How efficient are you?
I found out about RescueTime about a week ago from one of the blogs I came across (If I remember the name, I'll update), so I thought I'd give it a shot yesterday. RescueTime is a program that keeps track of your productivity at work or home and it's FREE!
It works like this. Visit RescueTime.com, create an account and download the software, then install it on your computer. They will have you test your connection to verify you can indeed communicate with them. Once connected, RescueTime will begin to pay attention to the programs you use.
After a bit, RescueTime populates cool flash charts on your dashboard. Label or tag programs that it sees you have been using with keywords like 'work', 'personal', 'development' or 'coding' to enhance the program's ability to track and categorize your work for the day. Add a weight to each tag to communicate how productive each is (from -2 for personal email to +2 for hardcore development). Once all of this data is populated, the results get very interesting and eye opening. Each time you use a new program that RescueTime has not seen, you will have the opportunity to tag it.
RescueTime allows users to set goals as well. For example, one of my goals is to work more than 6 hours a day, while keeping non work activities under an hour. So far so good.
All this being said, you must be honest with yourself and the program in order to get honest results. You could weight every keyword to the maximum value and look like a hero, but that would sort of defeat the purpose of using the program. To ensure you get valid tracking for say, work only, RescueTime allows itself to suspend tracking for lunch or playing on your laptop at home.
As stated above, the program is free for individual users, but costs for businesses and groups. I recommend giving it a shot if you are interested in improving performance at work.
Labels: Nerdy Stuff, Programs