# Software to quickly/easily record activity by clicking a button

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/software-to-quickly-easily-record-activity-by-clicking-a-button/760836>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [July 25, 2016, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/software-to-quickly-easily-record-activity-by-clicking-a-button/760836 "2016-07-25T07:38:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/software-to-quickly-easily-record-activity-by-clicking-a-button/760836/1 "2016-07-25T07:38:30Z")

</div>

I’m getting my team to do a bit of time and motion capture - chiefly to record events that don’t already create their own audit trail (walk in calls and phone calls outside of the helpdesk ticketing system for example).

I could just get them to note it all down as tally marks on paper, but I’m wondering if there is a desktop app for this - something with just a panel of buttons (ideally configurable labels) that record the time and date they were clicked into a text file or DB.

Any ideas?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TwoCarrotSnowman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/twocarrotsnowman/32/15879_2.png) [@TwoCarrotSnowman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoCarrotSnowman)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/software-to-quickly-easily-record-activity-by-clicking-a-button/760836/2 "2016-07-25T11:00:45Z")

</div>

Have a look at a service called Harvest - it’s designed for people whose time is billable (lawyers, etc), and so allows easy start-stop of timing via a website or app, and the events can be logged against particular categories. It’s not free but not unreasonable, and there’s a free trial.  
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/software-to-quickly-easily-record-activity-by-clicking-a-button/760836/3 "2016-07-25T21:08:23Z")

</div>

I’ve wondered about that for a smart phone, to catch a fleeting event.

Right now I have to power-on, put in the secure code, open the camera app, configure it to video, and aim-and-shoot.

Yeah, well, as you can imagine, I’ve lost my chance to capture some interesting, very fast-moving events.

Is there a hot-button app that even bypasses the security screen? (My phone has a 9-1-1 button like that. Power-on…and scream for help.)