Ignore specific applications and websites
There are several instances where you might have an application or website that you don't want to track. Or, perhaps you've seen something cluttering up your reports, and you'd like to delete the logged data from that application. Both of these are easy to do with RescueTime.
Here are some examples of applications or websites you might want to ignore:
Full-screen video: If you watch a lot of video in full-screen mode, you'll see a lot of time getting logged to applications like Shockwave Flash Player or Silverlight Plugin. Knowing the amount of time you spend watching video can be interesting, but it can also be frustrating because it lacks context (i.e., you can't even see which website you are watching the video on, just the program used to play it).
Please note: RescueTime may not always track time in full screen mode, thus windowed mode is the more reliable option.
Virtual Machines: If you are a software developer or a web designer, you may do a fair bit of work inside a virtual machine so you can use a different operating system on the same computer. If you have RescueTime running within that virtual machine AND on your host operating system, you'll get double time logged. In this case, you'd want to ignore the virtual machine application. We share more details about virtual machines here.
Anything that just adds extra noise to your reports: Some things you may not find useful to track. Installer files, software update windows, websites that for whatever reason you'd like not to keep a record.
How to ignore or delete applications or websites
Before you start, the application needs to have already some time logged for you in RescueTime, even if it's just a few seconds.
- Navigate to Reports > Applications & Website to view the All Activities report for the day when you used the application or website you'd like to ignore.
- Find the application or website you do not want to track.
- Hover over the application or website to display the edit icon. Once you click the icon, you'll be presented with the options to delete the time that has been logged for that application or website. Or to ignore the activity forever. This option will completely erase all the historical data for that activity.
We share a how-to video on how to delete or ignore time here.
If you'd ever like to stop ignoring an activity you've previously ignored, navigate to Accounts Settings > Privacy > Currently Ignored Activities section. You will see a list of your ignored activities there. Just click unignore.
