Vectorworks, Inc Employee Robert Anderson Posted November 8, 2013 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted November 8, 2013 When I was running my Mac-based architecture office (and this was in the days before OS X) I was always looking for better ways to keep track of how I actually spent my time. Here's an interesting (and free!) little Mac app that appears to do that: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/superego/id735932385 Quote Link to comment
mike m oz Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 To get accurate results though you need to be diligent about making Finder active when you not actually using an Application. For example when you are talking on the phone, talking to a colleague, getting a coffee, having lunch etc. Quote Link to comment
IanH Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 Thanks. I will give that a go. Can anyone recommend any Windows based ones too? Bit worrying as it will show me how much time I waste on different internet forums as you can drill down inside Safari and see what web pages you were accessing. I am sure it will answer the eternal question of "where did the day go"... Quote Link to comment
gester Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 i use for my projects timeedition , it's both on mac and win. i can manage customers, projects and tasks, reporting the time spent on into output spreadsheets. in order to allow for an accurate time measurement one must but start and stop the watch manually. i generally set a 3 minute period of the idle screen pointer. it's a bit more specific functionality than superego, but more project-oriented and controllable. rob Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee Robert Anderson Posted November 9, 2013 Author Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted November 9, 2013 @Rob: If I understand Timeedition correctly, it requires your involvement to start-stop a time entry. Which as you say is controllable, but easy to forget and then you have to reconstruct. But the discipline probably pays off at the end of the month! The thing about Superego that looks interesting is that it just captures what you're doing. Yes, there is some reconstruction involved for each day, but zero involvement to record stuff. @Mike: You're probably right, best to click to the Desktop during lunch and breaks. Although talking on the phone can definitely be project related.. Quote Link to comment
gester Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 @Rob: If I understand Timeedition correctly, it requires your involvement to start-stop a time entry. Which as you say is controllable, but easy to forget and then you have to reconstruct. But the discipline probably pays off at the end of the month! yes, it requires discipline, at least not to forget to start the watch. as i've said, the activity termination is 3 minutes delayed, when forgotten. The thing about Superego that looks interesting is that it just captures what you're doing. Yes, there is some reconstruction involved for each day, but zero involvement to record stuff. that's why i wrote about timeedition. it's a completely different approach, it's just to compare both. you can't stop recording time spent on a project when you don't do it manually in superego, too. it records blindly the whole open applications' time, no matter you work on them or not. rob. Quote Link to comment
gester Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 (edited) but i give it a try. the trouble is i work always on 2 computers with many open apps simultaneously, so the superego recording won't work with me. the application looks fine, though. thanks for the hint, robert. rob Edited November 9, 2013 by gester Quote Link to comment
Jonathan Pickup Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 I use one called OfficeTime. It is mac windows and iOS. That means that I can start the timer on my iOS device and it will sync to my mac. So if you have to go away from the computer you can still record time. http://www.officetime.net Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee PVA - Admin Posted November 11, 2013 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted November 11, 2013 All of these seem superior to my current methods, which primarily involve counting how many empty coffee cups are stacked to my left at the end of each day. 1 Quote Link to comment
Assembly Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 getharvest.com it has an app in the mac app store, and iphone. the mac app prompts you if you have been idle for more than 5 min very good for our small office. integrates very well with xero.com xero is best in class by a mile. Quote Link to comment
Dillon Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 I've been testing harvest this month. I like it so far. It does invoicing too. It integrates with asana.com which I use to create to do lists and track projects collaboratively. Quote Link to comment
jrod20 Posted November 15, 2013 Share Posted November 15, 2013 I've been using Time Doctor for almost 2 years now and I'm happy to share to everyone how it made me become more productive at work. When you start the software it will monitor everything you do during your work session. When activities like excessive amounts of time on Youtube, online newspapers, or other personal web browsing are detected, Time Doctor will give each user an alert to see they are still working. It also has amazing reporting tools like Poor time use reports, Absent or late time reports, and Web and app usage reports. Quote Link to comment
Christiaan Posted November 15, 2013 Share Posted November 15, 2013 As with Dillon I've been using Asana and can't sing its praises enough. Fantastic task manager with great collaborative capabilities. But I don't use Harvest (their pricing structure is unrealistic). I find that simply adding all my tasks to Asana gives me enough info at the end of each day to recall how much time I spent of each project/task. Going to give SuperEgo a go though. Anything that automates this stuff well is a goer in my book. Thanks Robert. Quote Link to comment
Bryan G. Posted November 15, 2013 Share Posted November 15, 2013 I have been using Billings and now Billings Pro for time tracking for years. it is available in server base and mobile so i can record my field time to the same job. I seems to be quite powerful and also includes the ability to invoice and monitor payments also input retainer fees for the job. cost a bit but it has paid for itself many times over. You do have to manually start stop but its a good habit to get into. Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee JuanCarlos Posted November 20, 2013 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted November 20, 2013 Lets no forget the one that comes with Vw I used it for quite some time, just had to remember to close the files when not working (lunch, brakes, phone, etc) Copy from the Log file, paste in a worksheet and pars through it. Quote Link to comment
J. Wallace Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 I have not used this for some time (log file) and I can't seem to locate it. Do you know it's located GatoWorks? Thanks Quote Link to comment
J. Wallace Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 Sorry... just discovered it via http://kbase.vectorworks.net/questions/321/Where+are+log+files+stored+in+VectorWorks+12%3F Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee PVA - Admin Posted November 22, 2013 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted November 22, 2013 Was just about to post that! http://kbase.vectorworks.net/questions/749/Logging+Time+in+Vectorworks Quote Link to comment
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