RescueTime
I am a big fan of metrics, or the ability to measure a given activity. The program RescueTime measures how you spend your time while on the computer.
Once you have the ability to track how you spend your time, you can then focus on becoming more efficient. By increasing your efficiency you will have more time available to complete other important tasks, like writing a grant (if you weren’t already), taking your child to the park, going to a movie or, perhaps, traveling.
How is RescueTime helpful?
1) The initial version is FREE
- This version installs quickly and needs very little inputs (email/password) to begin functioning.
2) Ability to set goals
- Your goal, for example, is to spend 6 hours this week preparing for a presentation. You can easily view graphs in RescueTime that display how much time you have spent doing just that. You can also set negative goals like limiting yourself to 1 hour each day on emails. All you do is set up the program so you receive an email notification when you have used up your allotted time. This is especially helpful, atleast for myself, as I find it hard to judge how efficient I am without the ability measure it.
3) Fascinating results
-How efficient are you at the computer? How much time do you spend emailing as opposed to writing a grant or preparing a talk? Are there certain times during the day that you are more productive on the computer?
-The program can calculate efficiency and compare how much time you spend on various projects.
I have played around with this program for a week and am sure there are a number of metrics I have yet to familiarize myself with. The above screen shots are from the Rescuetime product tour.