time-tracking

Time Tracking

Overview

Patterns for capturing and aggregating time from multiple sources to generate accurate timesheets with minimal manual entry.

Time Sources

1. Calendar Events

Primary source for scheduled time.

Extraction:

Event: "Project Alpha - Weekly Sync"
Start: 2025-01-22 10:00
End: 2025-01-22 11:00
Duration: 1.0 hours
Project: Project Alpha (from title or category)

Filtering rules:

• Include: Work meetings, client calls, focused work blocks
• Exclude: Personal events, lunch, commute, all-day events (unless work)
• Map: Calendar categories → Projects

2. Meeting Notes

Validated time with context.

Meeting notes often capture actual duration vs. scheduled:

---
date: 2025-01-22
start: 10:00
end: 11:15  # Actual end (went over)
attendees: [Client A, Manager]
project: Project Alpha
---

Priority: Meeting notes override calendar when both exist (actual > scheduled).

3. TaskNote Time Logged

Task-specific time tracking.

TaskNotes may include time logged:

---
time_logged:
  - date: 2025-01-22
    hours: 2.5
    description: "Analysis work"
---

Aggregation: Sum time_logged entries per project.

4. Daily Note Entries

Manual capture via /capture-time.

Daily notes contain time entries:

## Time Log

- 09:00-10:00 | Project Alpha | Email review and responses
- 10:00-11:15 | Project Alpha | Weekly sync (ran over)
- 11:15-12:00 | Project Beta | Document review
- 13:00-15:30 | Project Alpha | Analysis work
- 15:30-16:00 | Admin | Timesheet review

Parsing: Time range + Project + Description

5. Manual Entry (/capture-time)

End-of-day capture when other sources insufficient.

Prompt user for:

1. What did you work on today?
2. Which projects?
3. Approximate time per activity?

Write to daily note in standard format.

Aggregation Algorithm

FOR each day in week:

  1. LOAD calendar events
     - Filter to work events
     - Map to projects
     - Calculate durations

  2. LOAD meeting notes for day
     - Override calendar duration if exists
     - Use actual start/end times

  3. LOAD TaskNote time_logged
     - Sum entries by project

  4. LOAD daily note time entries
     - Parse time log section
     - Add to project totals

  5. DEDUPLICATE
     - Meeting notes win over calendar
     - Explicit entries win over inferred
     - Flag conflicts for review

  6. CALCULATE daily totals by project

AGGREGATE to weekly totals by project

Project Mapping

From Calendar

Calendar Category	Project
"Client A"	Project Alpha
"Client B"	Project Beta
"Internal"	Admin
"Training"	Professional Development

From Meeting Titles

"Project Alpha - *" → Project Alpha
"[Client B] *" → Project Beta
"1:1 with *" → Admin (unless project specified)
"Training: *" → Professional Development

From Tags/Properties

If using Obsidian properties:

project: Project Alpha
client: Client A

Output Format

Daily Breakdown

**Monday, January 20** - Total: 8.5 hours

Project Alpha (5.0 hours)
  • 09:00-10:00 Email review
  • 10:00-11:15 Weekly sync
  • 13:00-15:30 Analysis work
  • 15:45-16:00 Status update

Project Beta (2.5 hours)
  • 11:15-12:00 Document review
  • 14:00-15:30 Client call

Admin (1.0 hours)
  • 16:00-17:00 Timesheet and planning

Weekly Summary

HOURS BY PROJECT:
┌─────────────────────────┬──────────┐
│ Project                 │ Hours    │
├─────────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ Project Alpha           │ 24.5     │
│ Project Beta            │ 12.0     │
│ Admin                   │ 3.5      │
├─────────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ TOTAL                   │ 40.0     │
└─────────────────────────┴──────────┘

HOURS BY DAY:
Mon: 8.5 | Tue: 8.0 | Wed: 7.5 | Thu: 8.0 | Fri: 8.0

Confidence Scoring

Rate data quality:

Confidence	Criteria
High (90%+)	Meeting notes with times, manual entries
Medium (70%)	Calendar events, TaskNote logging
Low (50%)	Inferred from context, estimated

Overall confidence = weighted average of sources used.

Report confidence in output:

Data confidence: 85%
Sources: Calendar (60%), Meeting notes (30%), Manual (10%)

Gap Detection

Identify unaccounted time:

Expected work hours: 8.0
Logged hours: 6.5
Gap: 1.5 hours

Possible explanations:
- No events 11:00-12:00 (lunch?)
- No events 16:00-17:00 (admin work?)

Recommend: Run /capture-time for missing periods

/capture-time Flow

1. Show today's logged time

   Today (Jan 22) - Currently logged: 5.5 hours
   
   • 09:00-10:00 | Project Alpha | Email
   • 10:00-11:15 | Project Alpha | Meeting
   • 13:00-15:30 | Project Beta | Analysis
   

2. Identify gaps

   Gaps detected:
   • 11:15-12:00 (45 min)
   • 15:30-17:00 (1.5 hours)
   

3. Prompt for each gap

   What did you do 11:15-12:00?
   > [User: Lunch]
   
   What did you do 15:30-17:00?
   > [User: Worked on Project Alpha documentation]
   

4. Update daily note

   Added to time log:
   - 15:30-17:00 | Project Alpha | Documentation work
   
   New total: 7.0 hours (excluding lunch)
   

Integration with /timesheet

/timesheet command should:

1. Determine week boundaries (Mon-Fri or Sun-Sat)
2. Run aggregation algorithm for each day
3. Handle partial weeks (current week through today)
4. Generate daily breakdown + weekly summary
5. Report confidence score
6. Flag days with low coverage for follow-up

Error Handling

Issue	Handling
Calendar unavailable	Proceed with other sources, flag low confidence
No data for day	Flag as gap, recommend /capture-time
Conflicting entries	Prefer explicit (meeting notes) over inferred (calendar)
Overlapping times	Flag for review, don't double-count
Project not recognized	Default to "General" or prompt user