People who complete their tasks on their computer often get a bit too dissolved and lose track of time. I personally know a lot of developers who plan to spend an hour writing code but end up spending hours (plural) with their laptops. What we all need is a simple way to monitor the time we spend on our tasks. But we want the ‘way’ to be more than a stopwatch that times us; we want a notification system that lets us know when our allotted time for our tasks is up.
If you use Google Chrome as your default web browser, then the solution to the above-mentioned problem can be easily gotten in the form of “Task Timer.”
Task Timer is an excellent browser extension that is compatible with the Google Chrome web browser. As its name clearly suggests, the function of the extension is to help you monitor the time that you spend on your tasks. To begin using the application, you must first install it and then open it from the New Tab page of your browser. When you first open the app, you will need to begin adding your tasks to it.
With each task entry, you need to specify the task name along with the ‘goal’ time i.e. the time you intend to spend on that particular task. You can specify the number of hours along with the number of minutes; alternatively, if the task is not one that ends, you can mark the ‘Indefinite’ checkbox. To add the task and begin timing it, mark the ‘Start’ checkbox and click on the ‘Add Task’ button. Your tasks appear in the window’s center pane, with their progress bars indicating the amount of time passed relative to the set goal time of the task.
You can view the total time spent on tasks. Individual tasks can be paused, reset, or removed from the list of your tasks. While the task timers carry on, feel free to add more tasks to the extension. When a task reaches its goal time, a sound is played and a notification is shown which grabs the user’s attention.
A pie chart is also shown that plots the time spent on your tasks.
You can place the mouse pointer on any piece of the pie to magnify the time-spent percentage and have it appear under the pie chart.
In the extension’s options, a user is able to export tasks to a CSV file, clear the task history, reload the application, use 12 hour formats, use custom dialogs, and a lot more.
For anybody who spends a lot of time in front of their computer, ‘Task Timer’ is an excellent tool that helps you improve your productivity; by not spending more time on tasks that you intend to, you can better your efficiency and free yourself to do other things.
You can get Task Timer for Chrome from here.