This article was published on February 21, 2011

Hardly Working lets you know how much you are paid to procrastinate


Hardly Working lets you know how much you are paid to procrastinate

There are a number of iPhone applications that will help you track how much time you are working on projects so that you can fairly bill your client or employer for the hours you have worked. Hardly Working tips that idea on its head, instead helping you track how much money you earn…when you are procrastinating.

As the Hardly Working team puts it:

Hardly Working is the fun way to track your time at work by letting you find out exactly how much you’re paid to perform your duties.

Ever wondered how much your boss is paying you to eat that sandwich, play that game of solitaire, or photocopy your face on the company’s stationery?

When you’re done, let Hardly Working save a personal record of your time. Feeling social? Why not post your earnings on Twitter, email them to friends or send them as SMS messages?

I downloaded the app and opened it up – it certainly is slick. To start with, you need to enter how you are paid (whether it be hourly or annually), your salary (I entered €3000 as a test) and the currency you are paid in. Enter those details and you will be taken into the a simple menu interface that lists default various time-wasting activities that you will be able track whilst finding out how much your employer is paying you to do so.

Choosing the option “Browse the net”, I immediately set about starting the timer:

As you can see, the app will work out your hourly rate and then highlight the amount of money you are being paid to do that specific activity. You can only one run timer, so if you wanted to multitask during your period of procrastination, you have another thing coming.

Once you have finished that activity, hitting “More” will give you the option to share the amount you were paid to “browse the net” – in my case, I was able to accrue €0.10:

Hardly Working is a fun little app that you can use to annoy or gross out you friends (especially if you decide to track how long it takes you “do a stinker”). Costing $0.99/£0.59, the app is cheap and will likely get you a few laughs.

Now, I’m off to track how long I can stare at this wall.

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