A minimalistic time-tracker with logging and a pleasant-sounding chime.

pom

An initial task can be optionally provided at the command line, in which case the user will not be prompted until subsequent intervals.

The pom utility prompts for a task, then counts down for a predefined length of time while you work. When each period ends, pom plays a chime and adds a datestamped entry to ~/pom.log before counting down for a five-minute break period and chiming again. Every four breaks, a twenty-minute break is triggered, after which the utility exits.

The variables pom_time and pom_logfile can be set in ~/.pom.rc or at the top of the script itself. By default, time_in_minutes=25 and logfile=$HOME/.pom.log.

A simple alternative configuration file, ~/.pom.rc, might look like this:

pom_time=10
pom_logfile="/dev/null"

1. Use #hashtags in your messages so you can easily grep for them later.

2. Use awk/grep to add up time spent on projects, or for specific days.

    awk '/#hacks/ { total += $1 } END { print total / 60 " hours" }' pom.log
   

A PowerShell version is available at the repository from which this was derived, here.