Comments on: Rescue Time: Process vs. Product http://15minuteblog.com/2009/08/rescue-time-process-vs-product/ Created in just 15 minutes a day Wed, 02 Jun 2010 23:03:45 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Tony Wright http://15minuteblog.com/2009/08/rescue-time-process-vs-product/comment-page-1/#comment-60 Tony Wright Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:18:57 +0000 http://15minuteblog.com/?p=87#comment-60 <p>You make some good points-- the biggie is, of course, RescueTime doesn't solve a problem for everyone! Still, I'd like to address a few points:</p> <ul> <li><p>RescueTime does log offline time, after a fashion. Premium accounts can have a pop-up window that triggers when you've gone idle that say, "where have you been since 12:21pm?". One click (say on the "biz meeting" button you've set up) and it's gone.</p></li> <li><p>Time definitely does NOT equal productivity. But it's highly correlative, especially over long periods of time. And for teams (in our opinion), it's an important, if imperfect, metric of productivity.</p></li> <li><p>Regarding your IM comment, RescueTime can break down by conversations by tracking window title (premium accounts only). So my co-founder conversations are rated high in terms of productivty. With my wife, not so high. :-)</p></li> </ul> <p>Analytics like this can only provide so much value, though we've seen that RescueTime users tend to improve over their life of using RescueTime. We are moving into the world of nudges and voluntary blocking. For example, you could set rules to alert you instantly when you visit more than 30 minutes of social networking time per day, and block them entirely if you exceed 60. Or perhaps block them in the morning. Or just block the entire distracting portion of the internet for 45 minutes of focus.</p> <p>Okay, that may be the longest blog comment I've ever written. Thanks for trying us out regardless!</p> You make some good points– the biggie is, of course, RescueTime doesn’t solve a problem for everyone! Still, I’d like to address a few points:

  • RescueTime does log offline time, after a fashion. Premium accounts can have a pop-up window that triggers when you’ve gone idle that say, “where have you been since 12:21pm?”. One click (say on the “biz meeting” button you’ve set up) and it’s gone.

  • Time definitely does NOT equal productivity. But it’s highly correlative, especially over long periods of time. And for teams (in our opinion), it’s an important, if imperfect, metric of productivity.

  • Regarding your IM comment, RescueTime can break down by conversations by tracking window title (premium accounts only). So my co-founder conversations are rated high in terms of productivty. With my wife, not so high. :-)

Analytics like this can only provide so much value, though we’ve seen that RescueTime users tend to improve over their life of using RescueTime. We are moving into the world of nudges and voluntary blocking. For example, you could set rules to alert you instantly when you visit more than 30 minutes of social networking time per day, and block them entirely if you exceed 60. Or perhaps block them in the morning. Or just block the entire distracting portion of the internet for 45 minutes of focus.

Okay, that may be the longest blog comment I’ve ever written. Thanks for trying us out regardless!

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