Total time, effective time & productive time — explained
Not every logged minute is equal. Here’s how HawkLens separates total time, time accuracy, effective time, and productive time — and why it matters.
Most tools show one number: hours. Teams actually need four ideas. HawkLens surfaces them clearly so managers and employees share the same language.
Total time
Total time is the full span of a work session — from Start to Finish, including meetings, breaks, and short interruptions. It answers: how long was someone on the clock?
Time accuracy
Time accuracy is how closely that clock matches reality. Missed starts, forgotten stops, and noisy idle detection destroy accuracy. PINNs help by reconstructing plausible timelines from partial signals instead of trusting every edge case as gospel.
Effective time
Effective time removes pure idle and long unplanned away periods. Meetings can still count as effective when they are intentional work. Effective time answers: how much of the day was spent doing something work-related?
Productive time
Productive time is the subset of effective time spent on tasks your company treats as high-value — deep work on client deliverables, coding, design, analysis. Distraction apps and endless chat do not count the same way.
Together, these four metrics let HawkLens show not only that time was tracked, but that it was understood.
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