Articles
By Tw93. Recover the work behind the records, with room for focus and time away.
Time tracking
Record where work time goes on a Mac, by app, project and day.
Looking for a RescueTime alternative on MacWhen you replace RescueTime, keep automatic recording and time by app and site, with the Trail on this Mac starting the day you install it.
Choosing a Mac time tracking app by how it recordsChoose among four kinds of Mac time tracking by capture method and where the data is stored.
How Hina records your dayEvery 3 seconds Hina samples the frontmost app into a SQLite session, and the daily report reads that file plus the local sources you turned on.
Looking for a Timing alternative on MacKeep Timing when a rule, a teammate, or an invoice needs the hour. Use Hina 0.6.0 when the record should stay on this Mac.
Looking for a Dayflow alternative on MacDayflow writes the day from screen frames. Hina 0.6.0 records apps and windows without screenshots, and cannot replay the picture.
Time tracking without screenshots: what you can still recallWindow titles and page paths can recover filenames and page locations, and page text and words spoken in meetings are not in the record.
Time tracking for developers, beyond the editorDocs, terminal work, and agent sessions outside coding are assigned to a repository from window titles and session directories.
Reconstructing project hours as a freelancerRead duration in Week view and Month view, fold folders that belong to one client together with Rename or merge projects, assign the CSV yourself, and leave the invoice to your billing tool.
How many hours did I actually work this week?Keep the power-on span, recorded activity, and usage after 10 p.m. separate, and decide this week’s hours yourself.
How project time is attributedSeparate direct project evidence from nearby and unattributed activity.
Choosing what a work tracker can seeWhat Hina reads by default, what each switch adds, and how to check and clear the records.
What to check when a report has a gapCheck whether a record is missing, unattributed or simply not shown.
ActivityWatch alternative for Mac: what Hina does differentlyActivityWatch gives you open-source building blocks; Hina gives Mac users a finished daily report.
Toggl or Clockify alternative on a Mac: when automatic records are enoughKeep Toggl or Clockify for billing and teams; use Hina 0.6.0 when you want local, automatic records with no account.
Reviewing work
Turn the record into a daily log, a standup or a weekly review.
A 10-minute end of day report from your own recordsA four-part end of day report, filled from the day's records and local commits, and edited before it leaves your machine.
How to write a work journal in five minutesKeep the daily report for apps, titles, and commits, and write three sentences for the decision, the checked result, and the open thread.
Answering “what did you do yesterday” at standupUse yesterday’s Trail and local commits to separate what you finished, what you asked AI about, and what you started, and count 1 a.m. as the previous day.
Keeping a work log without writing all dayBefore you leave, check the Trail, commits and what you asked AI, and fill the work log in four lines.
A weekly review that starts from what actually happenedPull seven days of records, compare them with your plan, and write the gap into the weekly review.
How to run a one-week time audit on your MacLet the computer record the week first, add the time away it cannot see, then decide to change only one thing next week.
How to reconstruct your workdayStart with one thing you remember, then connect its time, project and results.
Finding work you vaguely rememberFind work you half remember with a distinctive word, a date and the right search range.
Comparing workweeks: check which days are includedCompare corresponding days to review changes in your rhythm.
A weekly report template for your manager, filled from a week of recordsA four-part weekly report template in English and Chinese, filled from Hina's Week tab and daily reports, with a list of what to leave out.
Focus and rest
Notice fragmented attention and take breaks before the day runs out.
What Mac Screen Time shows, and what it leaves outScreen Time gives daily totals for apps and websites, without windows, projects, or order, so when the numbers do not match, start with the day boundary and background activity.
Context switching: do hundreds of window switches mean distraction?A day’s switch count cannot answer whether you were distracted, and what is worth looking at is what interrupted a continuous work stretch.
The 20-20-20 rule and reminders to look away from your screenStarts from the 20-20-20 eye rule, shows a small card only after a long sit, and does not record whether you followed it.
Meetings, thinking and time away from the keyboardAfter ten minutes to two hours without input, choose Meeting, Reading / thinking, Watching or Away when you return, and an unanswered prompt is recorded as Away.
What deep work time can tell youUnderstand what the Deep work number counts and what it leaves out before you change a routine.
Break reminders that leave room for workWhen the sit-too-long card appears, what its two buttons do, and when it stays quiet.
Time blocking: plan your day in blocks, then check the plan against what happenedHow to plan a day in blocks with buffers, why the plan drifts, and how to read your recorded day to fix tomorrow's blocks.
How many hours of deep work a day, and how to measure yoursWhat deep work means, what research does not say about daily hours, and how Hina counts blocks of at least 10 minutes.
The Pomodoro Technique: how it works and when 25 minutes does not fitWhat the method actually asks for, why 25 minutes can be wrong for coding or writing, and how to check it against your own recorded days.
Flow state at work: conditions, interruptions and what your records can showThe conditions flow needs, what interruptions do to it, and which records on a Mac are only hints of it.
The 90-minute work cycle: what the evidence says and how to find your ownWhere the 90-minute cycle comes from, how weak the daytime evidence is, and a two-week check using Hina's deep work and break records.
How to stop procrastinating: what research says and one small experimentWhat research says procrastination is, two steps with evidence behind them, and a one-week experiment that uses your recorded day without guilt.
AI usage
See how Claude Code and Codex fit into your hours and projects.
Checking Claude Code usage by project and daySee tokens in the Claude Code log by repository and by day (each day starts at 4 a.m.), a count that is not a bill and not a measure of work.
Where to see your Codex usage, and what local logs addRemaining allowance is on Codex’s status command and account page, while local logs record each thread’s tokens by event time.
Reviewing a day of AI-assisted workKeep requests to AI separate from the work that actually followed.
Making sense of local AI token usageHow Claude Code and Codex show up in Hina through prompts, token counts and projects, and how to read each.