
1608 hours of work logged since November using RescueTime - ivankirigin
http://ivankirigin.posterous.com/1608-hours-of-work-logged-sinc
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webwright
Wow. Pretty amazing to see that post-YC dip (we had 'em too-- I haven't spoken
to a YC RT user who hasn't seen a 30-40% drop after demo day-- that held
steady). Makes you wonder-- is 3 months the right length of time for YC? What
would you get if YC was 4 months? What if YC invested ~$50k and the experience
was 6 months?

Of course, if DHH is right, maybe I'm actually getting MORE done. But it
doesn't feel like it.

~~~
ivankirigin
The YC work cycle firstly unsustainable. It's an aberration by design: work
like mad to pump something out.

Secondly it's compounded by investor meetings post demo day. They eat up
30-60% of your time.

Ohh and I don't think DHH is right. There is a direct correlation between time
spent on apps tagged 'dev' and getting things done. The only question is
whether it can last long enough before you burn out. For me, there is nothing
too hard about a 45-55 hour work week, and it seems very sustainable.

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ph0rque
Only 15 days with more than 12 hours total put in? What kind of startup are
you :~) ?

Seriously, that's some really good real-world confirmation about what kind of
time real startups are putting in.

~~~
ivankirigin
Use rescuetime! You'll be very disappointed that you don't work nearly as long
as you think you do.

It's really just a re-normalization though.

~~~
tjic
Agreed.

I used rescuetime, or maybe some competitor, for a few weeks.

I spend 60 hrs in the office, and am far more disciplined than I ever have
been before in my life...and it was hard to clock 45 hrs of REAL work.

Depressing.

On the other hand, better to do that AND HAVE DATA than to do it and not know
the truth.

Data lets you create a feedback loop and improve.

~~~
langer
Is there any data available on the avg no. hrs/week [insert type of user here]
puts in?

I've been surprised at some of the readings as well.

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elai
RescueTime is nice, but if a majority of your time is used browsing a random
number of domains (read documentation, blogs for problem x, procrastinate on
slashdot etc) it's gets hard to separate "productive browsing" and
"unproductive browsing" without going through a large tedious list of websites
every day. And even then, the same domain may be productive one day, and
unproductive the next. Eventually you just find the benefit isn't really there
and stop checking the website. And then eventually you stop the watcher
application because it interferes with your computer usage or sometimes pings
to %100 processor usage.

If you guys could solve the 200 random domains a day kind of problem (put all
domains under 3 minutes in a 'random browsing' category, or you could add a
'i'm procrastinating' button), it might make RescueTime a useful application
for me.

~~~
ivankirigin
I can say for a fact a small minority of my time is spent on domains I don't
bother tagging as waste or dev.

If you are spending a lot of time on random domains, I think even considering
rescuetime has identified a clear way to, err, rescue time.

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gasull
SlimTimer is an app that does the same and runs in the sidebar of your
browser. You just need a bookmarklet and don't need to install anything. I use
it daily.

<http://www.slimtimer.com/>

~~~
ivankirigin
Does it track apps outside your browser?

~~~
gasull
You manually tell the app what you are doing choosing the task on a Firefox
sidebar.

~~~
ivankirigin
RescueTime is automatic, and cross platform.

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FiReaNG3L
So a third party website get to track what site I visit and which app I use,
when and for how long?

~~~
webwright
Out of curiosity, why is this a bad thing (if the service allows you to
selectively delete data or nuke your whole dataset)? It's not logging
keystrokes or doing screen captures... Just start-time and end-time of
window/tab focus.

Compare this to a third party website where you store all of your
conversations and many of your passwords (any hosted email or chat/IM), and
the privacy implications of RescueTime don't seem that painful... Assuming it
actually is something that you care about.

~~~
shiranaihito
Yes, but how do RescueTime make their money?

I see no ads on the site, and the service seems to be free.

~~~
fallentimes
Corporate clients.

Future subscription services.

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fallentimes
You can also see when you were moving from SF to Boston.

