Every once in a while I get a bug up my butt to see how (in)efficient I am with my time. I’m pretty sure I’ve demo’d every Mac OSX time tracking application available, from freeware to $50+ uber track & invoice apps. 

Thing is, they pretty much all work the exact same way.

You set up clients (if invoicing is included), then projects and tasks. There’s usually a little timer window of some sort that you use to click the start/stop button after selecting the particular project and task you’re working on.

Simple in theory. Utter crap if you have sporadic, erratic and frequently interrupted work habits like mine.

I spend so much time at the end of the day adjusting the time tracking software’s results to get closer to reality that I have to track that time too (as wasted). Ugh.

Today I came across MacTimeLog. It works differently, and I like it.

You launch it and set two items in the preferences: the amount of time you work in a day and the names of your current projects.

After that the only thing you need to do is type an initial event (like “begin day” or whatever) and set the timer going. From that point on you log your time based on when you switch tasks.

Retrospective time accounting. Brilliant. Plus when you’re off-topic (slacking), the timer is constantly reminding you that you’re going to have to own this activity with an entry. You can even set a growl notification for a more forceful reminder if you’d like.

Toss a couple asterisks (**) at the end of a log note and the system counts that event as time wasted (which they refer to as “slacking”). 

Use three asterisks for things like lunch and other non-work, non-slacking events and that time doesn’t count against your work time. Damn clever, and exactly how my mind works.

Only thing is MacTimeLog is beta software, and it seems like it’s not going to mature any further. It’s based on a *nix app (GTimeLog), and it already looks more polished than its predecessor.

I’ll use it as is and be damn happy about it, but I sure would like to see:

• minor edit capability in the log window of past events
• more flexibility for setting up each day’s work schedule (planned hours and start time)
• an alternate view that’s smaller with “keep on top” functionality so the window can remain in front of the chaos that is my active applications windows.
• and probably a few other things.

As far as simple conventional timers go, Loggr is a pretty nifty online alternative.

Addendum: I alerted the developer to this post and he was kind enough to reply and reassure me he hadn’t abandoned the project. Just busy. Like the rest of us. He also reminded me that you can edit the log, just not in the time tracking window. 

For many years I loved Quicksilver, but it let me down by not keeping up.

Now I love Butler. Its shiny free goodness has me completely happy with the move to Snow Leopard.