Idle detection
Idle detection pauses or flags a running timer when no keyboard or mouse activity is detected for a configurable period. It exists to prevent timers running during meetings, lunch breaks, or distractions.
RELATED CONCEPTS
Idle detection pauses or flags a running timer when no keyboard or mouse activity is detected for a configurable period — typically 5–15 minutes. When you return to your computer, the tool asks whether to keep, discard, or adjust the idle time recorded.
Why it exists
Without idle detection, leaving a timer running while you attend a 2-hour meeting, eat lunch, or step away from your desk results in inaccurate time entries. A tool that tracked “I left my Asana tab open from 9am to 6pm” would bill 9 hours to a client for a task that took 45 minutes.
Idle detection solves this by monitoring keyboard and mouse input. After N minutes of no input, the timer either pauses automatically or flags the idle period for manual review.
How different tools handle idle time
| Tool | Idle detection behaviour | Default threshold |
|---|---|---|
| Toggl Track | Shows popup: “You were idle for X min — discard or keep?“ | 5 minutes (configurable) |
| Clockify | Detects idle and prompts to delete idle time | 5 minutes (configurable) |
| Harvest | No built-in idle detection on the basic timer | N/A |
| Hubstaff | Flags idle time in the activity report; can pause timer | 5 minutes |
| Time Doctor | ”Are you still working?” popup; marks idle in reports | 3 minutes |
The important distinction: idle detection vs activity scoring
Idle detection is a time-accuracy tool. It helps you record accurate hours. It is neutral — both Toggl (trust-first) and Hubstaff (enforcement-first) use it.
Activity scoring (Hubstaff, Time Doctor) is a monitoring tool. It measures keyboard + mouse activity as a percentage of time tracked and reports this metric to managers. This is surveillance, not accuracy.
The distinction matters for rollout: employees generally accept idle detection (“it helps me not bill for my lunch break”) but resist activity scoring (“it tells my manager how many times I moved the mouse this afternoon”).
Related concepts
- Timesheet — where the accurate time entries live
- Project tracking — what idle time is attributed to
Tools with good idle detection
- Toggl Track review — the popup-on-return UX is the most user-friendly
- Clockify review — functional idle detection on all tiers including free
- Hubstaff review — idle detection plus activity scoring if enforcement is needed