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Busy Status Bar

(busy.bar)
1366 points aleksi | 5 comments | 14 Oct 24 15:19 UTC | HN request time: 0.349s | source
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Aurornis ◴[14 Oct 24 23:58 UTC] No.41843535[source]▶
This is at least the 3rd version of this product idea that I’ve seen in the past decade. Certainly the nicest design!

The first time I saw this was some friends of friends who were trying to make it into a startup. They quickly discovered that their users liked the idea of a busy light for the office, but didn’t like to update it on or off throughout the day. So after the first few days people just defaulted to leaving it marked as “busy”. Within a week or two their coworkers realized that the light was always on busy, so they started asking if they were really busy.

At that point, the entire busy light idea had been defeated.

This product looks more versatile. Being able to automatically tie it to meeting status or set pomodoro timers could make it more interesting.

However, I predict the same fate: Eventually people will realize the light is busy when the person isn’t really busy, and then return to the old habit of interrupting to ask if they’re busy.

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1. eastbound ◴[15 Oct 24 08:12 UTC] No.41846157[source]▶
I’m constantly looking for a physical worktime chronometer. I’d like to track how much I work, and leave after my 7 hours, or log extra time if I overdo it.

The only things I’ve found were impractical objects, or apps that cost $10-50 per month because they’re designed for consultants who bill their time. Apps are not accurate while one is in meetings, since the computer is off.

The thing is, even for consultants, they get no value from a red “Busy” gadget, but having an object on the table which you can punch to set on which client you’re working, would certainly be useful. More fun than an app, because sometimes you need physical objects.

I’d just like to clock in and clock out.

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2. arcanemachiner ◴[15 Oct 24 09:30 UTC] No.41846700[source]▶
I use an app called aTimeLogger on Android that just pins a little notification with a play/pause and stop button, and a little time counter. When I start working, I hit play. When I take a break, I hit pause.

Been doing this for years. It's great to help me focus on working when I'm actually working, and doing other stuff when I'm not actually working.

Looks like the app is available on iOS too if you're an iPhone user.

3. eXpl0it3r ◴[15 Oct 24 09:42 UTC] No.41846778[source]▶
I wrote a free app [1] for the Stream Deck (not Steam Deck!), with which I can start Clockify timers with a press of a physical button. Yes, Clockify can do more than just checking in and out, but for the simple use case it's free to use and has an API.

[1] https://github.com/eXpl0it3r/streamdeck-clockify

4. Cthulhu_ ◴[15 Oct 24 11:53 UTC] No.41847566[source]▶
A stopwatch is a good place to start if you want something readymade and ubiquitous; get a few cheap ones and label them per customer.

When I did that kind of work though, I had a time tracker application that kept track of which window was in the foreground, based on what project I had active in Eclipse (at the time) I could give a rough guesstimate about what project I spent how much time on.

5. billbrown ◴[15 Oct 24 15:39 UTC] No.41849700[source]▶
Maybe Timery? I've never tried it since I learned about it while laid off but I will definitely use it when I get a job.

https://thesweetsetup.com/apps/best-time-tracking-app/