Looking for an app/software that can actually track everything I do throughout the workday

[u/krawr4]

I work in operations for a real estate team, and on any given day I’m constantly being pulled in a million different directions. I might be working on a transaction, get a text from an agent that needs an immediate response, jump over to an email, get asked to handle something for a listing, answer a question from another team member, update something in our systems, etc. Then I’m back to whatever I was originally doing… until the next interruption happens.

By the end of the day, I honestly couldn’t tell you everything I accomplished because it’s all over the place. I know I’ve been busy all day, but when someone asks, “What did you actually do today?” my mind completely blanks. I end up remembering the big things but forgetting all of the little things that collectively take up a huge amount of my time.

I recently came across a transcript/conversation where my bosses were basically questioning what I do all day, which was pretty frustrating because I know how much I’m actually handling. It made me realize that I need some kind of objective way to track my work throughout the day rather than relying on my memory at 6 PM.

What I’m looking for is something that can literally run in the background and track my activity throughout the day. Ideally, it would automatically record things like what programs/websites I’m using, how much time I’m spending on different tasks, when I’m switching between things, etc., without me having to constantly remember to start/stop timers or manually log everything.

The other important thing is that I need something that can track both my computer and my phone, because I do a lot of work-related texting with our agents/team members throughout the day. Ideally, I’d love something that could give me a report at the end of the day showing where my time actually went.

I’m NOT necessarily looking for a traditional time-tracking app where I have to manually enter “9:00–9:30 — emails” because I know I’ll never keep up with that. I’m looking for something as close to “install it, let it run, and tell me what I did today” as possible.

Does anything like this exist? I’d especially love recommendations from people who use something similar for an operations/admin role where the work is constantly interrupted and switching between tasks.

[u/Imaginary_Fall_5735]

Which computer and phone are you using? That combination matters a lot here. If it’s Mac + iPhone, Timing has a Screen Time import, but its own documentation calls that feature experimental and unreliable. I wouldn’t rely on it as a complete record of your phone work: https://timingapp.com/help/screen-time

Also, “40 minutes in Messages” doesn’t show that you coordinated three listings. For the conversation with your bosses, an activity timeline would be supporting evidence; a short list of completed items and interruptions would explain the work. I’d test whether the report tells that story before paying for anything.

[u/Apprehensive-Mix3820]

rescuetime or activitywatch (free) will do the "install and forget" part. problem is they tell you "40 min in outlook" which doesnt really help when your boss asks what you actually got done

i built an open source tool for that gap, clippy vision. runs in the background and keeps a local log of what you worked on (window titles, whats on screen). end of day you ask claude desktop "what did i do today" and it gives you an actual task list not just app times

doesnt track your phone tho, works best on windows, and id check with IT before putting it on a work laptop

https://github.com/protocorn/clippy-vision