RescueTime review

SEARCH AND RESCUE

If, like us, you work on multiple computers in different locations over the course of a day, you can install the RescueTime client on each of those PCs. The client displays a dialog box after five minutes’ of inactivity that asks you what you’ve done when away from the computer. It’s possible to accidentally log activities for the same time period twice if you’re using multiple PCs, but you can edit RescueTime’s logs later to rectify this.

RescueTime’s advanced filters allow you to configure time blocks which you can then set goals for

The desktop client’s context menu contains a number of useful options, and our favourite is Focused mode, which enables temporary content filtering to block any website you’ve classified as Very Distracting. This feature’s handy if you always find yourself ‘resting your eyes’ by viewing Facebook when you should be working. You can temporarily unblock sites if you must use them, but RescueTime warns you not to do so. We found Focused mode works well, and improved our concentration. Conveniently, enabling Focused mode disables some of the desktop client’s other shortcuts, so you can’t use them to wriggle out of your focused zone.

Although we like RescueTime, we think some screens could be simplified even further. We’d like all time-related options to be on screen, for instance, rather than spread out on different screens. Even so, RescueTime is one of the best tools we’ve used to increase our personal productivity and analyse working patterns to see where improvements can be made. We think soletraders and freelancers would particularly benefit from this software, and that RescueTime is easily worth its price.