iOS app to find out how I use my time

Question

iOS app to find out how I use my time

I'm looking for an app that I can set to sound an alarm at prescribed intervals, such as every 15 minutes, and then give me the ability to enter what I am doing at that moment. Like what animal behavior observers do, except they use, or used to use, a cheap stopwatch and a clipboard for recording.

As with animal behavior, I would want to evolve my own categories.

I can't seem to find a combination of a timer every x minutes, with easy recording of customized categories/notes.

iPhone 7, iOS 13

Posted on Sep 10, 2020 12:17 PM

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Answer 1

nny1001

Level 4

1,398 points

Sep 10, 2020 6:25 PM in response to Cynthia Cheney

The iOS ecosystem has the option of Screen Time built into the operating system that tracks what apps or functions you are using and how long each day. At the end of each week, usually on a Sunday, it provides you a prompt of your usage during the week. You can also set limits for certain apps and activities as well to help curbing the heavy use of devices. See: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208982. But as far as I know the only other way I can think about getting around that is using the reminders app, set a reminder that goes off every 15 minutes and as a subtask in that reminder write down what you were doing when the notification went off.

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Answer 2

Sep 11, 2020 3:00 PM in response to nny1001

Thanks for that suggestion. What I had in mind was a general activity tracker, rather than just one to track app use/screen time. So I can track non-digital activities such as housework, gazing out the window, thinking, reading a book.

I did find a couple of apps expressly designed for observing animals, where you can have a timer go off and then you click on whichever user-defined activity ("behavior") is being performed. That is exactly what I want but apps for zoological researchers are way too complicated since they have more ambitious purposes.

Surely many people want to know how they spend their time, including both digital and analog activities, so I felt that there must be an app for it. But for now, this may be a case where a printed paper checklist, and a timer will be the best alternative.

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iOS app to find out how I use my time

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