Getting started

Blagger is an activity-based time tracker. Organise the things you work on into activities, record time as you switch between them, and see where your time went.

Accept your invitation

Follow the private invitation link you received.

Choose your username and password, then create your account. Sign In if prompted.

An invitation allows you to create one Blagger account. To use Blagger on another device you may either sign in with the same username and password or follow the original invitation link again - Blagger will report that it is not recognised or has expired, but you can select Sign In - this will save you having to remember Blagger's URL.

If you have not created your account and the invitation does not work, contact blagger.support@gmail.com.

Create your first activities

An activity represents something you want to record time against. Activities can contain child activities, allowing you to organise them into a hierarchy that suits your needs. Select New to create an activity.

Whilst you learn Blagger, keep your first structure simple. For example:

  • Clients
    • Client 1
      • General work
      • Prepare monthly report
      • Issue 1
      • Issue 2
      • Issue 3
    • Client 2
      • General work
      • Support request

You can create as many clients and activities beneath them as you wish.

This hierarchy is central to Blagger. Time recorded against a child activity is included in the duration of its parents. For example, time recorded against Issue 1 contributes to the totals for Client 1 and Clients.

This lets you record work at a useful level of detail while still seeing the total time spent on a client or broader area. Rolled-up totals can provide a useful starting point for reporting, reviewing work and preparing invoices.

You do not need to build the complete hierarchy immediately. To get started quickly, create Clients, add Client 1 beneath it, and press Start against Client 1. Add more specific activities when they become useful.

Record some time

Press Start against an activity when you begin working on it.

Blagger creates a running period for that activity. Press Stop when you finish, or start another activity when you switch work.

The current activity, if any, is shown at the bottom of application pages, giving you a quick way to see and stop what is running.

Frequent switching between activities is expected as is stopping and starting the same activity - when you take a break for example. Each spell of work becomes a separate period, and any activity can accumulate any number of periods over time.

Activities

An activity can have:

  • a name;
  • notes;
  • a parent activity and breadcrumb;
  • child activities;
  • any number of recorded periods.

Use New on an activity page to create a child activity - this builds the hierarchy.

Use Edit to change the activity's name or notes.

Use Start and Stop to record time against it.

Activity notes are useful for information that applies to the work generally. Put information about one particular spell of work in that period's notes instead.

Activity durations

Blagger shows several durations for an activity:

  • Today - time recorded today;
  • This week - time recorded during the current week;
  • This month - time recorded during the current month;
  • Total - all time recorded against the activity.

These durations include periods recorded directly against the activity and periods belonging to all its descendant activities.

For example, a client's Today duration includes today's work across every activity beneath that client. Its Total duration includes all recorded work across the complete client hierarchy.

This means you can use detailed activities for individual issues or pieces of work without having to add their durations together manually.

Examples

  • How much time have I spent working this month - look at This Month duration for the Clients activity.
  • How much time have I spent working for Client 1 - look at Total duration for the Client 1 activity.

Periods

A period records one continuous spell of work, with:

  • a start time;
  • a stop time, or Now while it is running;
  • optional notes.

Select a period to edit its times or notes, or to delete it.

Periods cannot overlap. If you correct a start or stop time, it must remain consistent with your other recorded periods.

Finding your way around

The application header provides the main navigation actions. Additional actions, including Documents and Sign Out, are available from the application menu.

Selecting the Blagger logo returns you to the Dashboard.

Dashboard

The Dashboard is Blagger's starting or home page.

It shows:

  • Recent Activities - activities you have used recently, for quick restarting;
  • Activities - your top-level activities.

Select an activity to open its Activity page.

Activity page

The Activity page shows the selected activity in context.

It includes:

  • a breadcrumb showing where the activity sits in your hierarchy;
  • the activity's notes;
  • its rolled-up durations;
  • New, Edit, Start and Stop actions where applicable;
  • its child activities;
  • its recorded periods in an activity timeline.

The activity timeline concentrates on periods recorded directly against that activity.

Timeline

The Timeline gives a reverse-chronological view of your recorded periods, grouped by date and activity.

Use it to review what you worked on and when.

Search

Search looks across:

  • activity names;
  • activity notes;
  • period notes.

Use it to find an activity to restart or to locate previously recorded work.

A useful first experiment

To experience Blagger's basic workflow:

  1. Create two activities. Select New.
  2. Start the first and work for a few minutes.
  3. Start the second.
  4. Add a note to one of the recorded periods.
  5. Switch between the activities a few times.
  6. Review the results in Timeline.
  7. Find one of them again using Search.
  8. Compare the child and parent activity durations.

This switching workflow is at the heart of Blagger: recording what you are doing should take less attention than the work itself.

Help and feedback

Blagger is currently in private beta. Some areas will change as it develops.

For help, feedback or problems, see Support and security or contact blagger.support@gmail.com.