Help · Tracking

Idle detection

The most common lie in time tracking is a timer that ran through lunch. owntime notices, and asks you about it once.

What happens

While a timer is running, owntime watches whether you are actually at the machine. After the threshold, a bar appears with two choices: log the idle time, or keep the timer running because you were thinking, reading, or on a call somewhere else.

Whichever you pick, that is the end of it. No nagging, no second prompt, no quiz.

Setting the threshold

Settings → Tracking → idle detection after N minutes. Ten is the default. Set it longer if your work involves long stretches away from the keyboard.

When to turn it up, and when to ignore it

• Designers and writers: a longer threshold, because staring out of a window is work.
• Support and on-call: a shorter one, because a timer left running through a quiet hour is the thing clients query.
• If you bill from a roundup anyway: leave it where it is. Trimming idle time matters less when you round the week before invoicing.

It is not surveillance

This checks whether the machine has had input. It does not record what you were doing, does not take screenshots, and the only person who ever sees the prompt is you.

Next: the timer · what leaves your Mac