What does RescueTime do when I am away from my computer?
RescueTime exclusively measures active computer time, which is defined as mouse and keyboard activity. When the application detects that your computer is idle it begins a 5-minute timer. At the end of five minutes of inactivity, RescueTime will close the most recent record and subtract 5 minutes of time from it. Because of this feature, the amount of time you see recorded in your reports will differ somewhat from the actual amount of time spent at your computer.
Premium users can enter offline time and keep a record of activities that took place away from the computer. Offline Time can be recorded directly from your Dashboard on the RescueTime website or by enabling the Offline Time automatic prompts. Check out the How to record Offline Time article for more details.
If you are a Premium user with offline time prompts enabled, you will get a pop-up after becoming active again. This will allow you to record what you were doing away from the computer unless this time exceeds 4 hours.
To enable the Offline Time prompt:
- Go to Offline Time Settings: https://www.rescuetime.com/offline_time/settings
- Select "Enabled" and decide when you want to see the offline time pop-up—there are a variety of options from 5 minutes to 30 minutes.
- Customize the Offline Time default choices to help you select an activity when the window pops up. Only the top 6 activities will be shown in the pop-up window, so choose your most common activities for these buttons. If you need more options, you can click "Add additional offline time choices" and create as many as you need!
Now when you come back from lunch, a phone call or time at the gym, you'll be prompted to enter an activity for the time you were away. These offline activities can even be given productivity levels or included in your goals to make your reports even more comprehensive!