, new user

It might be nice to set this parameter based on our individual habits.

Just a thought - this would make it "Caffeine Sensitive". Caffeine is a nifty little utility that keeps the Mac awake. I use it occasionally when reading long articles or watching videos: it keeps the screen from darkening. Also very useful for reconditioning the batteries.

However, it works by simulating user events - so I'm guessing this would totally mess up RescueTime.

Seconding the request for configurable idle timeout.

Also would be cool: if the timeout happens, retroactively ignore the time that was just recorded. What I mean is, if I'm scrolling in firefox every minute or so, keep the clock running. But if I get up and walk away, when that timeout expires in two minutes, discount the last two minutes.

I'm not sure if that's practical or not, but it seems like it would be more accurate for me.

Mainly because I turn away from my computer to chat with my coworkers too much. ^^;;

But the configurable timeout would work great, too.

I just signed up today. It seems awesome! I've tried various time monitors in the past, none as good as this. If you guys consider adding premium features in the future (assuming they're not too expensive) I would seriously consider signing up for that.

chin up Joe, keep at it cus your fanbase is increasing! Since that lifehacker mention I imagine your downloads have spiked? Anyhow, seconding the request for user-configurable idle time - by time idle but also perhaps by time of day?

I'm not sure that's such a good idea. The nice thing about RescueTime is that it collects the data without requiring any attention or intervention.

What you describe here is brings up two connotations:
1. Twitter (or Facebook status) - you describe what you're currently doing.
2. IM Status - busy, away, online, etc. There's an interesting feature in Windows Messenger that sets your status to busy when you have meeting in your Outlook calendar.

Is this making any sense? Can all these "statuses" be related? I just want to "declare" my status once and all the other programs can derive my status from there.

Anyway, just brainstorming here. I'm not saying this should be a part of RescueTime, but just an interesting point to think about.

I like the idea of working with other apps to detect what we're doing. I know that's not exactly what you meant, but I will agree less interaction is better.

Maybe integration with Google Calendar? And maybe it wouldn't matter when we edit those times, it will get edited in the RT database. For instance, I may have 9-10am slotted for a webconference, when it ended up going from 9-11am. (Which, by the way, RT ignores since it's "idle" time.)

But I can't know before it happens that it will go on later. Maybe I forget until 3 days later, at which point I edit my Calendar so that RT can be correct. Or you could just make it something where we choose when to sync with iCal.

It would be a quick easy work-around for filling in lost time due to "idle." I spend a great deal of time in web conferencing and watching videos as part of my job, so it's good to know how much time I am doing those things.

(p.s. thanks to the user icons, now I want cake...)

I like this idea.

For "Dallas", perhaps if you had the desire, you could go and account for some of this non-PC time, for example by saying you spent x minutes on the phone doing y, etc.

-DJ

Very good idea. I often turn away from the PC, leaving my aps running. I noticed that if I minimize them, RescueTime seems to allocate the time "Windows Explorer" - but really I'm off doing something non-PC related.

Backing out the two minutes prior to idle (or at least 1:45 of it) seems reasonable. If I'm not touching anything for 15 seconds, I'm generally not computing.

-DJ

Is there a way for RescueTime to distinguish "idle time" where my computer is doing nothing and therefore I am doing nothing from "idle time" where I am doing nothing (no mouse movement, no keyboard input) because my computer is doing something (i.e. running a script which takes a really long time and hogging my CPU)?

I wrote a parsing script today that takes about 30 minutes to complete. I would consider this productive, "working" time, but unless I intentionally move the mouse every minute, RescueTime will detect it as idle time.

If it's debatable whether waiting for a script to run is productive, then perhaps we can at least agree it is "more" productive than not being at the computer and not doing work at all. So, if it's too much to automatically include CPU intensive time as productive, what about having a way to log it and later tag it as such? I'm a Mac guy, but not an Applescript expert, so I'm not sure what you have access to. But it would be awesome if I could tell RescueTime to count high CPU usage by my IDE as active time, even if I don't give any input for longer than the idle timeout, and also tell RescueTime to ignore high CPU usage by a DVD-ripper or even log it as non-productive, non-idle time.

More generally, what is the feeling for using implicit data like CPU usage, maybe within a longer timeout period?

I used a program called TimePANIC for Windows that was a much more manual approach to time tracking, but it had great idle detection and it also did what others mentioned about querying what you were doing when you come back from idle so you could account for that time if you wished. Would be a useful thing to feature compare with.

I have resisted until now. Here is my 2 cents worth.

The more manual intervention the more you increase the likelyhood of skewing the data.

Kwirk said 5 months ago that we need more than 2 minutes to idle becasue "i spend too much time talking tomy co-workers". Is that a good thing or a bad thing. Sometimes I brainstorm with a co-worker and that is productive but other times we're talking sports or politics.

If you lengthen the timeout I can take a stroll or a chat knowing the last app is recording my inactivity.

If you ask me if I was productive when i resume I will always say "of course I was!"

With extended phone calls, co-workers, sidewalk business (you know that other employee who sits onthe corner of your desk for what seems like forever) and other interruptions I would have to answer "what were you doing" dozens of times per day and would give up on the app.

I'd rather keep it simple and low maintenance.

I personally maintain that I do 90% of my work on the computer. If that is true, then I should expect to capture only 90% of my workday on the computer. If my work is 100% computer driven then any time I am not typing or mousing is unproductive time.

Ryan said a couple of days ago that waiting for a CPU-hog script to run should probably be counted as productive (though idle). yeah just keep shaking the mouse while the script grinds away does not seem like the right answer. The only similar activity I do is periodically unarchive a chunk of Outlook mail. While this ties up Outlook, I can still do other stuff so I use another APP while I am waiting. But if the APP is using 90% of CPU time I might as well leave the room. . . can we detect idle and tap into task manager to detect if an app other than "system idle" is using a big chunk of CPU time?

Finally, I would like to be able to log large chunks of time like meetings and training. Tapping into Outlook and other calendars may have some merit.

Any luck so far with the Caffeine integration? It'll be great to have one place where I can click to start working, and click again to stop.

Alternatively an option in the RescueTime menu would be great too (I'm on a Mac).

Yeah, give us more flexibility to set what's idle time and what's not.
User's activities are very different and subjective - thus, it must be customizable.

For example, i'm a programmer and often using paper for prototyping and stuff. So RescueTime shows about 3 hrs of Eclipse usage per day, but really it's about hefty 5-6 hrs.