
Show HN: MyHours – Time tracking for digital nomads - johngorse
http://myhours.com
======
corobo
Am I the only person that hates "Start or stop timer with a single click"? I
don't want timers. I never remember to start them, I never remember to stop
them.

What I do instead is write down in my little (edit: physical, pen and paper)
notepad when I start a task then note when I stop it, later updating the
timesheet with the difference. I just want to be able to enter a hours:minutes
value for each task when I get a moment, does this app do that? It's literally
the only reason I still use Basecamp Classic (v1)

Another pet peeve: If I click "Features" in the header or footer I want _more
information_ , I do not want to be scrolled back to the thing I already read.

~~~
welder
Try [https://wakatime.com](https://wakatime.com) which I built to solve this
exact problem... it automatically tracks your time, no more manual timers!

~~~
corobo
I don't think I'm your target market sorry. That sounds worse than the timer
buttons. I'd expect to get back to a timesheet that hadn't realised I left the
editor open overnight[1] and it tries to bill for 12 hours work while I was
asleep.

Good for the bank, not great for repeat business!

[1] This is an assumption on how it works because I couldn't find that on your
site. Your docs links also goes to API documentation - is that intentional?

Edit: Found the FAQ in the footer (this should be way more prominent!) that
explains how it works, unfortunately it wouldn't track the time I'm working on
syadmin stuff and other non-code tasks which would mean I'd need to use my
notepad method _and_ this.. Too much extra work, I'm only tracking time in the
first place because otherwise we don't get paid. Man I hate tracking time.

~~~
wingerlang
Just for anyone not wanting to look at the FAQ, it only tracks while actively
editing a file. And in my experience (I've used wakatime since early days,
although not lately). even when you're off researching stuff online in the
midst of a programming session, the charts makes those times easily "findable"
for the proper time tracking when actually tracking the data.

For sysadmin I guess that doesn't matter, but I wanted to mention it anyway.

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potomak
If you want to stay focused and track your time I built Tomatoes[0]. It's a
pomodoro technique timer and a time tracker. It's web based, it's completely
free and open source[1]. I built it when I started freelancing and I was in
need of both a tool that would have helped me to be productive and to track
time that I spent on clients projects.

[0] [http://tomato.es](http://tomato.es)

[1] [http://github.com/potomak/tomatoes](http://github.com/potomak/tomatoes)

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papaver
i don't understand all these time tracking apps to the seconds/minutes. as a
consultant/freelancer don't you value your time and skills more than on the
minute at the desk working? how do you incorporate thinking about problems
when your taking a shower or sleeping or the many other times you are not at
your computer or desk without a timer and thinking. i find these can be some
of the most valuable times there are for solving tough problems.

ever since i started charging day rates, life has been so much easier. i set a
minimum of 1/2 a day increments. 10x easier to manage, and it stops the client
from looking at you as a cost center that they are loosing hourly on. it also
stops the micromanagement of your time. estimating work is hard enough,
tagging hourly on stuff makes it even harder. a day then can be as many hours
are you like it to be. weather you end up working 12 hours or 4 is up to you
and how well you get the work done. if the client is willing the pay the day
rate for the problems you are fixing, the hourly time you spend no longer
matters.

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passivepinetree
Probably off-topic, but it seems as though every new site advertising a
software tool has a top-down picture of a desk with a Macbook on it, a
notepad, and some other office supplies scattered around.

I'm not complaining; it's a nice image, but there's definitely a trend going
on.

~~~
smnplk
It's a hipster thing. Macbook: _Check_ Wooden table: _check_ Vintage wayfarer
glasses: _check_ , Iphone: _check_ , Notepads in different colors: _check_ ,
Coffe or tea: _check_ , Some totally unrelated drawing or technical plan:
_check_ , Fancy pencils or pens: _check_ , A vintage lamp: _check_

~~~
wingerlang
Off topic. But you just described my current work situation fairly accurately,
the main items hit. Macbook, iPhone, wooden table and tea. Replace the
drawings with some bills, notes with an iPad and the "vintage" lamp with a
normal lamp.

I have to say it is a very comfortable setup, especially in the early hours.

~~~
smnplk
I am glad that it works for you.

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andmarios
Looks very nice. I signed up to evaluate it better since I am using Kapow now.

I think it is a bit too complex though for the simple case scenarios. I had to
set projects and clients and tasks and billing and billable hours and so on. I
had to visit so many pages just to set up for a test of one client and one
project and in the end I couldn't create an invoice with a price on it.

