If you want to forget about manually switching tasks throughout the day, you can opt for automatic time tracking. All you need is to install a TimeCamp desktop application and set keywords for your tasks.
Automatic time tracking mode is available in all subscription plans and for all account roles.
Set up automatic time tracking mode
After installing the desktop app to your computer and creating a list of tasks in the Projects module on your web account, please follow the instruction below:
Step 1
First, you should assign keywords to your tasks in the Projects module. Click on the project/task to open an edit panel and click on the Enable keywords option. Next, input your keywords and save changes.
Only Project Manager or Regular User with additional time tracking permission can enable and assign keywords.
Here you can learn more about choosing the right keyword.
Step 2
Next, after your desktop app is synchronized with your web account settings (usually it takes around 5 minutes, but you can also use the Force synchronization option from the desktop app menu), simply change the tracking mode to automatic. Click on the desktop app icon (right-click for Windows) and choose the mode from the menu.
Letters M/A on a task widget are referring to Automatic and Manual time tracking modes.
Step 3
After keywords are defined and time tracking mode is switched to automatic simply start your work. The application will detect assigned keywords in the titles of websites and applications you're working on and automatically select a task and start a timer. The desktop app will also switch between tasks if matches another keyword and will stop tracking time if no keyword is detected.
The automatic time tracking mode doesn't allow manually starting a timer, so the Start a Task menu will be disabled.
If you run a few Chrome instances and would like to automatically assign time spent on each instance to a different project, we recommend setting a different window name for each instance to match keywords you have for projects. To change the window's name click on the 'three vertical dots' menu on the right-hand side of the URL bar, select 'More tools' and then 'Name window'.
No keywords detected
By default, when the desktop application cannot recognize any keyword, it switches to no task mode. No task means that actions will not be assigned to any project. Activities that are not assigned to any project are not visible in the time reports of your projects. Of course, you can manually move these activities to the day's time entries.
The task will be selected only if the given keyword occurs in the window title as a full word (and not part of it).
If you would like to get rid of unassigned activities on your Timesheet, you can turn on the option Track only computer activites when a timer for task is running in web account settings. If the application doesn't match any keyword and doesn't automatically start a timer, no activities will be registered.
I don’t want to switch to “no task” right away
Sometimes you move from one tab to another that may not have a keyword assigned, but you don't want to switch to "No task" immediately and continue tracking for a certain time. In this case, you can adjust settings and define the time before switching to 'No task". Click on your avatar in the upper-right corner and select the Account Settings option. You'll be redirected to the General tab where you can use the shortcut to get to the Computer Activities settings.
Scroll down to the option Switch to "no task" when the desktop app can't match any keyword for: and customize it.
