I discovered RescueTime after watching the Robert Scoble interview with CEO Tony Wright. It's promoted as a tool for tracking your work on the web. The tagline is "ridiculously easy time management and analytics" and well, it is certainly easy. Whether or not it enhances my management of time is another matter. Time will tell.

RescueTime promotes itself as a free (always good) online tool for tracking your own internet usage. The steps are really quite basic- visit their site, download the app, let it track your online usage, receive a weekly report of your traffic. Simple right?

My first report was really interesting. Not because I was spending way too much time on Sports Illustrated (although I probably was) but that I spent more time tinkering than I thought I did in a week. For those who Twitter or FriendFeed, RescueTime could be a Godsend. For others who check and recheck their blog stats, I could also see the true purpose of the product: to renegotiate one's use of time. Like a monthly credit card statement, RescueTime serves as a mirror of reality.

I think back to that old saying, "you know your priorities by two things: your checkbook and your calendar". As the internet becomes an extension of both of these, RescueTime just might be the old fashioned yet high-tech way of keeping priorities in check. Check it out and let me know what you think.