llnl / task-time-tracker

A client side web app for tracking your time

This web app will allow you to track the time you spend on various tasks. It allows for definition of arbitrary tasks and quick transitions between tasks. The app doesn't require an Internet connection; it runs solely in your browser without the need to contact any remote web servers.

Many studies have shown that humans aren't good at multitasking. In deference to our serially-threaded natures, this software only allows one active task at a time. This design allows you to fully focus on the task at hand.

A Primer

The UI for the Task Timer program aims for simplicity. In this case, a picture is sufficient to explain how to use the program:

Installation & Use

There are two installation options:

• This software is tracked in a Git repo hosted by GitHub (this website). Clone the repo and checkout the stable branch.
• If the above option is gibberish, click the link in the toolbar at the top named x releases, select the most recent release, and download the source in your format of choice.

Once you have obtained the source—either via Git or a good ol' download—open the newly downloaded file called time_tracker.html.

Supported Browsers

• Safari 6+
• Chrome 21+
• Firefox 22+
• Opera 12.1
• IE 10+*

*I have not tested functionality on IE. I believe it may work, but don't know for sure.

A Note On Timer Accuracy

This time tracker program is not meant to be used for tasks where absolute, to-the-second timer accuracy is necessary. If you need to know how long a task takes down to the second, do not use this app.

Web browsers were not made to be timepieces; keeping time is a very low priority for them. As such, the task timers you define with this program may lose several seconds every hour.

The 'why' behind this is beyond the scope of this article. For the technically inclined, here is some further reading:

• Accuracy of JavaScript Time
• How JavaScript Timers Work

Software License

This Time Tracker program is free, open-source software offered under the GNU Public License, Version 2. A copy of the Software License is distributed with the software.

task-time-tracker's Issues

Is there any way to keep time-tracker from pausing when the web page reloads?

Tip from Geoff:

here's a quick sketch of how the implementation might look. When a given task timer is activated, set a flag in the task in DOM local storage indicating that the task timer is active. Then, when the page is reloaded, DOM local storage will have an indication of which timer was active prior to the reload. As the page is rebuilt, the active timer can be automatically started by the page-building logic.