For personal use and freelancers
How to track how you spend your time
Every hour on the task it went to, from a timer, a focus session or time captured for you, with a week of totals to look back on.
To track how you spend your time, put what you do in as tasks, time each one while you work, and read the totals after a week. In PrimeTask every task has a timer, focus sessions count too, and on Pro, PrimeTime can capture your working time for you to assign later.
Updated · Checked with PrimeTask 1.0.5 · PrimeTask Team
PrimeTask
How it fits together
Select a part, in the drawing or here, to see what it does and what it feeds.
What flows
Timer time
Timer to Time report
Focus time, breaks left out
Focus Mode to Time report
This week's focus
Focus Mode to Dashboard
Every connection, in words
- Timer is part of Tasks.
- Automations is linked to Timer.
- Focus Mode is linked to Tasks.
- Timer is linked to Time report.
- Focus Mode is linked to Time report.
- Focus Mode is linked to Dashboard.
- Timer time: Timer to Time report.
- Focus time, breaks left out: Focus Mode to Time report.
- This week's focus: Focus Mode to Dashboard.
How the parts of tracking your time connect, from each task's timer to the week in Reports
The problem
Most people guess where the day went. Small things like email and messages feel like nothing while you do them, and add up to hours by Friday.
A week of real numbers settles it. The hard part is remembering to write it all down, which is why a paper time log rarely lasts the week.
What it uses
Four parts, one connected system
Each card opens its docs article in a new tab, for the detail behind the steps.
Task Time Tracking
A timer on every task, and time you add by hand
Docs for Task Time Tracking (opens in a new tab)Built-in Automations
The timer starting and stopping with the task
Docs for Built-in Automations (opens in a new tab)Task Focus Mode
Focus sessions, with the breaks left out
Docs for Task Focus Mode (opens in a new tab)Step 1
Make a task for each thing you want to measure
Quick Add (opens in a new tab)Time the tasks you already have. For work that has no task, such as email, admin or practice, add one: press Cmd + Shift + A (Ctrl + Shift + A on Windows), type Email, and press Enter.
Five to eight areas is enough to see a pattern.
Step 2
Start the timer when you start
Task time tracking (opens in a new tab)Open a task and click Start, or right-click it in the list and choose Start Time Tracking. The running timer shows in the app header on every page.
Click Pause for a break and Resume when you're back. One timer runs at a time, so stop this one before you start the next.
Step 3
Let the task start and stop it
Built-in automations (opens in a new tab)Open Settings → Automations and turn on Start timer when Active and Stop timer when task completed.
Now moving a task to In Progress starts its timer, and ticking it off stops it. Both rules are off until you turn them on, and each Space has its own.
Step 4
Add the time you forgot
Adding and correcting time (opens in a new tab)Forgot to start the timer? Click Add in the task's Time Tracking section and enter when you really started and stopped, or just how long it took.
Started it late? Click Edit on the entry and move the start back. The totals update to match.
Step 5
Give the work that matters a focus session
Task Focus Mode (opens in a new tab)Right-click a task and choose Start Focus Session. The screen clears to the task and a 25-minute countdown, with its checklist and notes to hand.
Take a break whenever you need one. Break time is left out, so a 25-minute session with a 5-minute break records 25 minutes.
On the Dashboard, the Focus Stats widget shows this week's focus time and your streak.
Step 6
Let PrimeTime catch the rest
PrimeTime (opens in a new tab)Open Settings → PrimeTime, choose Auto Capture, and turn on Auto Activity Tracking. The time you spend at your computer collects in the Time Inbox, where you note what each session was and assign it to a task.
It only notices whether you're active or away, never your apps, files, websites or screen.
Needs Pro. Automatic capture and the Time Inbox are part of Pro.
Step 7
See where the week went
Task time tracking (opens in a new tab)Open Reports and choose Time. You get your total, split into timer and focus time, a chart of recent days, and every task with its time.
Export saves it as a CSV or PDF, for a record you can keep.
The checklist
The whole list
A one-week time audit, in a few minutes a day:
- Day one: make a task for each area you want to measure, five to eight at most
- Every day: start the timer when you switch, or let the task's status do it
- Every evening: add anything the timer missed, and on Pro, assign what PrimeTime captured
- Day seven: open Reports, choose Time, and read the totals task by task
- Then pick one thing to do less of next week, and one to protect
Variations
Make it yours
Four ways to change the setup to fit how you work.
Step away without cleaning up
Notes as you go
Work and home apart
What a whole job cost
Reuse
Save it for next time
Set it up once, and start the next one from it.
A routine you time every day
Admin every weekday. Each day's time stays with that day's task, and the next one starts from zero.Questions
Common questions
Track it by task for one full week, including small things like email, then read the totals. A timer you start and stop works; letting the task's status run it, or having the time captured for you, leaves fewer gaps.
Start a timer on the task when you begin, and stop it when you finish or switch. Add anything you forgot afterwards with its start and end, and check the totals by task once a week.
Not in PrimeTask. PrimeTime only notices whether you're at your computer or away. It never looks at your apps, files or websites, never reads your screen, and takes no screenshots. Captured time stays private to you until you assign it.
Yes. They're recorded apart from the task's timer, but both count towards your totals in Reports and in the project the task belongs to. Breaks are left out.
No. One timer runs at a time across the app. Stop the running one, or tick its task off with the stop rule on, before you start the next.
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