RescueTime Reviews

“Quietly Working in the Background to Keep You on Track

Pros

It is pretty easy to set up and is unobtrusive. It always works in the background. The reports are sometimes pretty eye-opening, especially if I tend to multi-task. Larger reports also show how those trends change over time.

Cons

I was a bit creeped out by how it looked at every moment I spent on each website. That being said, the amount of data it sees really leads to its results. Another thing is that over time, the reports get slower. Sometimes it takes way too long to process.

“Amazing Tool

Pros

It does a great job tracking time in apps and on sites, with solid reporting too.

Cons

It can get expensive depending on the version I use.

“If you are not tracking your work , you are wasting time.

Pros

RescueTime is one of a kind app that, once installed, keeps track of all activities I do on my machine. Later, it sends me a beautiful summary of where I spent time, where I wasted time, and more.

Cons

Frankly, I have not found anything in RescueTime that qualifies as a con. Its 10/10 from me.

“Recuetime Review

Pros

The software is just perfect for me. I aim to manage my time, and RescueTime makes that seamless. The daily and weekly reports help me to evaluate how I use my time. The software also has an affiliate program, and that's beneficial to me as well.

Cons

I installed it on my iPhone, but I cannot seem to track my time use on the phone. I am also not sure if the software tracks time when the screen is off.

“Never realized how much time I was wasting!

Pros

I love the ability to sync across multiple devices , I use it on my work laptop, my personal laptop, and my mobile phone. This gives me a much clearer idea of how I'm spending my online life. I also like the weekly email that sums up my time logged, as well as the ability to recategorize certain apps. For example, I use Twitter for work, so I don't want it to count as "very distracting."

Cons

There was an easier way to note when I'm being productive versus when I am wasting time on the same app. Sometimes I use Instagram for work, and sometimes I use it for pleasure, and I have not found a way to differentiate the uses.

“Game Changing App If You Track Your Time Hourly

Pros

I really like that it's simple and efficient at tracking and grouping the time I spend online so that I can use that data to update my daily timesheets.

Cons

It would be great if it grouped some of the time into more specific categories - it just says "Adwords" and it would be great if it included the campaign number so I can see which client I actually spent my time on. That said, I use the free version, so that feels like a minor complaint considering I use it all the time and it's free.

“Great way to manage your time and keep you focused

Pros

It classifies most of my activities correctly, requiring not too much manual input. It's a great way to see how and where I get distracted and to summarize my productivity.

Cons

I wish there were more customizable ways to look at reports (date range), or a way to hand-enter my non-computer time like meetings and such.

“A glance at productivity

Pros

The ease of use and automated sorting buckets make it really easy to set up. I also love how seamlessly my account works between browsers and my two different computers. It makes me not have to worry about syncing data manually to prevent double-counting time.

Cons

There is not much else I can do on the free tier of this product outside of seeing visualizations of usage. Though this is beneficial on its own, I needed to use other pieces of software to take action on the behavior I wanted to change or improve.

“RescueTime is a sanity saver!

Pros

Their dashboard which i love most and how I can categorize each application to accurately track my time. I get an IFTTT email every night telling me how long I worked.

Cons

There is nothing I do not like about the software.

“Helps me track my activities

Pros

It is superb that it works across my other devices. I love their blog with very useful productivity tips.

Cons

I found it expensive and it took a while to set up.

“RescueTime keeps me focused and productive

Pros

It's great for keeping track of how productive I was for the day. I love the detailed analytics on all of my activity.

Cons

I do not have anything bad to report. It's a pretty simple tool that works well. If I were to ask for any improvement, I would like an even more extensive set of reporting features.

“Excellent tool to track your/employee productive time

Pros

Easy-to-setup tool to track all activities done on the system.It is extremely accurate regarding activities and time usage. Excellent reporting to generate and analyze the pattern. It can be used to track employee productivity.

Cons

I find it a bit expensive for the premium version or organization plans.

“Optimize the time spent using the computer, now it's easier

Pros

It is a program that allows me to review the daily and weekly tendency of the time I use with the use of the computer when surfing the Internet, using programs and applications, and verifying the time of productive use that is given to the computer and of leisure time. It has a version to use on the mobile device.

Cons

I like everything; I do not have to remember to review my reports since it has a warning and reminder option.

“RescueTime lets me make sense of my work habits...

Pros

I admire that I can set it and forget it. It will record my interactions with my computer in the background and keep a detailed log of what I am doing. It lets me see trending on how I spend my work and leisure time, giving me a lot of insights into how I work. I also like that I can have it set up to run on multiple computers and it'll aggregate all of the data so if I move from one computer to another, it combines the data into one dashboard.

Cons

Not really a con, but sometimes I forget about it and do not check my reports. It would be nice if it had some notifications to remind me to check in to see how I am doing.

“Control

Pros

Getting the stats of what I do on a daily basis was just what I needed to have it all controlled. I love how I can see how much time I spend on each site. The reports are also very helpful.

Cons

I just have not found a con I can talk about.

“Using RescueTime is an Eye-Opening Experience

Pros

When I first used RescueTime, I thought I knew how I used my time throughout the day. After a few days (and more so after a few weeks) it was shocking to see just how much time I wasted at work. Did I really need to waste time on Instagram or Facebook? Am I really devoting that many hours to managing emails and my calendar in Outlook? Its best feature overall is the reports I have accessible to view and track my time sinks.

Cons

Maybe this is an impossible task, but it would be nice if I could block websites contextually. Sure, watching funny cat videos on YouTube is a waste of time, but watching a tutorial on a new piece of software I am using is perfectly legitimate.

“The stats will surprise you

Pros

RescueTime has mostly helped me whittle down little time sinks that I was unaware of. For example, it turned out I spent 30 minutes a day selecting songs on iTunes; now I have a playlist on shuffle and do not actively use iTunes anymore to select my music during the workday. RescueTime has often surprised me by showing stats being very different from how I perceived them. It can also be motivating to see a highly productive day unfolding and feel competitive with myself.

Cons

Currently, RescueTime cannot distinguish browser tabs in Firefox. Other apps like Timedoctor can, so I am sure RescueTime could fix this if they committed to it.

“Easy way to track productivity and time spent on applications / categories of apps.

Pros

It is fantastic that it works without distraction, running in the background. The statistics are quite detailed and I can quickly see what I am doing on my laptop or smartphone that I was not aware of because the time passes so quickly sometimes.

Cons

The premium version is super expensive, but then again most people do not need it. It was difficult for me at first to see a history of months back to actually see my progress.

“Full of features but a little difficult to use...

Pros

It's full of features to track time used in software, programming languages, etc. The reports are very simple and useful too. The ability to categorize the time spent is very good too!

Cons

It is a little difficult to configure or use sometimes, depending on my operating system. Some tools that I want to track may take some time to fully configure and become usable.

“What did I do all day?

Pros

It is a useful resource for seeing what online tasks consume my days. Non-intrusive, but it monitors what windows and sites are open and consuming my time throughout the day. Very customizable -- even on the free plans.

Cons

Initially, putting my tasks into categories (productive, not productive, etc.) as well as attaching meaning to my tasks (communication, news, work-related, personal, etc.) can take a while, but it pays off in the end with more relevant reports at the week's end.