Tracking how much time you spend working in Unity?

Does anybody know if there is an asset out there that tracks how much time you spend working in Unity for a specific project?

I'm curious since I would like to know for the projects I work on and I can't find anything that would measure the time. I'm almost inclined on doing one myself.

 

If you have steam, you can add Unity as a non steam game, and it will track your "play time" or so to speak use time.

 

I believe he meant development time lol.

 

Sounds like an interesting alternative. I'll take a look at it. I do worry about leaving Unity open and have that time counted in, plus it wouldn't separate your time per project. Still though, I'll look into it. Thanks

 

Manic Time is free and gives you frighteningly granular statistics about exactly what you do on the computer. It tracks every program, every document, website etc. It knows if your working or are afk. It silently runs when your computer turns on. I've been using it for about 6 months and now I have a very interesting catalog of my behavior.

 

You could also get a time tracking program and note when you start working and on what, then close it out when you're done working. A lot of businesses use software like this so they can track billable hours or what projects are taking the most resources. (One place I worked at required all time to be tracked down to six minute increments.)

There's probably something out there available free or cheap. It might not have all the features that a costly program does, such as advanced reporting or tracking a large number of employees, but you probably don't need those anyway.

 

Thanks everyone I'll try those time tracking software, they seem to be exactly what I was looking for.

 

Unity time is play time for me, lol . Good luck @Rodiaz89

 

I'm pretty sure steam doesn't track time spent in non-steam games.

 

Basically if you wake up and your head was rested on a keyboard drenched in sweat, the mouse cursor is on the unity editor play button, you have separate windows with the asset store and unity tutorials/code opened....then you have not spent enough time using Unity.

To have spent enough time using unity you must have done all the above for a week including not having eaten for 7 days save for a few packets of roasted honey peanuts and the police getting ready to kick your door in because they think your dead.

 

I use Toggl for time tracking. It allows me to allocate time spent on projects and to sort them out down to even the issue I am working on. It helps when putting down what issues seem to take the longest with the best return.

 

Another alternative is RescueTime. It's similar to Manic Time but works on Mac and Linux as well. The free version will automatically keep track of how much time you spend in each application and on each website (top level domain). You can label any program as "productive" or "distracting" to keep track of how focused you are, and get daily, weekly, monthly reports. The free tier is quite good on its own but they also have a premium tier ($9/mo) to get more detailed reports (individual web pages, individual projects within Unity) and lots of other features to keep you motivated and focused.

 

One reason I like Toggl is from the Chrome extension that integrated with things like BitBucket and GitHub so that you can click on an issue from the list and then start your timer using that issue info as the detail. It saves time for me in the long run and makes sure I am typing in the same tracking info each time.

 

I did the shift+tab feature in unity; not advised. However i did it with blender, and it showed the amount of minutes elapsed in the current session, so it most likely does count with non-steam games.

 

Oh yeah, it shows the time in the current session, but it doesn't save it. So it won't tell you "spent 1592 hours in unity"

 

+1 for Toggl

 

My workplace uses time doctor. It's a bit of a pain, but you simply log what you're working on as you change. It's annoying to start off with, but becomes second nature after a while.

 

ManicTime - I use it all the time for timetracking, sits in the background and don't have to do anything - it records what apps you use, the titles of the apps/websites you use etc

 

This ManicTime is amazing!

 

Yeah it's pretty useful, one thing that bothers me is that I can't really get repots with the separate projects I open within Unity. I wonder if I just haven't found the way to do it or it doesn't give you that option?

 

You can use tags to support separate projects, though it's not automatic (Pro version supports auto-tagging). I generally just tag a large chunk of time when I switch projects and then add them up manually at the end of the week, rather than using the reports/stats. Not sure how the reports tie into tagging, but there's probably some way to do it.

I also use RescueTime - but that focuses more on how you spend your time, rather than what you spend it on. Great for settings goals such as "Less time browsing forums, more time writing code"

 

I also need this feature very much for my projects but haven't found anything simple so I made a simple asset that does the job.

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/41522

 

Time is an illusion...

 

I made this clock for Unity. Doesn't exactly track your time but you can set the alarm so that you don't miss your deadlines.

 

check out my asset "automated project diary"
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/10251

it does exactly that.

 

Much like task estimates.

 

Hello,

Does anyone have any other suggestions for either free or paid applications or assets that keep track of your development time in Unity?

 

I just jot the times down manually in Excel. Works well enough for me.

 

Toggl is an amazing time tracking tool with a really simple, intuitive interface. Its free, but if you want to assign billing to it, its $9 a month or so.

It also has some sweet reports.

 

Our game is a Steamworks game and I get this feature for free. Tip: you don want to know how much time you spend in Unity

 

this great tiny package may help:
https://github.com/lisembart/UnityProjectTimeCounter