ActivTrak

ActivTrak is easy to install, free (for my use), and lightweight. I have it installed on the family computer so that I can track my kids' time and then categorize it. We have a system where they get rewards in the form of poker chips and then can spend them on things... like screen time. But I need to be able to differentiate between when they are on their computers doing something worthwhile (like Khan Academy) for which they are not charged any chips and then they are watching YouTube videos or playing Fortnite. That's what ActivTrak let's me do.

It took me a while to figure out how to get the kind of reports that I wanted out of the system. (I tried making my own based on the logs, first, and that didn't go well at all.) There are still segments of the reports that I don't understand, like an hour belonging to "system processes" or something like that. I think if I spend the effort I'll be able to categorize things like I want them to a little more automatically, but it takes a bit of effort.

ActivTrak is fairly hidden though can be found by developers/competent IT people who know what to look for and it gives a way to be able to see after a fair amount of customising and configuring. Some elements such as seeing what is being used are useful but also we did seem to be logging quite excessively information we didn't need to capture.

After spending a while customizing and adding what to track we did start to wonder if this too was taking more time than the benefits and it is also worth noting that ActivTrak doesn't take into account non computer based interactions so you might see a period of inactivity when someone is actually logged into a different system or on a different task then ActivTrak is blind to this interaction. We also noted that there is a risk people within your business think its a bit excessive and similar to forcing employees at home to keep a webcamera on all day.