What an estimated activity duration actually tells you

An activity-duration estimate describes intervals inferred from recorded observations. It does not directly measure effort, attention, output or billable work.

CiteSilo displays these estimates as optional context beside recorded activity. Understanding the gaps makes the numbers more useful.

How the current estimate is bounded

In CiteSilo 0.1.7, counted intervals are bounded by observations, with a maximum gap of 90 seconds between observations. The normal heartbeat is one minute. An unfinished tail does not add speculative time after the last observation.

This avoids treating an indefinitely open window as continuous activity. It also means that the estimate is limited by the observations available.

Older records may lack boundaries or last-input information that newer recordings use. A new version cannot reconstruct missing detail in an old log.

Why reading can look idle

Keyboard and mouse input are useful signals, but they do not capture every kind of work. Reading, thinking and listening can happen without input.

The app can therefore classify some genuine work as idle. Conversely, visible application activity does not establish that useful progress occurred.

Use your knowledge of the task when reviewing a surprising interval. Do not turn a number into a judgement about productivity without considering what happened.

Why interruptions and boundaries matter

Pause, sleep, screen lock, excluded windows and unreadable windows can interrupt the available record. These boundaries help avoid joining separate periods into a misleading continuous block.

A short gap may represent an interruption, a permission problem or a change in what was observable. The log alone may not tell you which explanation applies.

Check retained sources and your own notes when the distinction matters.

Use project totals carefully

Project totals can help answer an approximate question such as “Which project occupied more of my recorded day?” They are weaker evidence for “How many hours should I invoice?”

Billable time can include meetings, offline work and agreed minimums that a desktop record does not capture. It can also exclude activity that happens to be associated with a project.

If you need invoicing or approved timesheets, maintain the records required by that process. The beta’s activity estimates are not a replacement.

Keep the display optional

In Today, open Projects and activity and enable Show estimated activity duration if the numbers help. The preference starts off and changes display only; it does not enable tracking or screen capture.

You can organize and revisit work using tags and sources without displaying durations at all.

When an estimate needs correction, use the app’s bounded correction control and keep any explanation in your own work records. Corrected project totals do not recalculate existing AI reports or attention statistics.

Read project tags in CiteSilo for organizing activity and weekly reviews for turning evidence into decisions.