RescueTime tracks which websites and programs you use, matches them against its database, and sorts them into productivity categories — very productive, productive, neutral, distracting, or very distracting.
RescueTime Classic
RescueTime New
We receive data from RescueTime for the previous day. It shows when and how much time you spent within each of your apps and websites on your computer and phone, depending on where you have RescueTime installed.
Setting up productivity categories in RescueTime
When you connect RescueTime for the first time, it will prompt you to answer a few questions about what you do. RescueTime will assign productivity categories to your apps and websites based on the results.
If you want these categories to reflect your work routine, you can change them as follows.
In RescueTime Classic:
Launch a browser RescueTime version.
Select the settings icon → Categorize Activities in the top menu.
You will see the list of services you use. To the right of each service, there is the pencil icon. Click on it to change the productivity category for this service.
In RescueTime New:
Launch a browser RescueTime version.
Select the Analytics section in the top menu.
You will see the list of services you use. Click the line with the service you want to edit and change its productivity category.
What productivity categories affect?
We analyze your productivity based on the time you spend within apps and websites of different categories. Categories are individual-based — for one person, Slack is the primary tool to get the job done, while for another one, it will be the major distracting factor. Only you can decide how to categorize each app and website. However, if you rank your primary working app as neutral, we will not include it in some of our calculations.
We recommend categorizing apps you primarily use in your work as “Productive” or “Very productive” (not as “Neutral”). Otherwise, we will not use them to calculate your efficiency score.
In productivity analysis, we show your top used apps in every category, i.e., you will notice if something is in the wrong category when you receive this analysis.
Setting up apps and websites to be skipped by RescueTime
If you want RescueTime to skip activities for specific apps or websites, follow the steps below.
In RescueTime Classic:
Launch a browser RescueTime version.
Select the settings icon → Categorize Activities in the top menu.
You will see the list of services you use. To the right of each service, there is the pencil icon. Click on it and select Delete → Ignore this activity forever.
In RescueTime New:
Launch a browser RescueTime version.
Select the Analytics section in the top menu.
You will see the list of services you use. Click the line with the service you want to delete, click the trash icon, and check the Ignore this activity forever box.
