Have you ever wondered how much time you actually spend working on a project or just writing code, what editors or IDE’s you’ve been using, or the languages you’ve been working with? A number of automated time tracking solutions such as codealike and rescuetime can provide usage data and statistics, however, WakaTime is our solution of choice.
WakaTime accurately measures how much time you spend coding in each editor, project, and file including language usage statistics. WakaTime will even track your usage data when your coding offline if it is supported by your editor or IDE. You can also integrate WakaTime with your GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Office 365, and / or Slack accounts.
WakaTime is free and extended features are available if you choose to purchase a premium or team subscription plan. The free features may be more than sufficient for the casual or part time programmer.
As of this writing, WakaTime installs easily on 43 of the most popular editors and IDEs in use today. Simply choose your editor from the Install Instructions page and follow the instructions accordingly.
Once you have WakaTime configured to work with your editor or IDE, you can choose to receive daily or weekly activity report summaries by email. You can also review your recent activity when you visit your dashboard online.
If you’re looking to track your programming activities, it doesn’t get much easier than WakaTime.
Until Next Time, Keep the C in Coding!
Related Articles and Resources
WakaTime Quantify Your Coding
The Effective Programmer’s Secret Weapon: Time Tracking, by Khurram Aziz (SitePoint Pty Ltd)
RescueTime – helps you to understand how you are using your time while you’re working.
codealike – Track Your Coding. Real-Time Automatic
Capterra Project Management Blog – 8 of the Best Free Time Tracking Softwares, by Rachel Burger in Project Management
