Using Hook with time-tracking, billing and accounting software: Timing app showcase

Showcases and Use Cases
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First, I’d like to welcome new Hook customers who are users of the excellent time tracking app for macOS, Timing by Daniel Alm. I’d also like to thank Daniel for having favorably mentioned Hook in the August newsletter to his customers.

I’ve written a blog post explaining some of the ways in which one can Use Hook with time-tracking, billing and accounting software —with the Timing app as an example.

I myself have been using Timing since its very early days. I even discussed Timing in Cognitive Productivity with macOS®: 7 Principles for Getting Smarter with Knowledge. Principle 2 of that book is “Manage Your Cognitive Life Mindfully”. That chapter has a section, “Manage your Attention”, which describes the Timing app, and the free mySelfQuantifier time tracking system which I published a few years ago over on CogZest.com.

I hope you find the blog useful in seeing some of the applications of Hook in this domain. There are others!

We will follow up with screenshots and perhaps a screencast illustrating the use of Hook with Timing and the mySelfQuantifier system.

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Hello @LucB, is it planned to make a hook link with the Timing App (projects, tasks) possible?

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Thanks for asking @alexander. Coincidentally, Daniel Alm (Timing dev) and I have been emailing about this again this week. Daniel would like to hear directly from his customers about this, so please feel free to get in touch with Timing about that that he can judge the need from his customers: Contact — Timing — Automatic macOS Time Tracking for Freelancers and Professionals. If enough of his customers ask him, I suppose it will be prioritized by him.

When the API is available, we will do our part :blush:.

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@LucB I have been in contact with him the last days… because of this workflow and my implementation with Keyboard Maestro and the Timing App:
https://twitter.com/myapfelworld/status/1332808544299741184

https://twitter.com/myapfelworld/status/1331699358019051522

I will write to him about the hook integration and try to convince him :wink:

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Great! thanks! We’re looking to have one or more liaisons per app, which will help coordinate that. I use Timing myself, so I’m sure Daniel will be in touch with me, but it can still help to have some liaisons because there may be other topics/uses. We’ll write more about that early in the new year.

Cf.: Obsidian Liaisons to CogSci Apps / Hook? (Linkability Advocate) - Discussion & Help - Hook Productivity Forum.

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Definitely a +1 from me too on this! I’ll reach out to Daniel and let him know as well. :+1:

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Hi @LucB & @alexander – Do you guys have any update on when Hook will be integrating with Timing? Are there any workarounds via Keyboard Maestro, etc… in the event this isn’t feasible yet?

Thanks!

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coincidentally (again) Daniel Alm and I exchanged emails a few days ago. We don’t have an ETA yet for that, but it is on his radar. As a work-around, you can copy/paste links directly into Timing notes.

The recent Linking Manifesto – Manifesto for Ubiquitous Linking, which anyone here can sign) may increase the number of linkable apps :blush: .

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Thanks Luc. I actually have a workflow that’s a workaround of your workaround lol. I use the Sessions app (which is available in Setapp) as a pomodoro timer and web blocker. There’s an input where you can enter in the task you want to run the next session on. What I do is hook link the next task from my Things today list and paste it into that box. When the session completes, it creates a calendar entry with the name of the hook link to the things task as it’s title. I can then simply have to go to Timing to create a time entry for that calendar event with the hook link already on it.

While this already works great, what I think is really useful is the ability to reference Timing at the project level. My projects in Timing more or less equates to my Projects in Things… so the ability to hook into a Timing project from its equivalent in Things allows me to see a summary of all the time entries I’ve created and my overall productivity when doing say a weekly review. Also since Projects in Timing don’t have a notes field, it also allows me to add some context by either linking a note or linking to the corresponding Things project.

Anyway thanks for the update!

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Totally agree, linking between time tracking and projects is critical.

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Just +1ing - I’ve lost count of the times I’ve tried to hook a timing project. Is there any movement on timing integration?

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Welcome to the Hook Productivity Forum , @mattsmallman. Timing lacks linking automation. It’s on their product road map as far as I know. If Hook users ask them, perhaps it will get bumped up their priority queue.