Developers, How do you track your daily work?

I'm a little old fashioned and use a physical notebook. I use our team tools for team progress, but personally I find I like to write in a book, cross things out, sometimes put a symbol to represent nuance that is just for me.

One software tool in the ole toolbelt I really do like is git standup.

Git standup, how did I ever live without you?

Ben Halpern ・ Mar 21 '17 ・ 1 min read

#git #gitextensions

It's nothing elaborate, but it's a nice little git tool that helps me recall recent commits. My work isn't so tightly tied to my coding commits anymore, but it's still a really useful little utility in general.

I write everything down in markdown files. I'd love to sync it to a secure repository, but I haven't looked into it. I suppose I could establish a gitlab setup at home, but maybe there is something better? Anyway, for now it's in a private gitHub repo, and if I feel like it shouldn't be written down, I don't.

As far as tracking the actual work, I've started taking note of tasks I've done more than a few times so that the next time they show up, I will have a realistic expectation for my estimate.

I keep a diary in a simple directory tree:

├── 2022
│   ├── 01
│   │   ├── 2022-01-25.md
│   │   ├── 2022-01-26.md
│   │   ├── 2022-01-27.md
│   │   ├── 2022-01-28.md
│   │   └── 2022-01-29.md
│   ├── 02
│   │   ├── 2022-02-01.md
│   │   ├── 2022-02-02.md
│   │   ├── 2022-02-03.md
│   │   ├── 2022-02-04.md
│   │   ├── 2022-02-07.md
│   │   ├── 2022-02-08.md
│   │   ├── 2022-02-09.md
│   │   ├── 2022-02-10.md
│   │   ├── 2022-02-14.md
│   │   ├── 2022-02-15.md
│   │   ├── 2022-02-16.md
│   │   ├── 2022-02-17.md
│   │   ├── 2022-02-18.md
│   │   ├── 2022-02-21.md
│   │   ├── 2022-02-22.md
│   │   ├── 2022-02-23.md
│   │   ├── 2022-02-24.md
│   │   ├── 2022-02-25.md
│   │   ├── 2022-02-28.md
│   └── 03
│       ├── 2022-03-01.md
│       ├── 2022-03-02.md
│       └── 2022-03-03.md

Simple to grep or to browse manually. I have a script that allows to create the individual files. Each one contains a template that looks like:

# Project Name 2022-02-03

- done
- todo
- blocking

I write everything in Markdown lists. I plan to improve the script so that what is left as todo in the previous day's entry is automatically added to the current day's entry.

I found out that this methodology helps me a lot to report to my managers and during daily stand-ups. Each time I achieve something noticeable, or I need to remember something that doesn't deserve interruption to my team, I stash it in the diary entry.

No matter to say that it can drastically improve the life of persons suffering from stress, anxiety or impostor syndrome.

If you find it useful, it is available.

I've started using the app Structured on iOS. Before that I used Plan.

I also write physical notes - one page for each day. I put the date at the top along with a to do list and any notes I take that day. Usually everything's grouped by ticket number or meeting name.

I set up the next day in my time blocking app and notes before I sign off each day.

I have an obsidian vault for work, a scheduled vertical planner for work as well (I know I could do it in Obsidian but I like the planner!), I have a small snoopy planner for my personal and home tasks and another for my habit tracking :3

I don't use them everyday because life just happens, but having them has helped me a lot to be on top of my work and to know what is happening during a week. It's also great for personal retrospectives :3

Thank you guys :) Was not expecting such an awesome response. I use Notion on a personal level and offcourse notebook otherwise use the readme.md file of my projects. I write all the tasks there and once done use the markdown's checkmark feature.

Anyways I had actually asked this question to do some validation on what are tools available in the market for now.

I launched a side project Fireboard - A work tracker for software developers.
Please check it out. It's completely free.

I know it's too late to validate but I just wanted to know thoughts about how people actually track their personal tasks.

Toggl to keep track of the time I'm spending, and github what I spend my time on.

I experimented with every possible daily task tracker and finally wrote a new one, which I have open-sourced. It is for anyone who lives on the command line and centers around simple *nix text capabilities. You can use it for notes too.

I wrote a four-part series about it at dev.to/scottshipp/series/15100

I do it with the combination of 3 tools

1. Wakatime
2. Notion
3. Clockify

Wakatime to track the total time I spend coding. I am totally in love with this tool and its integration with VSCode. It make me understand all the details of how and where I spend my time when I was coding, productive hours, technologies I code in, etc.

Notion is to have a sorted list of my tasks. I keep doing a lot of experiments with this.

Clockify, to allot the time to tasks. This is also optional as you can use simply any other task timer for this.

But these tools become very handy and help me a lot to be productive.

Hope this helps :)

I use Code time app.
Everyday before one hour to end work time i have report from today) 🔥
And weekly report on email with all data))🌟
🚀 and this on free acc )
14+ month i use this app 👌