How in the Tech

Measure productivity by tracking the distance of your mousing

By Adam Myers ⋅ January 19, 2010 ⋅ Tags: Productivity

How often do you find yourself daydreaming throughout your work day wondering just how far your mouse has traveled? Rhetorical question I realize but suffice to say, probably never! It’s an admittedly silly metric but perhaps that’s what makes it so interesting. Additionally, it makes for an interesting discussion as it relates to measuring ones productivity. Clearly, it depends on the type of work involved on the computer but it stands to reason a productive worker doing the same task could have his results measured against another and have a few conclusions drawn. Everything hinges on the fact of being able to track the distance your mouse travels.

Mousotron can be considered a novelty utility to most as it answers a question few are asking – how far has my mouse traveled, how many clicks have been preformed, or how many keystrokes have been completed? Mousotron is a free Windows utility that sits in the tray and monitors all of the preceding activity. Mouse clicks are broken down between left, right, and middle; it even tracks double clicks and mousewheel movements. Humorously, Mousotron can provide the speed of your mousing in ml/hr. How fast can you move? While not being the most pleasant of interfaces to look at, it’s really not about that.

Imagine the expression on your supervisors face during your next performance review when you lead a discussion point with did you know I’ve recorded over 3 million keystrokes in the last year?