Slife - Makes Tracking Your Computer Activity a Snap (for Mac OSX)

Do you ever find yourself wondering where the time went? Do you find yourself, an hour or two after sitting down to work, completely at a loss as to why you haven't accomplished more? Do you want to find out exactly where all that "lost" time went, and exactly what you did to waste it?

A free tool for Mac OS X, called Slife, may be just the thing you need.

Note: If you're an Associated Content writer, or anyone who works at home without a set schedule, this is really aimed directly at you, so be sure to read this carefully.

One of the "traps" work-at-home individuals can fall into is the feeling that work is getting done, simply because they're sitting in front of the computer. In fact, in many cases the exact opposite is true. I know that for me, it's very tempting to just click that one "fun" link, instead of researching a new article. It's really easy to watch a couple YouTube videos, or maybe check out how the St. Louis Cardinals did last night against the Detroit Tigers, or even see what's on TV later tonight, after I'm all finished "working."

Well, all those tiny little things we all to can add up. So what if we sat in front of the computer for a couple hours. How much of that time was spent working, and how much of it was... not wasted... but how much time was spent doing other things, instead of working?

With Slife, you can find out exactly how your time was spent.

I tried out Slife a couple days ago, and the display of my time management skills (or lack of), were a bit embarrassing.

But first, how did I go about using Slife? Simple. Just start up Slife and you'll see a new icon appear in your Finder's menu bar. From the second you start Slife, to the second you shut it down (unless you specifically tell it to stop tracking what you do and how you spend your time), Slife will watch your every move, and note exactly what you do.