Written by: July 31, 2022
Take back control of your time with RescueTime, a tool that automatically tracks your time across devices.
Principle-First
The future will be led by those who can focus and execute deep work.
Enter RescueTime—a tool that will help you do just that.
INTRODUCING RESCUETIME
RescueTime (desktop, iOS, Android) automatically tracks and categorizes your time based on browser and application use. Even more, the tool syncs across your desktop and mobile devices.
You’ll get visibility into how you spend your time and actionable insights for more focused, deep work.
RescueTime has two tiers: Lite Plan (free) and Pro Plan ($99 annually). Lite is a great place to start. Pro Plan’s most notable features:
- Advanced reporting and categorization
- More than two weeks of archived data
- Offline time entry
Try Lite (free) and decide from there.
SUPERHUMAN SCORING
In every edition of All Systems Go, I assess the featured product across four superhuman dimensions: impact, setup, maintenance, and aesthetics.
Unlike your typical product review, I focus on factors that influence personal growth. Get to know the evaluation system.
Impact (9.5/10)
Self-tracking is the practice of collecting data on yourself to enhance self-knowledge. The end goal? To discover otherwise-hidden secrets for improvement.
For example, imagine RescueTime tells you that you’re spending 2 hours on social media per day (4x as much as the 30 mins you thought).
You might then commit to reclaiming 1.5 of those hours.
Setup (8.5/10)
Setup is easy.
- Download the desktop application
- Download the mobile app (iOS, Android)
- Get your time tracked automatically
Maintenance (8.0/10)
The most crucial part of self-tracking is reflection/review.
Take a few minutes at the end of each day to see how you spent your time.
Useful questions to ask:
- How much work was focused?
- How much work was unfocused?
- How is my performance trending (day-to-day, week-to-week)
- How might I do more deep work and less shallow work?
Aesthetics (8.5/10)
The desktop experience is first-rate.
The mobile app hasn’t achieved that standard (lower reviews in both the Apple and Android stores). It’s buggy.
I trust this will improve in future versions.
BRINGING IT HOME
Daily tracking of one’s time doesn’t suit everybody.
But how about a 3-day exercise of time-tracking?
Try it manually or automatically (with RescueTime).
You’ll get valuable insights that might just change your life.
All systems go,
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Resources
- Newsletter Archive: Read past issues of All Systems Go
- Energy Dashboard: Get an under-the-hood look at my self-tracking metrics for energy management (updated weekly)
- [Quick Win] Phone Charger Challenge: Save 60 hours every year with this simple morning hack