The blog
Notes from the log.
On time, attention, and the distance between what you said you'd do and what you did. Written by Alex, the one person who builds the app.
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How to stop losing track of the day, with no manual timers
Offline task journaling in plain language: what it is, why being asked at intervals beats remembering at 5pm, and how to start this week.
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The best offline task journaling tools
todo.txt, Obsidian with Tasks, Taskwarrior, Joplin, paper and this app, judged on offline use, no account, plain text, prompting, weekly summaries and cost.
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The best time tracking apps in 2026
Toggl Track, Clockify, Harvest, TimeCamp, ActivityWatch and this app, judged on price, subscriptions, prompts, weekly reviews and where your data lives.
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What Whatcha Doing actually is
The plain version: what the app does all week, what Sunday's report says, and what it costs.
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Writing it down changes what you do
Recording your own behaviour changes it. The research says what makes the effect stronger.
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Fifteen minutes of looking back
Trainees who stopped to reflect for 15 minutes a day did better than those who kept working.
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Why the plan happens on Monday
People commit to goals far more often on Mondays. Use it, but don't trust it on its own.
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Isn't being interrupted the problem?
A fair objection from people who build alone, and what the research on interruptions actually says.
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Nobody asks how your week went
When you work for yourself, nobody checks whether you did what you said. That check matters as much as the plan.
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Your thesis will take longer than your worst-case guess
Students in a classic study missed their own pessimistic estimates. Here's how to plan around that.
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Where did the afternoon go?
Why time disappears while you're busy, and why it feels long when you look back.
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Available is not the same as working
Nine hours at the desk is a measure of availability. It says nothing about what got done.
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Why it asks instead of watching
Automatic trackers can see which app was open. They can't see what you were doing in it.
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How to set the interval so it doesn't drive you insane
Every fifteen minutes on day one is a mistake. Here's a gentler way to start.
New posts show up here. If you want to talk about one, email me. It's just me reading it.
My week, graded. Every Sunday.
I run my own week through the app and send you the report, the bad weeks included, plus one thing worth trying. Short. One click to unsubscribe.