timeclock.el

Provide a simple punch-in and -out clock for tasks and associated report generation.

Please note: this package makes heavy use of v29.1 features, specifically vtables and the integrated sqlite. It will not function on previous versions.

Rationale

While org-mode's clock functionality is useful, I wanted something much lighter weight to keep track of where I'm spending my work time. timeclock.el uses sqlite as a datastore allowing for fast arbitrary queries.

Usage

timeclock/punch-in start a task (potentially punching out first)
timeclock/punch-out stop a task
timeclock/report generate a report
timeclock/active show the current task and elapsed time in the echo area
timeclock/active-task-name returns the active task name or nil
timeclock/set-database change the active timeclock database

No keybindings have been set.

Notes

Database

Timeclock data are stored in a SQLite database. The location of this database can be configured by setting the variable timeclock/db-file By default it is named timeclock.db in the user-emacs-directory.

A handle to the sqlite object can be obtained with the function timeclock/database. Calling this function will create the file and schema if necessary.

The DB may be accessed directly. Note that the 'clock_in' and 'clock_out' attributes are integers representing epoch seconds.

Because the database handle is cached, use timeclock/set-database to change database files; simply setting timeclock/db-file to a new value will not suffice.

Weeks

The variable timeclock/start-of-week may be set to an integer between 0 (Sunday) and 6. It defaults to 1 (Monday) as the start of the week for weekly reports.

Report Types

A number of reports (e.g., "Today", "Yesterday") are defined. To add custom reports put entries in the hashtable timeclock/report-span-hash. The key is a human readable description of the span and the value a sqlite where clause.

For example, to create a report on all tasks starting with "t":

(puthash "Starts with t"
    "substr(task, 1, 1) = 't'"
    timeclock/report-span-hash)

Editing Timeclock Records

Timeclock records may be edited. In a Timeclock Report Detail section with point on a punch entry the following actions are supported:

key	action
`f`	toggle feature flag
`d`	delete timeclock entry
`t`	edit task name
`a`	adjust punch-in/out time
`n`	edit note

Editing a note will pop open a dedicated buffer. C-c C-c will save the changes; C-c C-k will dismiss the buffer without saving. auto-fill-mode is turned on in the buffer with a fill-column set to timeclock/note-fill-column, the same value used to fill the note in the report.

Active Tasks

There may be only zero or one tasks active at any time. Quitting Emacs will not by default punch out of a currently active task. timeclock/maybe-punch-out is provided as a possible hook function; the user will be queried if they want to punch out before quitting.

is-feature Indicator

There is a boolean flag is-feature that can be optionally set for each punch-in; these tasks are reflected in the report by a bullet. When punching into a task the user will be asked if this flag should be set. The prompt text can be changed by setting the variable timeclock/feature-text. The is-feature indicator in reports can be change by setting timeclock/feature-indicator

Without prefix arguments timeclock/report will report on all tasks, both those with the is-feature flag set and not. With one prefix argument (C-u M-x timeclock/report) only those tasks with is-feature set will be reported. With two prefix arguments (C-u C-u M-x timeclock/report) only those tasks without is-feature set will be reported.

Faces

A handful of faces are defined for displaying reports. These all have the prefix timeclock-.

Hooks

Some hooks are provided:

timeclock/pre-punch-in-hook
timeclock/post-punch-in-hook
timeclock/pre-punch-out-hook
timeclcok/post-punch-out-hook

Installation

(use-package timeclock
  :straight '(timeclock
              :type git
              :host github
              :repo "bunnylushington/timeclock")
  :init
  (setq timeclock/db-file
        (expand-file-name "timeclock.db" user-emacs-directory)))

Tab Bar Configuration

I find it useful to have punch in/out access directly in the tab-bar. This functionality is not part of timeclock but here's one possible implementation. Clicking on the "➕" will punch into a task that will then be displayed in the tab-bar. Clicking on the task name will punch out.

  (defvar ii/timeclock-in-arrow
    (propertize " ➕ " 'display '(raise -0.20)))

  (defun ii/timeclock-active-task ()
    "If there's a current timeclock  task, display it."
    (when (fboundp #'timeclock/active-task-name)
      (let ((task (timeclock/active-task-name)))
        (if (not (null task))
            (propertize task 'display '(raise -0.20))))))

  (defun ii/tab-bar-timeclock ()
    "Punch in/out in the tab-bar"
    `((ii/timeclock-out
       menu-item ,(ii/timeclock-active-task) timeclock/punch-out
       :help "Punch out of this task.")
      (ii/timeclock-in
       menu-item ,ii/timeclock-in-arrow timeclock/punch-in
       :help "Punch into new task.")))

  (setq tab-bar-format '(tab-bar-format-tabs
                         tab-bar-format-align-right
                         ii/tab-bar-timeclock))

Author

Bunny Lushington

License

MIT License

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.