SimplyTrack

A couple of weeks before I first shared SimplyTrack, I found myself wondering how I was spending my time during the workday. So I decided to track my activities.

As a Mac user, the first thing I tried was Screen Time, which comes with macOS. It did not play well with my workflow. Sometimes idle detection did not work, and screen time kept running for the whole day. I rarely shut down or restart my Mac, which many users will understand.

Then I widened the search to other alternatives, from open-source tools to paid ones. They all turned out either below my expectations or way above them, with a lot of features I would never use.

What I wanted

Something simple:

• A sleek interface.
• Minimal visuals.
• Useful graphs.
• A simple list of the tools and websites I spent time on.

So I built the answer I wanted: SimplyTrack.

What it does

SimplyTrack is a macOS productivity tracker focused on the basics I actually needed:

• Privacy-first tracking, with data stored locally.
• Clean visual analytics with charts.
• Smart idle detection and session management.
• Native menu bar integration.
• Free and open-source distribution.

I shared it as an open-source project for people with similar needs. Sometimes you just have to build what you actually want to use.