Andrew Ferguson

RescueTime

I’m trying out a new program called RescueTime. It’s a site/program designed to track what you do. And despite the potentially scary Big Brother implications, I think this will be a very interesting research/reflection opportunity.

First, some semi-technical background. RescueTime installs a program on your computer that sits in your tray and monitors what applications you are currently using and what websites you browse. It then uploads all the data to their server where it’s processed. You can tag applications and sites with the appropriate tags and then see how much time you spend using what programs/sites.

Thus, the interesting research/reflection opportunity. Exactly how much time do I spend on things: School? Email? Chatting? Blogging? Screwing around?

Better yet, how much time do I spend on the friggin’ computer?

So, place your bets in the comments.

You can place your bets as total time per an application/tag per a week (e.g. 10 hours of “communication” per a week which includes email and chatting) or as relative percent (e.g. twice as much time blogger as doing school related work).

Also feel free to ask clarifying questions (e.g. what programs count towards “school related work”?)

Tags: metric, RescueTime