Rescuetime: Quantifying Your Most Important Asset

in #life8 years ago (edited)

I started using Rescuetime in March 2015 and have over 4400 hours logged in the software apart from one month in 2016. The software is running 24/7 on my computer. During this time I have been a freelance developer, with the computer as my sole means of income. Here are some highlights of how my behaviour has changed after learning how I was spending my time.

2015

Overview

2015 Overview

Categories

2015 Top Categories

Categories Breakdown

PercentageTimeCategory
24%445h 10mSoftware Development
15%281h 50mCommunication & Scheduling
12%224h 56mEntertainment
11%202h 8mBusiness
9%170h 42mReference & Learning
9%167h 17mSocial Networking
6%108h 30mUncategorized
4%82h 17mDesign & Composition
4%76h 16mUtilities
2%44h 43mNews & Opinion

Activities

2015 Top Activities

Activities Breakdown

PercentageTimeActivity / Website
8%151h 38mGmail
8%145h 43mfacebook.com
4%82h 17myoutube.com
3%55h 20msublime text
3%52h 3mspecific localdev site
3%50h 33mVLC Media Player
3%47h 7mcoda
2%42h 45msublime text 2
2%41h 30mnetflix.com
2%41h 15mmessages

Nearly 300 hours on Facebook & Email in less than a year! After seeing the data, I was astonished, and started taking more control of how I used my time. I didn't use any of Rescuetime's advanced functionality, but I did start reviewing my use on a more consistent basis.

2016

Overview

2016 Overview

Categories

2016 Top Categories

Categories Breakdown

PercentageTimeCategory
28%541h 6mSoftware Development
19%372h 42mCommunication & Scheduling
12%235h 45mBusiness
9%168h 34mDesign & Composition
8%153h 27mReference & Learning
6%110h 57mUtilities
5%101h 48mEntertainment
5%97h 52mUncategorized
4%67h 59mSocial Networking
2%34h 44mNews & Opinion

Activities

2016 Top 10

Activities Breakdown

PercentageTimeActivity / Website
7%143h 11mMail
6%109h 28msublime text
5%93h 49mmessages
5%90h 46mslack
4%75h 47mcoda
3%50h 40mfacebook.com
2%45h 29mMS Excel
2%40h 11mFinder
2%37h 31myoutube.com
2%35h 45mTerminal

Email was still high, but Facebook and Youtube use got cut back considerably, keeping in mind that this sample is approximately 2 months longer than the previous year.


2017 Overview

2017 Overview

Top Categories

2017 top 10 categories

Categories Breakdown

PercentageTimeActivity / Website
41%277h 11mSoftware Development
14%94h 5mCommunication & Scheduling
10%68h 34Reference & Learning
8%51h 27mBusiness
7%44hEntertainment
5%36h 43mUtilities
5%31h 23mUncategorized
4%25h 55mDesign & Composition
3%20h 12mNews & Opinion
2%10h 47mSocial Networking

Top Activities

2017 top 10

Activities Breakdown

PercentageTimeActivity / Website
10%64h 39msublime text
5%35h 5mcoda
4%25h 54mmessages
4%25h 2mpycharm
4%24h 42mslack
3%23h 17mspecific localdev site
3%18h 23mGmail
3%16h 45mGoogle Documents
2%15h 28myoutube.com
2%15h 13mcapture.otago.ac.nz

Facebook is gone. And damn it feels good. If you're not tracking your time download Rescuetime, and see where your time is really going. If you're already tracking, please comment below, I'd love to hear how you're using the tool to better your life and the lives of those around you!

"You’re already a financial trader. You might not think of it in just this way, but if you work for a living, you’re trading your time for money. Frankly, it’s just about the worst trade you can make. Why? You can always get more money, but you can’t get more time.” - Tony Robbins

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Great post, Facebook is an amazing thief of time. Glad to see you got that under control!

I deleted my account for approximately 6 months. I have it enabled again, but I am not an active participant (facebook.com/ads for 128 minutes this year, and facebook.com for 69 minutes). Once the cycle was broken I now have no desire to look at the news feed. The news feed's quality is really crap now too, so much clickbait memes, or spam "You won't believe what happened when..." and similar postings. In fact you could say I resent the news feed. The fact that my friends actually curate that low quality stuff is the most concerning part of it all. The cat memes are alright though!

Great post

hahah thats cool!!! wow I've never seen this TYPE of organisation :D