Some people like to have absolute control over the way they spend time. Some other people simply have to, because their wages depend on the amount of hours they work.

In either case, ManicTime is a very useful application to control how and where you spend time while sitting in front of a computer. This program sits unobtrusively in the system tray and keeps track of absolutely anything you do with your PC: websites you open, e-mails you send, documents you write, etc. It doesn’t record what you actually write or read; it just controls the applications you use and the time you spend on each one of them.

With all the collected data, ManicTime generates nice, colorful timelines and charts with which you can have an accurate view of how you spend your time, either if it's for work reasons, because you want to put an end to your procrastination habit or just for fun. You can browse the list of activities, filter it to search for a certain element and also tag the information to make it easier to handle. It's a pity the program doesn't include an option to export data to other formats and create reports with it.

If you need to track the time you spend on the computer, be it for works reasons or just for curiosity, ManicTime is the tool you need.