[Feature] Starting task in the past & adjusting the moment of task switch

[1over137]

Thanks for the project! Sometimes, I forget to track when an activity starts, but only 3, 5, or 30 minutes after. The workflow would be nicer if by adjusting the current activity start time, the previous activity end time is automatically adjusted back. (Assuming multitasking is off).

[pat-richter]

You might check the "show untracked" setting and maybe the calendar view. You will see the latest time as "untracked" and can choose an activity for it. Also see the discussion here: https://github.com/Razeeman/Android-SimpleTimeTracker/issues/52

Does this help?

[jan-lehmkuhl]

Thanks also for this great project.
I have the same use case like @1over137 very often. A colleague steps by and we start a discussion or I switch my working focus and do the time tracking when I am finished.
Of course its possible to adjust everything in the records list, but it takes to much time/clicks, so I often skip these steps which is sad.

In addition it might be an idea to add a long press option to a new activity like: "Start activity earlier" and ask for the minutes.

[1over137]

Now that I see the new +/- minutes feature. @Razeeman thanks for the update! Some feedback:

1. That screen is mostly empty, so there really is no need to hide those behind a small button xD.
2. It would be nicer if by adjusting start of an activity, you also adjusted the end of the previous activity, so you don't have to be constantly looking through history and do the same thing again.
3. To better implement the workflow I'm suggesting here, there should be an extra operation on the activity icons, such as by long-pressing (the current long press to edit can be hidden behind an "edit mode" button, since it's presumably not used all that often once you established your tracking system), or by holding icon and dragging up or down. This can then display an interface to select time (for starting activity in the past, the further you drag, the further in the past)

[Razeeman]

Hello! Thank you for the suggestions.

1. Screen is mostly empty only when dropdowns are not opened, but when activity selection or tag selection opened they should have as much space as possible in my opinion. Because of this +/- is hidden. Also there is a plan to add more options to +/- (for example select time of a previous or next records).
2. In the latest update a feature was added to adjust previous record time when editing current record time.
3. This is an interesting suggestion, but I'm not sure it would be easier than just starting activity, long click to edit it, and change its time to the past.

[1over137]

The latest update feels like a downgrade to me. In order to track everything I do, I have to go back and start tasks in the past in advance several times a day. Now this option is hidden behind two layers. I think the earlier design was better when it was a more accessible standalone option. Alternatively, if you don't want to change the design back, you can also provide an option to use this as a default. It is quite reasonable for users to expect changing start time back will overwrite the old activity when multitask is off, in my opinion. Also, there is a bug where if there were multiple activities in the past and changing previous record covers the entirety of the activity, it seems to create a zero length activity without removing the other activity that is now overlapping with the current one.

[Razeeman]

@1over137 The rationale behind putting "Adjust previous record" under the Actions dropdown is because it is more space there to show the changes that would be made to records, which is useful to see before doing the changes. In terms of clicks: it was one click one the checkbox and click to save, now it is one click on the dropdown and click on the Change button, so it seems the same. About a bug I agree that this functionality needs more work to do. Now it changes only one previous record and one next, basically assuming that the multitasking is off. If activity will completely cover previous activity after the change, previous activity reduced to zero and moved so it will not overlap anymore. It seems like an extreme case which is difficult to handle. What do you think should happen in this case instead? For example if I have activity 8:00-9:00 and two previous activities 7:00-8:00 and 6:00-7:00 and I change 8:00-9:00 activity to 5:00-9:00.

[1over137]

Maybe the time adjustment buttons should just be shown by default in order for this to be a bit easier. What I think should happen is it should just delete the activity(ies) which is completely covered, and then cut into the activity before that.

[Razeeman]

About time adjustment buttons, I think it would be possible to made them visible by default. I'll try that.

Removing activities seems too extreme. Maybe there should be a checkbox for the choice: remove completely covered activities or move them out of the way.

Will this work?

[1over137]

I'm not sure why you wouldn't want to remove completely covered activities, if you actually want to move the start time so far back. Maybe there can be a confirmation when the adjustment would completely cover a previous activity. This is a pretty rare case though, I mostly want to make sure it doesn't result in weird overlaps or broken timeline. Moving them out of the way doesn't make much sense to me. What does that mean? For the time adjustment buttons, would it also be possible to (maybe optionally) simply show another "save" button, but with "save and change previous record"?