Rescue Time app Review

Advantages:

– Very user-friendly app

– Detailed statistics available in various sections

– Overall productivity score from 0 to 100

– Easy and accurate synchronization across all devices

– Available on all popular operating systems

– Ability to manually add activities with assigned productivity levels

– Option to leave notes for the day

– Presence of Focus Mode

Disadvantages:

– My main concern is the lack of ability to block or limit apps, including in Focus Mode

– The mobile app has an outdated design and limited features

Installation and First Impressions

On the product page, you can choose the operating system you need. After installation, you can take a quiz to better understand your needs. Personally, it didn’t provide much for me, except for the suggestion to sync with Google Calendar.

There’s also an assistant that will guide you through the app’s functionality.

Dashboard Rescue Time

I really like the informativeness of this page. It has just the right amount of information. Nothing extra, like in FocusMe.

After being logged into the app for 15+ minutes, you can see detailed statistics of your computer behavior.

In the middle is your efficiency score from 0 to 100. This is the percentage of time you spend on apps and websites categorized as productive. A particularly important piece of information is how much more productive you are today compared to yesterday. For me, this is perhaps the biggest motivator. After all, who doesn’t want to get better every day?

You can also see the total time you were active and which categories you spent the most time on.

You can select a specific day to view in historical perspective or choose a week, month, or year.

Detailed Breakdown of Daily Statistics

Below is a block with a more detailed breakdown of how you spent your time on the computer, as well as how much time you spent offline.

Very convenient. Nothing extra, everything is simple and clear.

The statistics work very accurately, with no complaints. If you need more detailed information, in the upper right corner of this block you can find a more detailed breakdown of top activities, behavior patterns, and trends. This allows you to look at your computer behavior patterns from different angles, identify growth points, and problem areas. As well as understand where you already have successes and what you can be proud of.

Your Goals for This Day

Daily goals are an important part of such apps that will constantly guide you in the right direction. Especially if focused work is not yet automatic for you, this will be a very useful feature.

When setting a new goal, you can choose between two main approaches:

More – meaning, for example, working more than 2 hours. And Less – meaning you want to spend less of a certain amount of time on distractions and procrastination.

You can also choose the category to which you want to apply this rule:

The choice of categories is extremely large, where everyone can find the right option. Or you can simply choose between productivity and distractions. To make it easier for you to maintain motivation, the app offers you to answer the question: Why is this goal important? This will help you always remember why you are doing this.

Last Sync

At the bottom of the page, in the footer, you can see when Rescue Time last synced. I advise you to pay attention to this because the app updates every 15 minutes. Another important aspect is that the statistics do not update automatically. So, to know the most up-to-date information, you need to manually refresh the page in the browser. This is somewhat inconvenient but not critical.

Timesheets

In the upper left corner, you can switch between two modes:

Time Analytics and Timesheets.

Time Analytics is the default, and we have already discussed it.

Timesheets is essentially a time tracker where you can track the time spent on a specific task. You can also assign it to other people to track how much time they spent on a specific task.

Reports

Reports are really well implemented in Rescue Time app. They are informative and can be used to analyze your behavior habits.

There are 5 types of reports available:

Apps and Websites

In this section, you will see which apps or websites you spent the most time on. Here, data is synced from all your devices where Rescue Time app is installed and logged into one account.

Interestingly, you can choose statistics between all time and work hours. This is done so that you can separate statistics during work and non-work time. For example, I allow myself to use social networks and YouTube after work and don’t want this to affect my workday statistics, thus skewing how effective I was during the workday.

Productivity

Productivity Rescue Time shows even higher-level statistics of your productivity. Essentially, it divides your activity into Neutral, Focused Work, Other Work, and Distractions. So, you don’t need to manually calculate this through the report on apps or categories of apps and websites. Here, you have black and white statistics. There’s also Productivity Pulse – an even simpler version where your productivity is represented by a single number.

In essence, this is how productive you were. Where 100 is 100%, meaning you didn’t get distracted at all, and 0 means you spent all your time on social networks, etc. The calculation is done by summing up the number of productive minutes, the number of non-productive minutes, and their percentage of the total logged time.

Your Goals

You can set goals for yourself, such as spending more than 2 productive hours. If the goal is not achieved, there will be a red icon with an explanation:

If you achieve the goal, the icon will be blue:

Highlights

Here you can create and review your notes for the day. Personally, I only leave notes that directly impact my productivity. So when I want to understand why I didn’t meet my productivity plan for the day, I can look at the day’s statistics and read my explanations. This helps avoid repeating mistakes and plan your day more effectively.

Offline Time

Offline Time is a place where you can add time manually. For example, you forgot to turn on Rescue Time app n the morning or didn’t add it to autostart. But you were working very actively all this time. You can manually add this time through Offline Time. To do this, go to the appropriate section, find the time slot you want to add time to:

Then click on the time slot when the activity was not added. A beige slot will appear. By dragging or stretching it, you can select the exact time when this activity started and ended, and you can also add a name, details, and most importantly – mark how productive this activity was and whether it was productive at all. This will then affect your final productivity score.

Focus

In RescueTime, the Focus mode is either for very experienced people with established discipline because it doesn’t block or forbid anything, or for those who are just starting to improve their productivity and are in the information-gathering stage about their behavior habits.

However, it should not exclude those conscientious people for whom a simple timer is enough not to be tempted to refresh the feed of favorite social networks.

For a different take on boosting focus, including more motivational and customizable techniques, check out our QuStudio review.

For example, after 5+ years of fighting procrastination and relentless efforts to improve productivity, this is enough for me, but at the beginning, it definitely wouldn’t have been.

But all people are different, and maybe this option is just right for you.

As a bonus, you can also see how many people are currently working focused. This also adds motivation to keep going.

I am writing these lines on a Saturday, so the screen shows that only 38 people are active. However, there are many more on weekdays.

Mobile App

The mobile app is good for collecting information about your behavior on the phone. Then this information is transferred to your account and available from all devices.

You can also activate focus mode, which activates Do Not Disturb mode.

Overall, the mobile app can be described as “it’s good that it exists,” but there’s nothing special about it. And the design can’t be called modern.

Here are a few screenshots to give you an idea of what I’m talking about.

Summary

A great app that tracks how much time you spend on all devices where it is installed, good synchronization between devices. I like the ability to leave comments for each day. It has always helped me.

Very extensive statistics, where you can look at your behavior patterns from different angles, as well as find out your overall productivity score.

Additionally, I was pleased with the ability to manually add activities if something was missed. Or, for example, you did sports, and it wasn’t tracked. So you can always add it manually to make your productivity score fairer.

The Focus mode in Rescue Time app is quite controversial. It doesn’t block anything, just works as a timer. The only thing is that you can automatically enter Do Not Disturb

mode on your phone during focus mode.

FAQ

What does RescueTime do?

Rescue Time is a productivity tracking app that monitors how you spend time on your computer and mobile devices. It provides detailed reports on app and website usage, calculates an overall productivity score, and helps set goals to improve focus and efficiency.

Is Rescue Time free?

Rescue Time offers both free and paid plans. The free version provides basic time tracking and productivity insights, while the premium version includes advanced features like detailed reports, goal setting, and deeper analytics.

Can Rescue Time block apps?

No, Rescue Time does not have the ability to block or limit apps, even in its Focus Mode. It primarily tracks usage and provides insights but does not enforce restrictions on distractions.