Tracking time is a lot easier when you have a timer. Unlike manual time recording, a timer will save you the trouble of remembering the exact time when you started, stopped or paused a task.
Fanurio can manage multiple timers but only one can be active, all the other timers are paused. When a new timer is started, the active one is paused and the new one becomes active. This feature is very useful if you start working on something (task A) and then you get a call from a client that forces you to interrupt what you were doing and work on something else (task B). In this case, you start a timer for task A and then when the client calls, you pause the timer (interrupt task A) and you start a new one for task B. When task B is over, you stop its timer and save the time. Then you can resume the timer for task A.
Since a timer is an important tool, Fanurio provides several ways to access it. You can access the timer from:
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the Timer menu,
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the toolbar,
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the tray icon menu,
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the iTunes-like mini timer,
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the taskbar button's thumbnail toolbar on Windows 7 or
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using global hotkeys on Windows and Linux.
The following actions can be used to control the timers from one of the places mentioned above:
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Start New Timer: This action starts a new timer. If a project is open and a service item is selected, Fanurio will start a timer for that service item.
If a timer is already active (paused or running), that timer will be paused and the new one will become active.
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Start New Timer...: This action lets you start the timer for a specified service item and attach a description to it. When the timer will be stopped, Fanurio will add time to this item with the specified description. If a project is open and an item is selected, Fanurio will suggest to start the timer for that service item.
If a timer is running and a new one is started in the past, the active timer will be paused in the past and the new one will be started from that time. Let's suppose you are working on task A and a client calls. In the middle of the call, you realize that you want to time the conversation so you start a new timer but since you already started the phone conversation 10 minutes ago, you want to start the timer in the past, 10 minutes ago. Doing so will pause the timer for task A 10 minutes ago.
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Start New Timer >: This action lets you start a new timer for one of the recent service items.
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Timers: If you started at least one timer, this action shows all the timers. When you select one of the timers, it automatically becomes active and it's resumed. Recent timers are at the top of the list.
The Timers action from the toolbar also shows the number of timers using a badge icon so you can easily see how many timers you have started.
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Pause / Resume Timer: This action pauses or resumes the active timer.
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Pause / Resume Timer...: This action pauses or resumes the active timer in the past.
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Stop Timer: This action stops the active timer and opens a New Time window to save the recorded time.
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Edit Timer: This action lets you change the service item and the description of the active timer. It also shows the time when it was started, the elapsed time and the pause time.
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Discard Time...: This action discards time from the active timer.
For instance if you started a timer one hour ago but at some point you took a 15 minutes break, you can use this action to discard this time and keep the timer running. Once you do that, the timer will show it's running for 45 minutes instead of one hour.
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Transfer Time...: This action discards time from the active timer and save to a service item.
For instance if you started a timer one hour ago but at some point you did something else for 15 minutes, you can use this action to discard this time and to add it to the project item you've been working on. Once you do that, the timer will show it's running for 45 minutes instead of one hour.
The state of the timers is saved regularly on disk just in case there's a power outage and the application is terminated prematurely. If this happens, the timers will be restored the next time Fanurio will be restarted.
Although a timer is a major improvement over manual time recording, it's worthless if you don't remember to use it. When you have lots of work on your head, paying extra attention to a timer is the last thing you want to do. That's why Fanurio has smart timing, an even better method to track time.
A timer is useless if you don't remember to use it. To solve this problem, Fanurio has a few reminders to help you start, resume or stop a timer. Instead of relying on your memory and attention to control the timer, you can use these reminders. We call this feature smart timing.
Smart timing is not enabled by default. You have to enable it from:
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on Windows
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on Mac OS X
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on Linux
Smart timing is how Fanurio figures out what you are doing in order to record time accurately. It uses idle time detection and a set of reminders to do that.
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Reminders: If you are working on the computer, Fanurio doesn't know what you are doing but if you enable smart timing, it will try to learn that from you. Fanurio can ask you repeatedly (you can specify the frequency) what you want to do with the timer.
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If no timer is running, it will ask you if you want to start one or if you want to do it later.
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If the active timer is paused, it will ask you if you want to resume it or if you want to do it later.
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If the active timer is running, it will ask you if you want to stop it or if you want to leave it running.
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Idle time detection: One thing Fanurio can figure out without asking is if you leave the computer while the timer is running. In this case it will ask you to do something with the time you've been away.
As we said, smart timing is about figuring out what the user is doing. If the timer is stopped, Fanurio will try to learn whether it should be started or not. The same happens when the timer is paused or if it's running.
To understand how smart timing works, let's see the following examples.
Example 3.11. Reminder that the timer is running
Let's assume the reminder is set to 10 minutes and the timer is already running for 32 minutes. Since I started the timer, Fanurio asked me three times (at 10, 20 and 30 minutes) if I want to stop it or if I want to keep it running. Each time I just pressed ESC to cancel the reminder dialog and to keep the timer running.
The fourth time when it asks me (at 40 minutes), I realize I finished working on my task and I choose to stop the timer. I will assign 40 minutes to the project item I was working on.
Tip
When the reminder dialog is displayed, you can postpone the decision by pressing ESC.
Example 3.12. Idle time notification
Let's assume idle time notification is set to 10 minutes. That means Fanurio will notify me if I'm away from the computer for more than 10 minutes.
I start the timer and after 40 minutes I leave the computer for a coffee break. When I return after 15 minutes, I see a notification dialog where Fanurio asks me what to do with these 15 minutes. I decide to discard them. The timer will continue to run and to show it's been started 40 minutes ago instead of 55. The 15 minutes I've been away are considered pause time.
Besides Discard, the idle notification dialog has two other options: Transfer and Keep. Use Transfer if you've worked on something else in the meanwhile (a client was on the phone for instance) and Keep if you've been working on the same thing but you didn't touch the computer.
Tip
To tell Fanurio that you want to keep the time and leave the timer running, you can also press ESC or ENTER.
Best practices
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Adjust the idle time interval if you take shorter breaks. It is set to 15 minutes by default.
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Make sure the reminders are not too frequent as they may become annoying.
If you usually do long tasks, you don't want to be reminded each 10 minutes that the timer is running. You could set the reminder to 20 or 30 minutes.
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Use only those reminders that you find useful. You don't have to enable all the reminders.
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