Qlockwork v. 2

A couple of years ago, I blogged about a useful program called Qlockwork, which keeps track automatically of your computer use.

I’ve been notified by the publishers of the program that there is now a Version 2 which can be downloaded on 30-day free trial from their site.

Update on Monday, April 19, 2010 at 16:50 by Mark Forster

I’ve since received the following:

Hello Mark,

I noticed your recent post about Qlockwork.

I wanted to say that I’ve worked on a similar application myself, and have just released it. It’s called iFocus and you can check it out at www.ifocusonwork.com

It has some advantages over Qlockwork in that it’s 1. Free and 2. Allows  you to set goals for using certain applications and optionally choose to have them enforced.

Perhaps you want to mention it to your readers or use it yourself. Congratulations on getting so many people to follow you. I will read carefully over the description of the Autofocus system and will link to it from my site.

Rareş, from Boston, MA

Comments

[Anne]

I'm the publisher, thank you for mentioning us again.

We're planning new features at the moment, so if any reader tries the trial and has any suggestions, we'd be happy to hear from you!

Regards,
Anne

[Romano]

A similar program I use is ManicTime, here is a review on lifehacker: http://lifehacker.com/5154090/manictime-tracks-your-work-day

[Amy]

Yes, ManicTime will track which applications you use, but it does not record which documents you are working on, as does QlockTime. I think QlockTime is the only program that offers that feature?

[Romano]

Well, it's not completely true. ManicTime has a "Track Windows Titles" option: so as long as the program you are using writes the title of the document you are working on in the window title (as Word, Excel, all browsers do), you will be able to know when and how long you have been working on a given document.

[Erin Ferree]

Do you have any recommendations for similar software for Mac OSX?

[Mel]

I'm not sure what happened, but the program asked me over and over again if I wanted it to shut down Google Chrome despite the fact that I said to give me unlimited time. I'll give it another try with some trepidation.

[Will]

I'm trying Qlockwork, which is a fine program.

But I have also had a look at Romano's recommendation of ManicTime. This is just gorgeous. I would not have believed how sensual a simple "snap to" could be. I find myself wanting to stroke it. Like my Moleskine notebook or my iPod Touch in it's black rubber gear.

Hmm: too much information?

It does have a bar that tracks which documents were used.

Where the free version loses out is that it doesn't have a way of mapping activity to categories automatically. But the manual mapping is very neat.

This is what I did at school today http://screencast.com/t/YzlhZDBlMjc .

[tony]

Re Erin Ferree's request for a similar program for the Mac:

I know of nothing exactly the same, but VITAMIN-R runs as a timer (you set the length of the time slots) and a record of your motivation on particular tasks.

[Caneel Joyce]

I swear by RescueTime (http://rescuetime.com). It's web-based, but collects data about apps, websites, and file names you work on, and can sync across multiple computers. Tracking file names only works with the paid version, but the features, graphs and analytics on the free version are sa-weet! Helped me a lot in fighting procrastination when I was writing my dissertation.

Allows you to set goals about how much to use (or not use) specific programs and when, lets you say how valuable specific activities are (or use their auto-generated best guesses, which are pretty spot-on), and lets you compare your own efficiency (value of activities/time spent) to others. The little app that sits on your desktop also has a "focus" feature that blocks web access for a certain amount of time,

[beco gemini]

I would not have believed how sensual a simple "snap to" could be. I find myself wanting to stroke it. Like my Moleskine notebook or my iPod Touch in it's black rubber gear.

[moby wrap]

Allows you to set goals about how much to use (or not use) specific programs and when, lets you say how valuable specific activities are (or use their auto-generated best guesses, which are pretty spot-on), and lets you compare your own efficiency (value of activities/time spent) to others.

[Anne Currie]

It's good to see such a range of opinions on the various time tracking products out there.

What this demonstrates is different people tend to be looking for different function. All of these products have a free version or a free trial and it's worth trying them out.

As a company, we happily use our own product (Qlockwork) but we're pleased there are choices out there for people to try. One size doesn't always fit all.

Anne Currie
Founder Qlockwork.com