Whilst the project/client/task/person working/billing per hour tuple provides
a very nice model, I think in real life it won't be used as much so no need to
enforce it.

~~~
johngorse
Hi, tnx for your comment and opinion. You don't know how much I appreciate
that kind of evaluation. I will discuss with my colleagues about this.

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ezekg
You should force SSL. Following the header links causes the page to reload
over https.

~~~
johngorse
Hi will do, tnx for reminder.

~~~
ezekg
No problem. Good job on your launch! Product looks nice.

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matart
I am a big user of Harvest and this looks very similar. That is not a bad
thing but I have a few issues with this.

1) When I signed up I filled out some information. I thought it was my first
project but I don't remember now. This information has disappeared. I had to
enter in new tasks, project, etc.

2) The tracking screen is too complex, I get that it does a lot but it is
overwhelming. I will compare to harvest which asks very simple questions
(Project, task, duration (if left blank it starts a timer))

Also is there a chrome/firefox app? This is crucial as a timetracking
application should not take up significant time to use.

~~~
johngorse
Hi, thanks for signing up, you can switch on simple time tracking if you go to
Profile page in Manage menu. Also did you create projects and tasks in a
wizard when you first sign up?

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thomasdd
Personally I write all my time to CalDav server for about 3 years now. Works
great on all kinds of devices. Then I have a small python utility that can
read the calendar file and parse time for selected words. For example I create
event "DEVELOPMENT PROJECT_XY". Then python script calculates time for
"PROJECT_XY"... Maybe I should publish that as open-source after some code
review. Also I can review how much time I spend on personal stuff like house
cleaning, cooking, shopping, or research and study...

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superquest
I've spent the last couple days trying to find a way to time Asana tasks ...

I never want to leave the Asana UI to do time tracking, I want to be able
track stuff from multiple organizations / workspaces / projects, I want to be
able to make estimates, and I want to see progress towards my estimate
wherever relevant.

Have tried Hubstaff, Everhour, Harvest, Timecamp, Timeneye, Toggle. They all
suck and cost 5x what this costs ...

Can anybody suggest another?

I'm ready to give up and tiny Chrome extension ... but that's a lot of work!

~~~
dbg31415
Harvest and Asana play nice together. Are use Harvest to track my time in
Asana. I know you said you tried it, but... it works great for me. The Chrome
extension for Harvest works with just about everything.

[https://asana.com/apps/harvest](https://asana.com/apps/harvest)

~~~
superquest
Good to know. Thanks.

Harvest is just suuuuchhhh overkill for what I need -- timer & estimate
buttons that writes to a custom property on Asana task objects.

And after mapping my projects over to Harvest I encountered a bug that broke
the whole thing.

Opened a ticket ...

~~~
dbg31415
Harvest has a bunch of import tools, it also has some CSV import tools that
can make setup easier. You don't have to use burn down features if you don't
want.

~~~
superquest
(I'd send this offline but you haven't listed a contact method in your bio)

Do I need to manually duplicate Asana tasks into Harvest tasks before I can
start tracking?

This is problematic since I really try to break everything into many bite-
sized (sub)tasks ...

~~~
dbg31415
It will automatically sync over tasks with time added to them in Asana.

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runemadsen
I have been using toggl.com for months now, and it's really amazing. Apps for
all major platforms, good reporting interface, and manual/timer tracking.

~~~
matart
I loved toggl but I ended up needing more features than just tracking time for
$10/month.

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RichardHeart
[http://www.manictime.com/](http://www.manictime.com/) is free, automatic and
awesome

~~~
hyperc
Must have for programmers and people who spend entire day in office. It is not
timer based, but still tracks you with seconds accuracy. We use paid version
as a team on server which unlocks new features.

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xeromal
Looks perfect for my side gigs. 3 dollars / month for Premium ain't a bad
price point either.

It'd be nice to see a better demo or screenshots. The one currently overlaid
on the computer screens look a little rough. :P

~~~
johngorse
Hi, tnx for your comment. We're redesigning our landing page currently, so
there will be nicer pictures on it too.

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overcast
Celebrating 15th anniversary??? This might be the oldest running "Show HN"
yet.

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johngorse
We redesigned it, but indeed it might be among the first time tracking web
applications out there. It was never shown on HN before.

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geostyx
Why is https not on by default?

