RescueTime – Time Management App

RescueTime simply put is a time management app. Though here at Dotto Tech we don't want to settle for “simply put” so here is a further look into this time management app, snitch, or productivity pal. However, you want to look at it. A time management software that monitors time spent on the computer analyzes it and reports back with your level of productivity. A simple install of the software onto your computer will allow RescueTime to run quietly in the background while you switch between apps, internet use, or other programs on the computer. Running rather quietly, snooping in the background you will hardly notice it is there until a notification pops up and asks why you have been inactive when in reality you may have just been grabbing lunch. A nice feature to touch on would be the ability to deactivate this setting using the online interface.  When you log into your account, online you will be able to see the detailed breakdown of your time spent. You will see numerous reports, charts, graphs, and feedback. RescueTime will automatically try to rank your time being spent into categories for a quick overview. You will see different productivity levels such as “very distracting” to “very productive,” this is a setting you will want to customize based on what websites, applications, and such are productive for your line of work and responsibilities. Here at Dotto Tech we are in Social Media, so sites such as Facebook or Twitter are productive areas for us, where for many they may be categorized as “very distracting”.

Offering a slew of reports and tracking capabilities RescueTime is likely to be something you will love or something you will hate. When used over a period to honestly track how you are spending your time, it can help you become more aware of the times you are being distracted, what is causing it, allowing you to alter the time spent in those areas. Take a moment to look at all the settings and abilities RescueTime offers. If you are wondering where your time goes or why you can't seem ever to catch up, RescueTime may be something to look into, just be gentle with yourself and remember to set those categories correctly and honestly! Hope this helps, and you see your productivity shoot through the roof! Until next time … have fun stormin the castle! 

Please Consider Supporting Us on Patreon!

[optin_box style=”8″ alignment=”center” email_field=”inf_field_Email” email_default=”Enter your email address” integration_type=”infusionsoft” double_optin=”Y” list=”24″ name_field=”inf_field_FirstName” name_default=”Enter your first name” name_required=”Y” action_page=”https://ge220.infusionsoft.com/app/form/process/8e1b657095cc287f8f559b6304c4b061″][optin_box_hidden][/optin_box_hidden][optin_box_field name=”headline”]Sign Up for Dotto Tech News[/optin_box_field][optin_box_field name=”paragraph”]PGRpdj5TaWduIFVwIGZvciBEb3R0byBUZWNoIE5ld3M8L2Rpdj4KPHVsIHN0eWxlPSJsaXN0LXN0eWxlLXR5cGU6IGNpcmNsZTsiPgo8bGk+TGF0ZXN0IFZpZGVvcyBmcm9tIFN0ZXZlPC9saT4KPGxpPk5vdGljZXMgYW5kIEludml0YXRpb25zIHRvIFdlYmluYXJzIGFuZCBMaXZlIEV2ZW50czwvbGk+CjwvdWw+Cg==[/optin_box_field][optin_box_field name=”privacy”]We value your privacy and would never spam you[/optin_box_field][optin_box_field name=”top_color”]undefined[/optin_box_field][optin_box_button type=”0″ button_below=”Y”]Sign Up Here![/optin_box_button] [/optin_box] Steve Dotto here. How the heck are you doing this fine day? Me? I’m feeling inquisitive. I would like to ask you a question. How productive are you, really? How much time do you spend each day in productive activities versus distracted activities? Do you know? Most of us don’t. Most of us think we work hard but the distracted nature of the online world, the fact that we have notifications coming in email causes us to often jump into and out of productive activities and it really costs us time as far as productivity is concerned. There’s a tool that helps if you are willing to use it and that tool is Rescue Time which we’ll be looking at today on DottoTech. Rescue Time is one of those tools that you are going to love or you’re going to hate. There’s probably no in between. It’s an app that installs in any operating system or it’s a service that installs in every operating system and it basically is a spy. It monitors everything that you do in your online life and at the end of the day, it turns into a snitch and it tells you exactly what you’ve been doing and it judges you. It says you have been productive or you have been non-productive and it’s your fault. Let’s take a look. It’s installed here in the menu bar on this Mac. As I said, it runs in all operating systems and what it does it gives you a dashboard of all your activities, giving you a report back on exactly how productive you’ve been. So far today, the productivity pulse, it says I’ve been 65% productive which isn’t all that good. Now in order to make this product, Rescue Time work for you, you have to spend a little time massaging how it sees your day because some things that it might consider to be non-productive activities are in fact very productive activities. It just doesn’t know it yet. So as it looks at my day, it classifies them into social networking, design and composition, scheduling, business. It’s going to basically look at everything you do and it’s going to try and classify it. If you want to go in and see more details on whether it considers to be social networking to be a good activity or not we can click on that and we can see that it says here that Blab, which I was on earlier, is considered to be a neutral activity. Twitter, it considers it to be distracting so it doesn’t consider that to be productive at all and Facebook is neutral. Well in my life actually, time spent in Twitter is actually quite productive time because it’s time spent connecting with my community. So I’m going to go in here and I’m going to edit this so that Rescue Time understands for future reference and now that Twitter is actually productive time and I’m going to save that. And Facebook is more productive that neutral because I’m typically doing Facebook ads and that sort of stuff so it is also productive time. So in Blab, I’ll say Blab is neutral. I’m going to actually say Blab is somewhat distracting because even though I do it, when I actually have a scheduled Blab myself, it is productive time. If I’m watching somebody else’s, frankly it’s distracting because I’m not doing what I should be doing. So let’s call it exactly what it is and let’s set it up that way. So now when we go back into our dashboard, we’ll see that our percentages will probably have changed. It said I was 62% and now I’m up to 63%. Oh good heavens, so much better off because now it knows that Twitter is actually a productive activity. So you could view your day this way. You could also go in and view monthly activities and see what you are overall. On a monthly basis, it says that I’m actually quite productive and it gives you a little chart. The one thing you want to spend some time in is going into the uncategorized activities because these are things that it just doesn’t know. In this particular case, RelayThat, well that’s actually a graphics application that we’ve been doing in preparing our video on. That’s productive time. I’m actually creating graphics for that. CoverGeniePro is again productive time. I’ll go in and I’ll edit that. So you go through and you make sure that it knows exactly what you’re working on and what is productive and what’s not. At the end of the day, it will give you a report, a snapshot of what you’ve been doing that’s productive and what’s non-productive as far as how you spend your time. Now at a corporate level, this can actually setup to report back to an employer which is where I will say there could be a love-hate relationship. It does snitch and you can create reports back to an administrator. So it can actually be spying on employees. Obviously, it’s running in the foreground. People actually know that it’s installed so that shouldn’t be an issue but that’s something that you might want to take consideration. For me, this is a tool that I go back to on a fairly regular basis just to look at exactly how I’m spending my time and to make sure, as I look for opportunities to perhaps bring on sub-contractors to work with me in different areas, it tells me what I’m spending my time on and gives me nice feedback there, not just what’s productive time but also what is taking up my time. Well, I hope you found this video today to be useful. Now there are three ways to stay in touch with us here on DottoTech. The first is please subscribe to this channel. The second is you could subscribe to our newsletter, which will then let you know of all of our upcoming live events, webinars, trainings and tutorials. I can guarantee you time spent with Dotto is classified as productive time. And finally, DottoTech is brought to you through the support of our friends at Patreon. Patreon is a community that supports DottoTech in helping us produce these videos for you on a regular basis. Take a look at our Patreon page and see if you’d like to become one of our patrons and if you do there are perks and the perks are awesome. Till next time, I am Steve Dotto. Have fun storming the castle!