Work Time Tracker

A small desktop app for tracking real work time on a Windows PC.

I built this project for interest and learning, using a vibe-coding style. At the same time, it is a practical utility: it helps measure working time more accurately by separating active time from away time.

Project Idea

Many time trackers only count manual start/stop actions. This app also tracks real activity and inactivity events:

• keyboard and mouse activity
• screen off / sleep / lock states
• wake-up behavior (with false wake protection)
• optional Git branch context

The goal is simple: clear daily history with realistic numbers.

Tech Stack

• C#
• WPF (.NET net10.0-windows10.0.22621.0)
• MVVM (CommunityToolkit.Mvvm)
• SQLite (Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Sqlite)
• Windows system integrations (power events, tray icon, input hooks)

Main Screens

1. Timer Screen

Timer is the main dashboard for today.

What you can see:

• tracking status (Running / Stopped)
• start/stop button
• active time and away time for current work day
• first and last activity times
• list of activity/inactivity intervals
• Git branch summary for today (if repository path is set)

What you can do:

• start tracking
• stop tracking
• monitor your day in real time

2. History Screen

History shows saved days on the left and selected day details on the right.

What you can see:

• list of tracked days
• total "at PC" time for each day in the list
• for selected day: active/away totals, start/end times, total day time
• session intervals timeline
• Git branch summary for that day

What you can do:

• browse previous days
• compare work patterns
• open full day details

3. Day Detail Screen

Day Detail is a focused view for one day.

What you can see:

• selected date
• full day totals (active, away, total)
• detailed interval list
• Git branch summary for the day

What you can do:

• inspect a single day deeply
• return back to History

4. Settings Screen

Settings controls behavior and app preferences.

Available options:

• start app with Windows
• minimize to tray when closing window
• app language (Auto, Russian, English)
• work day start hour (for night shifts and late sessions)
• inactivity detection mode:
  • by screen off
  • by inactivity timeout
• timeout value (if timeout mode is selected)
• Git repository folder for branch tracking

What you can do:

• save settings and apply language
• choose your Git project path

Core Functions

• Automatic tracking starts on app startup.
• Session types are separated into:
  • Activity
  • Inactivity (with reason)
  • Sleep
• Inactivity reasons include:
  • keyboard/mouse idle
  • screen off
  • PC sleep
  • lock/unlock flow
• Wake validation helps ignore false wake-ups, so random wake events do not create fake work intervals.
• Git branch tracker polls current branch and creates branch sessions over time.
• Data is stored locally in SQLite.

Focus Time

The app also calculates focus quality from continuous Activity sessions:

• High focus: session duration is equal to or higher than the selected threshold.
• Medium focus: session duration is lower than the selected threshold.

You can configure the high-focus threshold in Settings:

• 30 min
• 1 h
• 2 h
• 3 h

The app also shows estimated effective work time:

Estimated effective work = High focus * High focus % + Medium focus * Medium focus %

Both percentages are configurable in Settings:

• High focus work percent (default 95%)
• Medium focus work percent (default 85%)

This data is visible in the Focus quality block on:

• Timer screen (current day)
• Day Detail screen

Data Storage

The app stores local data in:

• %LocalAppData%/WorkTimeTracking/worktimetracking.db
• %LocalAppData%/WorkTimeTracking/settings.json

No cloud sync is required.

How to Run

1. Install .NET SDK that supports the target framework in this project.
2. Build and run:

dotnet restore
dotnet build
dotnet run

Notes

This is an experiment-driven project, but it is useful in daily work. The main focus is practical time tracking with better accuracy than manual timers.