#Tasks timer software

#Tasks timer software

There are a variety of software timers you can download too, but I don’t have a particular recommendation. Another brand is the Gym Boss, which I have but haven’t used. I have used a Timex Ironman digital watch (about US$50) in the past. Where to buy a good 15-minute timer? Look for a “repeating interval timer” at your local sports store. I am planning on adding custom increments in the future. The vertical format handles 19 tasks for 10 hours, and the horizontal format can handle 14 tasks over 16 hours.Īll versions use 15-minute increments. They are also available in both vertical and horizontal formats.

The ETT is available in color and international paper sizes, in both monochrome and color designs. Even if you don’t note a bubble for every single 15-minute interval, you can infer how your day has been going from the overall pattern that has built. The use of the 15-minute timer is useful for “pacing” the day when it goes off, you’ll know if you’ve been on-task or off-task.

Companies that bill by-the-hour also use this form. I’ve heard anecdotes from people who have used the ETT to show their bosses how often they are interrupted by meetings. Students (particularly grad students) also seem to like this form. This form has been popular with people who work in reactionary jobs (tech support, for example). On distracted days, you’ll see a lot of bubbles all over the place near the bottom of the form. On a good day, you’ll see uninterrupted lines of bubbles marching confidently across a few rows at the top of the form. You’ll end up with something that looks like this (click the image to see it larger): Where you doing more than one thing in that past 15 minutes? Slash all the bubbles instead, to show your attention was split.When you find yourself doing something that’s not part of the plan, write that in at the very bottom, and fill-in the corresponding bubble.When the chime rings, fill in the bubble that corresponds to the 15 minutes that just elapsed. At the start of the day, write down what you intend to get done at the top of the list, and then set an interval timer to play a chime every 15 minutes.Each hour is broken into four 15-minute chunks. Your activities are listed at the left, and are represented as a stack of rows. The ETT is a timeline, with hours of the day at the top of each column. You’ll quickly see where your time is going, and have a picture of what your day looked like. Using an interval timer, you log what you were doing every 15 minutes or so. I think that’s the beauty of the ETT: it appeals to your visual brain. You’ll see the patterns of your day emerge as you use the form there’s no need to add-up numbers or process the data any further. It’s useful not only for time analysis, but for timesheet logging too. Like all my forms, the ETT is designed to provide maximum insight with a minimum of data entry. The Emergent Task Timer (ETT) was designed to help answer that question. Or maybe you work in an extremely chaotic environment where multiple people keep distracting you. Maybe you’ve wondered what happened when you spend all day at work and nothing seemed to get done.