Rize

Productivity can be quite hard to come by, especially in these times, when distractions just seem to multiply by the day. Maintaining a proper work-life balance is also important, because the off-time helps recoup your energy to make you more efficient when it matters.

Tracking those things takes time, though, and apps devoted to managing that for you have been surfacing in the past few years or so. Rize is one such example, as it charts what you do on your computer, integrates with your Google Calendar, and overall works to improve your habits.

A first look at this app will reveal that it was conceived to communicate everything clearly and concisely. The design allows it to show you your activity, work hours, sessions, and break timer metrics, all displayed in an intelligible manner.

That's primarily where the simplicity stems from, but additional features such as tagging your sessions, the automated tracking hours, and the overworking notification, come in very handy.

During our testing, upon booting it up, we minimized the app and continued with our work. Per its designation, Rize successfully tracked what we did during that time, slotted it into different categories, and even suggested when we should take a break.

The integration with Google Calendar was also useful. After connecting the two services, the software successfully added the contents from Google's solution, incorporating them into the graph for our day.

Tagging and categorizing were of use as well. Upon adding a manual session, we were able to categorize them by assigning tags. After that, the app grouped them into the Projects tab, where it displayed the metrics for the respective tagged entries.

Time is of value, and we've got to spend it responsibly. To that end, Rize can be of tremendous aid: its tracking capabilities, coupled with the modern interface it uses to drape its metrics over, make it an app worth picking up.