BENRI / GUIDES
Stay motivated by tracking today’s work percentage
See how much of today you have spent working and slacking. Use the times and work percentage as encouragement to keep going.
Make today’s effort visible
It can be hard to tell whether today has been productive or mostly spent slacking. Record work time and slack time separately to make the balance visible.
Your work percentage is work time divided by the total recorded work and slack time. Four hours working and one hour slacking is 80%. Use it as a target to bring the time you set aside for work closer to 100%.
A high percentage can encourage you to keep going. A growing amount of slack time can prompt you to put more effort into the rest of the day. The purpose is to maintain motivation through feedback about today.
Choose how to record the balance
BENRI updates the times and percentage as you switch between work and slack. Paper and a calculator suit occasional reviews; a spreadsheet lets you organize several days in your own format.
Scroll horizontally to compare →
Ways to record work and slack time| Method | What it does | When to choose it |
|---|
| BENRI Dual Work Timer | Live times and work percentage | See today’s balance while working |
|---|
| Paper and calculator | Write intervals and total them | Calculate with tools already at hand |
|---|
| Spreadsheet | A daily table of times and percentages | Organize several days in a custom table |
|---|
Track today’s percentage with BENRI
- Press Start when beginning today’s work. The work clock starts running.
- Switch to the slack side when you stop working, and back to work when you continue.
- Read the work time, slack time and work percentage. For example, “I am at 84%; let’s raise that a little” gives you a target for today.
- Pause for time you do not want to include, such as lunch, and resume afterward. Keep the same session for the working day.
- At the end of the day, stop the session to save it to history and see its work time and percentage.
Use one session from the start to the end of your working day to track today’s percentage. The screenshot shows an interim result: 42 minutes working, eight minutes slacking and an 84% work rate.
View work time, rest time and the work percentage together. The figures are an example. (Japanese interface.)BENRI Dual Work Timer: track today’s work percentage ↗
Calculate the percentage with paper and a calculator
- Write down each time you switch between work and slack.
- Total both kinds of time in minutes. For example, 240 work minutes and 60 slack minutes make 300 recorded minutes.
- Divide work minutes by total minutes and multiply by 100: 240 ÷ 300 × 100 = 80%.
No dedicated application is required. You record and add the intervals yourself, so BENRI is more convenient when you want frequent updates.
Organize daily records in a spreadsheet
- Create columns for date, work minutes, slack minutes and work percentage.
- Enter work time in column B and slack time in C. Put =B2/(B2+C2) in D2 and format it as a percentage.
- Add a row at the end of each day and compare it with earlier days.
You can add personal notes and targets. Timing is separate; one option is to enter the results you recorded with BENRI.
LibreOffice: working with time values
Use the number as encouragement to keep going
After four hours of work and one hour of slack, the percentage is 80%. Another hour of work brings it to about 83.3%: five hours working out of six recorded hours. The effort you add later can improve today’s balance.
Choose a motivating target, such as approaching 90% today or maintaining the strong percentage you already have, and use the changing times as feedback.
See the effort you put in at the end of the day
Review the work time, slack time and percentage saved in history. Working longer than yesterday or improving the balance during the afternoon can give you encouragement for the next day.
Use the live numbers while working and the saved record afterward to keep your motivation going.
