[FR] Double tap to backfill & start activity

[MrPixelized]

TL;DR - double tap action in the activities overview to backfill untracked time and continue.

Quite often (several times per day), I find myself selecting the untracked time, changing the activity, and then pressing continue. This might be the non-trivial sequence of steps that I repeat the most, and I think this likely goes for many other users.

Recently, the positions of various action buttons were changed in what I consider to be another fantastic update to the app. However, it got me re-thinking an idea I had before.

In the activities overview you can either single tap a task, or long press a task. I propose adding a double tap action, which backfills the most recent untracked time block before starting tracking of the activity. This breaks no workflows, but would make mine a lot, lot nicer.

Thanks very much for the continued development of this app!

[Razeeman]

Hello! Thank you for the feedback. This looks a bit specific, so not sure if it could be implemented in a intuitive way. Will have to look into it more. Maybe there is another solution to make this sequence of clicks easier.

[MrPixelized]

For some extra information, in looking for an approach that will be suitable: if the action were to be double tapping, it would be great if doing it while an activity is being tracked, would get the new one started at that same time. E.g. if 'meal' is currently being tracked and running for ten minutes, it'd be nice if double tapping 'with family' would start tracking of that activity at the same time as 'meal', unless there is preceding untracked space, in which case it should fill that of course.

[MrPixelized]

This looks a bit specific, so not sure if it could be implemented in a intuitive way

So.. let's agree on assumptions and discuss some other options!

Problem

The sequence of taps that we are talking here has a couple of cases, but I suggest we zoom into the following:

• Single activity case (6 actions, 2 long) go to history -> long press untracked -> change activity -> activity -> long press activity -> continue
• Simultaneous tracking case (13 actions, 5 long) go to history -> long press untracked -> change activity -> activity -> long press activity -> duplicate -> long press activity -> change activity -> activity -> long press activity -> continue & long press activity -> continue

I think this is not necessarily the most intuitive approach to both cases, but it is the (approximately) shortest. Do tell if I'm wrong. We have to have the problem well-defined before we can solve it of course.

For the double tracking case, muscle memory might kick in and cause one to accidentally press continue before duplicating, in which case the result is likely manually starting an activity and adjusting the start time so it roughly lines up. This has happened to me several times.

Idea 1

What if we added a 'backfill' button to the actions menu? This way you could start an activity, long press it (or tap it -> actions), and click 'backfill'. How would this impact the number of taps?

• Single tracking case (4 actions, 1 long) tap activity -> long press activity -> actions -> backfill
• Simultaneous tracking case (8 actions, 2 long) tap activity -> long press activity -> actions -> backfill; tap activity -> long press activity -> actions -> backfill One advantage of this for the simultaneous tracking case is that muscle memory can be leveraged twice. I think this will feel a lot more frictionless for users (at least myself) than the current option(s).

I want to list more but I have to get off the train now. I'll get back to you on this.

[Razeeman]

Really like the idea of backfill action. It would aligned well with merge action, which merges untracked time to previous record. Backfill will merge a record to previous untracked time. Will look into implementing it. Although it seems simultaneous tracking case would be longer because after the first backfill there wouldn't be any untracked time to backfill second record.

There is one way to simplify it by adding duplicate action for running timers. It is impossible to have two timers of the same activity, so instead of duplication right away, it could open activity selection, to choose activity of the new timer, which would have the same start time and end time, but different activity. Hope this makes sense.

By the way currently "Single tracking case" could be: go to history -> press untracked -> change activity -> activity -> actions -> continue. A bit easier than reopening record edit.

[MrPixelized]

I think using the 'backfull' action should backfill to the end of the most recently completed activity.

[Razeeman]

Was thinking about expanding on merge, and adding merge forward and merge backward. But your description of backfill looks like a different action. Maybe will implement both.

[Razeeman]

There is another issue recently was brought up, record shortcuts on the main tab #338. It would probably be possible to extend it to all kinds of other shortcuts. One kind of this shortcut could be Backfill button, clicking on it would change how timers are started, switching from "start from current moment" to "start from the last record". It woould be even faster than a separate backfill action: tap backfill shortcut -> tap activity. Just a thought that was floating around, not sure if it can be implemented, but seems good.