I now have a need to keep up with the hours that I spend on different tasks. What is the best way to do this?

I have installed and used Time Cult and that works pretty good as a timer. I have not used the reporting features that much. My problem is I often forget to start the timer. I think I can enter the time in manually but I am not sure.

Right now I am thinking a good combo might be some sort of web based time sheet and timing application (prefferably a google desktop plugin). The time sheet could serve as the overall reporting method and the timer would help me keep up with the tasks.

I realize that I would have to manually enter the time into the time sheet but I do not think that will be that big of inconvience. It will probably be less time than I would spend correctly entering the time in Time Cult because I forgot to start the timer.

How does this sound? What other solutions are out there?

I'm not aware of any google desktop plugins.

I like to search delicious for certain tags to see what others are bookmarking. In this case it'd be time management. Delicious is really good for searching for specific items or programs you may need.

Delicious time management search

I have found a timer / stop watch for the Google tool bar it called Clock by Marc Belmont. This will allow you to create new / multiple stop watches (count up) and timers (count down).

My plan is to use this timer in conjunction with a time sheet program. The time cult worked well but to often I forgot to start the progam and then it was more work to get the time worked into the Time Cult Program. Using the time sheet it will be easier to enter and record large blocks of time. Many times I can look back and say that I spent the entire morning on "Project X".

The timer will be used as a tool recording the time on a task. It will then be up to me to determine the best way to record those hours in another program. This new system will have a manual step but I believe it will be more efficient

Currently I am more concerned with the big picture rather than the fine details of how I spend my time. I would rather have a step for me to perform and better data than a purely automatic solution that does not produce usable results.

I will let you know how it goes.

I have found a time sheet program that has worked real well so far. It is Timesheet Xpress http://www.timesheetxpress.com/

The cost appears to be $80 per year. The nice thing about this program is that it runs in the background and prompts you at a desired interval to fill in you task for that period. The pop up is fairly unobtrusive and easy to skip if you can not fill it out.

This may be the program for me to buy and adopt.