I couldn’t find a dedicated Android time tracking app for artists on the Google Play store. As an artist, I like to use a time tracking app for a number of reasons:
- To have a definitive answer when someone asks how long a finished painting took me.
- So I can see how my painting speed is affected as I gain more experience.
- What the average time a certain scene or canvas size will take to paint?
- To know how much time I’ve spent on my art in general.
However, when I’m full of enthusiasm for working on a painting, it’s too easy to get into a flow state where time flies and forget to note the time I start and stop. I’m also terrible at keeping notes in a paper notebook and I don’t want to have to add times up manually.
I find Time Tracker by Zafer Ertas is a great Android time tracking app for artists. One of the reasons for this is that it’s wonderfully simple. When looking for a time tracking app, most of the ones I found were bloated with too many features. Time Tracker gets the balance just right with just three tabs for time tracking information.
Using Time Tracker
Time tracking is simple. You create an ‘activity’ which if you’re an artist will be your painting. You can assign an icon – I like to add a paintbrush.
The first tab shows a history of your painting sessions which on mine currently ranges from 11 minutes to 1 hour and 52 minutes.
The second tab shows all your activities with green start buttons to start or stop time tracking.
Finally, the third tab shows your time tracking stats for each activity as well as a total time spent. You can filter this by day, week, month, and year. I would like an ‘all-time’ display too, but maybe the author will add this at a later date.
That’s it. It’s so simple and easy to use, yet gives me the information I need. This is why I think Time Tracker for Android is a great time tracking app for artists.
