My favorite time keeping app is utt, which works from the command line, and only takes a few minutes to earn. Its crude and simple, but it does the job.
The following is a copy from the main README on Github, but serves as a quick reference here.
Prerequisites #
utt requires Python version 3.7 or above.
Installing utt #
Install utt from PyPI:
$ pip install utt
hello #
Say hello when you arrive in the morning:
$ utt hello
add #
Add a task when you have finished working on it:
$ utt add "programming"
report #
Show report:
$ utt report
------------------------ Monday, Jul 08, 2013 (week 28) ------------------------
Working Time: 0h07
Break Time: 0h00
----------------------------------- Projects -----------------------------------
(0h07) : programming
---------------------------------- Activities ----------------------------------
(0h07) : programming
----------------------------------- Details ------------------------------------
(0h07) 08:27-08:34 programming
edit #
Edit your timesheet:
$ utt edit
Commands #
hello #
$ utt hello should be the first command you execute when you start
your day. It tells utt that you are now tracking your time.
Example:
$ utt hello
add #
When you have completed a task, add it to utt with the add
command.
Example:
$ utt add programming
You add a task when you have completed it, not when you start doing it.
Activity Type #
There are three types of activities: working, break and
ignored. Working activities contribute to the working time, break
activities to the break time and ignored activities to neither. This
feature is very useful when viewing your timesheet with the report
command as it enables utt to group your activities by type.
The activity type is defined by its name. If it ends with ** it's a
break activity. If it ends with *** it's an ignored
activity. Otherwise, it's a working activity.
Examples:
- Working activity
$ utt add "task #4"
- Break activity
$ utt add "lunch **"
- Ignored activity
$ utt add "commuting ***"
edit #
edit opens your timesheet in a text editor so you can edit it.
Example:
$ utt edit
utt opens the text editor defined by the environment variable
$VISUAL and, if not set, by the environment variable $EDITOR. If
neither is set, utt opens vi.
report #
$ utt report shows your timesheet.
Examples:
-
Timesheet for today:
$ utt report -
Timesheet for a specific date:
$ utt report 2018-03-25 -
Timesheet for a period:
$ utt report --from 2018-10-22 --to 2018-10-26
Sections #
There are four sections in a report. As we will see, each one is a aggregated view of the previous one.
-
Summary: shows the report date and the total working and break time.
-
Projects: groups activities by project. This is useful to track the total time by projects. We will see how to specify the project for an activity.
-
Activities: groups activities by name. This is useful to track the total time worked on a task when you have worked on it multiple times.
-
Details: timeline of your activities.
Let's look at an example. Let's say you entered those activities throughout the day:
$ utt hello
$ utt add "project-1: task-3"
$ utt add "project-2: task-2"
$ utt add "project-1: task-1"
$ utt add "lunch **"
$ utt add "project-2: task-2"
$ utt add "project-1: task-2"
And then you view your timesheet:
$ utt report
----------------------- Saturday, Nov 03, 2018 (week 44) -----------------------
Working Time: 7h00
Break Time: 1h00
----------------------------------- Projects -----------------------------------
(5h00) project-1: task-1, task-2, task-3
(2h00) project-2: task-2
---------------------------------- Activities ----------------------------------
(2h15) project-1: task-1
(2h15) project-1: task-2
(0h30) project-1: task-3
(2h00) project-2: task-2
(1h00) : lunch **
----------------------------------- Details ------------------------------------
(0h30) 09:00-09:30 project-1: task-3
(0h15) 09:30-09:45 project-2: task-2
(2h15) 09:45-12:00 project-1: task-1
(1h00) 12:00-13:00 lunch **
(1h45) 13:00-14:45 project-2: task-2
(2h15) 14:45-17:00 project-1: task-2
The first section, the summary section, shows that you worked 7h and had a 1-hour break.
Then, the projects section shows that you worked 5h on project 1 and
2h on project 2. You can specify the project of an activity by
prefixing it with a non-whitespace string followed by a colon (e.g
project-1:, project2:).
The next section, the activities section, shows how long you worked on
each activity. For instance, even though you worked twice on
project-2: task-2 (0h15 + 1h45), it is shown once in that section.
Finally, the details section shows a timeline of all your activity.
Report Date #
You can choose the report date by passing a date to the report
command. The date must be either an absolute date formatted as
"%Y-%m-%d" or a day of the week.
Examples:
Absolute date:
$ utt report 2013-07-01
Day of the week:
$ utt report monday
If today is Wednesday, Feb 18, the report date is Monday, Feb 16.
You can also specify a date range. All the activities will be aggregated for the given time period.
To report activities from 2013-07-01 00:00:00 to 2013-12-31 23:59:59 :
$ utt report --from 2013-07-01 --to 2013-12-31
To report activities since Monday:
$ utt report --from monday
Current Activity #
A -- Current Activity -- is inserted if the current time is included in the report range.
The first duration between the parentheses (1h00) represents the working time without the current activity. The second duration between the parentheses (0h22) represents the duration of the current activity.
Example:
$ utt add "#12"
$ utt report
------------------------ Monday, Jul 08, 2013 (week 28) ------------------------
Working Time: 1h22 (1h00 + 0h22)
Break Time: 0h00
----------------------------------- Projects -----------------------------------
(1h22) : #12, -- Current Activity --
---------------------------------- Activities ----------------------------------
(1h00) : #12
(0h22) : -- Current Activity --
...
You can change the current activity name with the --current-activity
argument.
Example:
$ utt report --current-activity "#76"
------------------------ Monday, Jul 08, 2013 (week 28) ------------------------
Working Time: 1h22 (1h00 + 0h22)
Break Time: 0h00
----------------------------------- Projects -----------------------------------
(1h22) : #12, #76
---------------------------------- Activities ----------------------------------
(1h00) : #12
(0h22) : #76
...
Or, you can remove the current activity with the
--no-current-activity flag.
Example:
$ utt report --no-current-activity
------------------------ Monday, Jul 08, 2013 (week 28) ------------------------
Working Time: 1h00
Break Time: 0h00
----------------------------------- Projects -----------------------------------
(1h00) : #12
---------------------------------- Activities ----------------------------------
(1h00) : #12
stretch #
Stretch the latest task to the current time:
Example:
$ utt stretch
stretched 2013-07-08 08:34 programming
→ 2013-07-08 09:00 programming
Plugins #
utt can be extended by installing plugins. Unfortunately, since this is a recent feature, no plugins have been listed here yet. Write to Mathieu Larose <mathieu@mathieularose.com> to add your plugin here.
Plugin development #
See docs/CONTRIBUTING.md#how-can-i-create-a-plugin how to create a utt plugin.
Configuration #
Timezone #
Warning: timezone is an experimental feature.
To enable timezone support, get the config filename:
$ utt config --filename
`/home/<user>/.config/utt/utt.cfg`
Then, open it with a text editor and change it so it looks like this:
[timezone]
enabled = true
Bash Completion #
utt uses argcomplete to
provide bash completion.
First, make sure
bash-completion is
installed:
- Fedora:
$ sudo dnf install bash-completion - Ubuntu:
$ sudo apt-get install bash-completion
Then execute:
$ register-python-argcomplete utt >> ~/.bashrc
Finally, start a new shell.