Simple Time Tracking

Let's do some simple time tracking with Timewarrior.

In the previous section you have started to use Timewarrior, but not done any tracking yet. Let’s change that now.

The simplest use of Timewarrior is as a stopwatch to record an activity. As you begin the activity, you start the clock with the start command:

$ timew start
Tracking 
  Started 2025-02-23T08:05:21
  Current                  21
  Total               0:00:00
$ ▒

You can see the start command responds with a small report on the current tracking. Let’s break it down:

• The word ‘Tracking’ indicates active time tracking.
• Next to ‘Started’ you are shown the start date/time.
• ‘Current’ shows the current time compared to the start time, but only the digits where it differs from the start time (the seconds at least).
• Finally, ‘Total’ shows the total elapsed time, which is currently none.

Note that after the executing the start command, there is no Timewarrior process running in the background, so no system resources are being used.

You can check on the current time tracking status by simply running Timewarrior with no arguments:

$ timew
Tracking 
  Started 2025-02-23T08:05:21
  Current               06:34
  Total               0:01:13
$ ▒

The output is similar to the start command, but you can see that the values for ‘Current’ and ‘Total’ have been updated.

Note that when there is active time tracking, executing the start command again has no effect. Timewarrior will just report on the current active time tracking then:

$ timew start
Tracking 
  Started 2025-02-23T08:17:52
  Current                  52
  Total               0:00:00
$ ▒

Later when the activity ends, you stop the clock with the stop command:

$ timew stop
Recorded 
  Started 2025-02-23T08:05:21
  Ended                 22:56
  Total               0:17:35
$ ▒

Like start, the stop command also reports on the tracking. Again, let’s break it down:

• The word ‘Recorded’ is used to indicate that an interval has been recorded.
• Instead of ‘Current’, ‘Ended’ is shown with the end time, but also only the digits where it differs from the start time.
• As before ‘Total’ shows the total elapsed time.

Also, without active time tracking, executing the stop command again has no effect. Timewarrior will then just report that there is no active time tracking:

$ timew stop
There is no active time tracking.
$ ▒

Note that Timewarrior does not monitor your activity. Therefore, it does not provide automatic start or stop of time tracking.

Congratulations, you have just tracked your first activity with Timewarrior!

But what did you actually record, and where did the data go?

Move on to the next section to see how you can display the data.

Or you return to the Tutorial section and pick another topic of interest.