Will a time tracker share my data with my employer?
Many will, because they are sold to companies to monitor staff. Mark cannot: it has no employer dashboard, no team reporting, and your data never leaves your Mac, so there is nothing to share.
Answers
Straight answers.
Questions people actually ask about focus and honest time tracking, answered plainly.
Why do time trackers feel like lying to yourself?
Manual trackers make you rebuild the day from memory, so the numbers become a flattering guess. They feel like lying because they are fiction you produced to look defensible, not a true record of the work.
What is a focus coach?
A focus coach helps you decide what matters each day and then tells you honestly whether you did it. Unlike a time tracker that only records hours, a focus coach measures your day against the intention you set.
Is there a time tracker that doesn't take screenshots?
Yes. Mark tracks which apps and documents you use to understand your day, but it never takes screenshots, never records your screen, and never logs keystrokes. All of it stays on your Mac.
What's a private alternative to Rize?
Mark is a local-first alternative to Rize. It runs entirely on your Mac, your activity never leaves the device, and it is built around whether you did the one thing that mattered today rather than productivity scoring or billing.
What's a private alternative to RescueTime?
Mark is a local-first alternative to RescueTime. Your activity stays on your Mac instead of syncing to the cloud, and instead of scoring your productivity it tells you whether you did the one thing you decided mattered today.
Can a time tracker tell me if I worked on what actually mattered?
Most cannot, because they never asked what mattered. A tracker can only tell you if you worked on the right thing when you declare that thing first, so it has a target to compare the day against.
How do I know if I'm actually focused or just busy?
You are busy when the day felt full. You are focused when you moved the one thing you decided mattered. They feel identical from the inside, so you need something outside your head to tell them apart.