Lifehacker’s 5 Best Time-Tracking Apps

Sitting in front of the Internet firehose all day brings with it an almost overpowering temptation to let your attention and focus wander. The advent of social networking tools has only made the situation worse, as I was remarking to one of my Twitter friends a couple of minutes ago. Or maybe it was to someone on FriendFeed. No, that’s where I was discussing last night’s Giants-Cowboys game.

Fortunately, the Internet also includes the popular blog Lifehacker. Since 2005, Lifehacker has been serving up “tips and downloads for getting things done.”

With some help from its readers, Lifehacker has just compiled what it bills as the Five Best Time-Tracking Applications.

One of them is below. To see the other four, check out Jason Fitzpatrick’s write-up (linked above) on the Lifehacker site. And then get back to work.

SlimTimer is a web-based tracking solution. Once you’ve signed up for a free account, you can begin creating new tasks you want to track. You track those tasks by flagging time you spend on them in the little pop-out time manager you see in the screenshot above or by keeping the SlimTimer web site open. You can add tags to your tasks in the management section of the SlimTimer site as well as share tasks with coworkers. If you’re concerned about using a web-based tracker and losing control of or flat out losing your data, you can export your time-tracking data or even have SlimTimer email you a backup once a week.

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