I realize on Mac sometimes when the Focus Session autostart based on calendar integration, the app will be frozen until I open Activity Monitor and quit “RescueTime Web Content”, then it will be back to normal (the timer of Focus Session).
Hi Team, it looks like there’s either a bug in the app or misaligned definition on the “What are Meetings?” article and the calendar settings page. Both pages mention scheduled meetings include other attendees, but my app is tracking recurring calendar holds that include only myself as meetings. I’ve put in the #notameeting into the description and will reply back to see if that fixes the reporting, but per the definition from the What are Meetings, that # shouldn’t be necessary.
In “What are meetings”: What are Meetings? - RescueTime
“RescueTime considers any calendar event with an additional invitee a scheduled meeting (this invitee does not need to accept the invitation). Calendar events that only include yourself are not counted as scheduled meetings unless #meeting is added to the title or description.”
In the Calendar settings: https://www.rescuetime.com/rtx/settings/calendar: “Meetings in RescueTime are scheduled work events with 2 or more attendees.”
EDIT: I am using Windows version 3.1.3.2 and integrated with an Outlook calendar.
The #notameeting worked; the personal calendar holds are filtering out of my meeting time summaries. Still, it would be ideal if those didn’t count towards the Meeting time by default since they are personal appointments, not meetings.
Happy to provide more detail–the holds are recurring, so maybe that is what is throwing off the filter?
Hi @duncan! Thanks for sharing this! Good job on finding a soluton!
This is why it’s happening.
- The email you used to sign up for RescueTime does not match your Outlook email so the system thinks your Outlook email is an invitee in the event.
- Another way to fix this issue is to change your RescueTime email to match your Outlook email.
Appreciate you reviewing our documentation =). We’ll be updating this soon to reflect this detail.
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Hi @tuan, oh strange! Please reach out to us at help@rescuetime.com so we can look into your account and investigate the bug.
Ah, understood. Thanks!
Honestly I can’t give you more infos than this screenshot
Hi @VFP. Hm…I’ll dig into this with you via email to find out more.
Hi @peter! I just wanted to update you on the release notes. You can find it here now. Go to your Assistant > Settings > click on “(release notes)”
Hi!
Just wanted to share a couple of the bugs I have exprienced after using the new Rescuetime for 3 days. Not really sure if other people have addressed all of these but I do not really have time to review what everbody is saying, so sorry if this has already been addressed and answered somewhere else!:
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Another user above “Marco Chen” said that after his focus session ended, he got a blue window with the “spinning ball of death” loading forever. I am having the same issue. On the phone after m focus session is done the Assitant asks me if I finished the task or not, and I believe it also asks me for my mood.
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For some reason, the Assistant is no longer starting when I turn on my laptop, I believe I set things up so that it automatically starts with the PC
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On the phone Assitant, I cannot scroll down, I can only see the latest comment from the Assistant
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I am sure there are a couple of other bugs I have experienced, I know so but I cannot recall right now, but as I said I am running late and just wanted to leave this over here, especially since my trial period is ending in 10 days and I have not have time to explore the app to its full capacity. Hopefully this bugs get fixed because I like the methodology of the app (I liked the classic as well, but I can appreciate the simplicity on the new version) and I like that its cheaper to other alternatives I have been trying out.
Thanks in advance !
Andres
Update: Turns out the “focus” button was not showing up because I set my work schedule to start at 9am, already changed it to 8am, haha my bad. -_-. Are there youtube videos explaining the new app?
hey hey!
I’ve noticed when I nope out of a meeting early, it doesn’t seem to remove that time from my activity report. Today I ended a meeting after 5 mins, and it’s still showing an hour on my activity report BUT also logging the stuff I’m doing after the meeting ended.
Hi @molly_simmonite, great observation! This is by design. The “scheduled meeting” won’t update on your Meetings Report to the actual time after hitting the “This Meeting ended early” button . One reason is what if the meeting is owned by another user.
This is also by design. When your meeting ends early, and you click the " This meeting ended early " button on the Assistant, then normal activity tracking will resume.
You can find more details about meetings here.
Hi @andres_ibanez! Thanks for your kind words!
We’re working on adding video tutorials, but don’t have them ready just yet.
Regarding the bugs
- “The spinning ball of death” - an uninstall/reinstall/restart computer should resolve this issue.
- See if the uninstall/reinstall/restart resolves the Assistant not auto-starting as well.
- If you are using an Android, for now, it requires a two finger scroll.
Thanks for the update on the focus button!
So, if I leave an hour meeting after 5 mins, and instead use the rest of the hour for focus time, that IRL 1 hour will be reflected in my activities as 1 hour of meetings and 55 mins of focus time?
I guess I don’t understand the usefulness of that, in terms of tracking my time, if I’m aiming to work for 8 hours a day?
How do I get around this? Do I have to go in manually and alter my calendar? I can’t see a way of manually editing meeting time on my activity report.
Hi @molly_simmonite! Yes, that’s correct - “Do I have to go in manually and alter my calendar?.” You can’t edit scheduled meetings on your meetings report.
Hi there. Noticed a few times that when ending a focus session, it only gives me a fraction of the session total time as “focus time”. Usually, I didn’t get distracted. If I’m watching a lecture for university, sometimes I pause or rewind to take notes, but I don’t consider this the same thing as getting distracted. Or I’ll get up briefly to get a glass of water or something like that. Why does the app do this?
Hi @ishan! The Assistant may not count all your time as Focus Work during a Focus Session because of the way RescueTime tracks your computer. You can read more here about how RescueTime tracks your time, specifically the part about active use.
Hi I’ve connected my Outlook but it seems to take all entries as meetings, even though the manual says it ignores calendar entries that do not have an invitee… Since I schedule non-work activities as well, it’s now telling me I’m always in meetings! See screenshot:
Hi @danny_de_schutter, I believe I replied to you directly regarding this issue. Using the #notameeting in the title or description of the calendar event should help too.
I just got the new Rescue Time yesterday. Same thing happened: Calendar integrated but didn’t show. Wasn’t sure what to do. I ended up adding a new calendar and it is there now. Is there a user guide somewhere? I am having a lot of issues but the main one is that my work day isn’t set in a straight 8 hour session. I do focused work ie my manuscript writing in the early morning hours meaning before sunrise and I take a break for my regular day job, then go back to my writing in the evening. I spend most of my weekend doing marketing work on social sites and other platforms. I have a work schedule set for all this and my schedule changes due to whatever phase of my publishing schedule I’m in. I don’t know how to categorize them. I tried adding break times between those hours. I thought that with the integration to my calendar where I have this all worked out I would be able to get a better idea of how much time I actually used on different areas. I paid for a year’s subscription. Not sure if it’s worth it to me. Not everyone works a 9-5 or even straight 8 job. I only tried this again because an author friend of mine said she used this program and it’s helped her.