From Timelogger to Timetagger
For at least two or three years I have been using Timelogger and I really liked the app. That’s why I kept using it for so long. There is one fatal flaw to Timelogger. It wants you to pay 2 CHF per month, or 9 CHF per year, or 25 CHF for a lifetime of use. It makes sense to pay for more features. It doesn’t make sense that you need to pay to backup to your own icloud account or export the data.
Three Years of Data
I have been using the app since 2020. I tracked 60 hours in 2020, 601 hours in 2021, 780 hrs in 2022 and 681 hours so far this year. The issue is that this data is now trapped on the phone I am currently using. I can release it for 24 CHF if I pay per month, 9 CHF if I pay for year, or 25 CHF if I pay for a lifetime.
Payment Snowball
In the early days of the Apple store you could download an app and use it for free but over time every app you download has asked for 25 CHF to 50 CHF per year. When you use 4 apps that’s 100CHF to 200 CHF per year. If you use 8 apps it’s 200-400 CHF per year. The apps that you use end up costing more than an iPhone SE, every year. It becomes absurd. I have used the Timelogger plus app for over 2,122 hours so I should pay but I’m not going to pay just to back up my data to my own cloud.
Paying to Backup Your Own Data on Your Own Things
That’s especially true when you have to pay to backup your own data to your own iCloud account or to your iphone’s storage. That’s where an app like Timetagger becomes interesting, especially for people ready to setup a Pi on their home network to use as a time tracker.
An iOS subscription tip
One technique I use when dealing with iOS subscriptions is to take the minimum option, go to settings, subscriptions and then cancel the subscription within minutes of paying for a service. This has two advantages. The first is that you don’t get conned into paying for more than you want to use. If you do decide to extend you are asked, and have to take action to spend more money. The second reason is that in my experience I would pay for a year, use the app for a week or less, and not be able to be reimbursed. It’s cheaper to pay for a year after you decide that you have a use for the app.
As a case in point, the Timelogger Plus allows you to “backup” your data but as a proprietary file, rather than a useful CSV or other file. The result is that you’re paying for a backup that condemns you to keep using the app. I find it dishonest to provide apps that give no way of sliding from one to the other.
TimeTagger
You have the option to pay 3 Euros per month, for someone else to take care of the hosting, and you just use it, or you can follow the Pi My Life Up instructions to setup your own instance. The one thing to note with this install is that you need to run it with a docker command each time you reboot the Pi. You could set the Pi to do this automatically but I haven’t read the fabulous manual to see how to set that up yet.
With an app like Timetagger you give a name to what you’re doing but you also tag it with what you’re specifically focusing on. For what I am doing now I tagged it with blogging, writing and one or two more tags. I can then look at what I have spent time on for the last day, week month, quarter or year. You can select which tag you want to export as a spreadsheet, CSV or PDF document.
Flexible
One of the key features that seems of interest with Time Tagger is that you use tags. With tags you can start tracking time spent for a specific client within seconds, without the need to create a folder with the name of the type of activity, and a specific sub activity within. With this you press play when you start, add the right tags, and when you stop the activity you press stop and everything is logged in simplicity.
Cheap Cheap Or Hosted by them
The cheapest option would be to setup a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, and if it works you’d have paid 30 CHF and be happy. The options you have for the hosted solutions are 4 Euros per month, 36 Euros per year, or 144 Euros for life. They’re more expensive than the Timelogger app but exporting data is easy. You’re not locked in. You can also setup your own server and potentially add billing and other functionality.
Portability
If you only want to log your activities when you’re at the office or home then you can simply use the local network but if you want to access time tracking remotely you can add your instance to tailscale and use your VPN to connect when you’re away from the network with the instance.
And Finally
Although I use the example of the raspberry Pi Zero 2 W you could just as easily set it up on your windows, mac os or other machine using Docker. Your work machine can serve as the host.If you want to work on adding features you can visit the github page and scroll to the bottom.
I have only tracked two hours so far but I like what I see.
I initially really liked Timelogger and Timelogger Plus but as the project advanced, so it became more and more of a trap. I would have left sooner, if I had found an alternative before now.