When you step away

Grindstone notices when you step away from your computer and, when you come back, asks what happened so your time stays honest. This topic covers how it decides you’re away, the Welcome Back dialog and its answers, putting the question off with Decide Later, and the Away settings.

How Grindstone notices you’ve stepped away

Grindstone decides you’ve stepped away when either of these happens:

• You go Minutes without input without using the keyboard or mouse. The default is 5 minutes.
• Something happens on your computer that you’ve told Grindstone counts as being away. By default, all of these count: the computer sleeping, the computer locking, a remote session disconnecting, and someone else signing in to the computer.

The time away starts from the last moment Grindstone saw you, not from when the minutes ran out. If you were idle for a while before locking the computer, the time away starts when you stopped using the keyboard or mouse.

You’re back when Grindstone sees you again, such as when you use the keyboard or mouse or unlock the computer.

By default, Grindstone only asks about time away while you’re timing something. To be asked even when you weren’t timing anything, turn on Ask even when nothing was being timed.

Short absences

Seconds away before it counts (one minute by default) sets how long an absence has to last before Grindstone asks about it. Shorter absences are forgotten.

It also decides when stepping away again is a new absence. If you come back and then leave again before that much time has passed, Grindstone treats it as the same absence continuing.

Time the workspace was closed

Closing a workspace doesn’t stop timing. When you open the workspace again, timing carries on, and the time it was closed counts toward what you were timing. Grindstone treats that time as time away and asks about it, just as if you’d stepped away. To stop being asked, turn off Ask about time the workspace wasn’t open while something was being timed; the time then simply stays with what you were timing.

While you’re away

Timing carries on while you’re away, and until you answer. Grindstone doesn’t take the time away out of anything until you tell it what happened.

While Grindstone has time away to ask you about, alerts from statuses and views wait. Once you answer Welcome Back or choose Decide Later, Grindstone shows the alerts that still apply. See Statuses and alerts and Views.

Welcome Back

When you come back, Grindstone opens Welcome Back in its window. If Grindstone isn’t in front:

• On Windows, unless Show the stopwatch is Never, the stopwatch appears with a waving hand; click it to go to Grindstone. See The stopwatch.
• On Windows, if Show the stopwatch is Never, Grindstone’s taskbar button flashes instead.
• On a Mac, unless Show the stopwatch is Never, Grindstone’s item in the menu bar shows a waving hand, and its menu starts with Tell Grindstone What Happened While You Were Away. See The stopwatch.
• On a Mac, if Show the stopwatch is Never, Grindstone’s icon in the Dock bounces instead.

Welcome Back shows how long you were away, why Grindstone thinks you were away (the computer locked, for example), and a timeline of the stretch marked with when you left and when you came back. If you left more than once before answering, it says how many times, and the timeline shows each absence.

Below the timeline, a sentence previews exactly what your answer will do, before anything changes. Pick an answer under So, what happened?, check the preview, and choose That’s What Happened.

The answers

If you were timing something when you left:

If you weren’t timing anything (only when Ask even when nothing was being timed is on), the answers are:

If you were away more than once, each answer applies to each absence. Time you spent back at the computer in between isn’t changed.

Picking what you were working on

When you choose I was working on something else., Grindstone asks what the time was for:

• Choose one of the chips, which start with what’s recorded during that stretch.
• Or search for it in the box beside the chips (Find another, or Find what the time was for when there are no chips). It searches your assignments, and the work items you aren’t assigned to yet, which are marked Not assigned yet. Picking one of those gives you a new assignment to it when you answer.
• Or choose New Work Item to create one and pick it.

Sorting it out on a timeline

When you choose It’s complicated, the button becomes Sort It Out. It opens While You Were Away, a timeline of the whole stretch where you can split the time between things down to the second. See Editing recorded time. If you cancel there, you’re back at Welcome Back with nothing changed.

Keep timing now that you’re back

If what you were timing when you left is still being timed, Welcome Back has a switch: Keep timing, followed by the timing label, now that I’m back. It starts on if you left and came back on the same day, and off if you came back on a later day.

When it’s off, timing stops as part of your answer:

• I was still at it. counts the time away, then stops timing at the moment you came back.
• It’s none of your business, Grindstone. ends what you were timing at the moment you last left.
• I was working on something else. gives the time away to what you picked, then stops timing at the moment you came back.

With It’s complicated, the timeline decides whether timing carries on.

Answering from the keyboard

While Welcome Back is open, you can answer without the mouse:

• Press a number key to choose that answer; each answer shows its number.
• Use the arrow keys to move between answers.
• Press Enter to choose That’s What Happened (or Sort It Out).
• Press Escape to choose Decide Later.

These keys don’t work while you’re typing in a box. See Keyboard shortcuts.

Decide Later

Decide Later closes Welcome Back without changing anything. Timing carries on as it was.

While a question is waiting, a waving-hand button appears in the app bar. Choose it to open Welcome Back again. Otherwise, Grindstone doesn’t ask again until the next time you come back from being away, or the next time you open the workspace.

A waiting question is kept with the workspace, so it’s still there if you close the workspace and open it again.

If you step away again before answering, the new absence joins the same question, so you answer for all of it at once. This includes stepping away while Welcome Back is open: it closes, and asks again when you’re back.

If you start, change or stop timing while a question is waiting, and you left and came back on the same day, Grindstone takes that as an answer: it drops the question and leaves the time as it was recorded.

Away settings

The Away tab of Settings has these settings:

Like every setting, these belong to the device, not the workspace. See Settings.

On the Mac

On a Mac, Grindstone notices time away the same way, from minutes without input and from the Mac sleeping, locking, or someone else signing in. The Away tab doesn’t offer Count a remote session disconnecting as being away on the Mac.