Activity KPI

Activity is the simplest of the KPIs: it is a pure ratio of how much a person actually interacted with the computer — through the mouse or keyboard — out of the total time tracked. It tells you nothing about what they were doing, only how much physical input there was.

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What it measures

The level of interaction with the computer through mouse and keyboard usage, expressed as the percentage of active seconds out of the total number of seconds tracked.

How it's calculated

Activity = Active seconds ÷ Total tracked seconds × 100

A second counts as "active" if there was mouse or keyboard input during it. Add up every active second across the tracked period and divide by the total seconds tracked.

Because it is a raw input ratio, Activity does not care which application was in use or whether the work was valuable — it only reflects physical interaction.

Example

Over an 8-hour tracked day, a person's mouse and keyboard were actually in use for about 2 hours' worth of seconds. Activity = 2 ÷ 8 = 25% — a healthy, typical figure.

What influences it

• The nature of the role — heavy typing and clicking roles (development, data entry, design) naturally score higher than roles with a lot of reading, watching, or calls.
• Meetings and reading — video calls, reviewing documents, or thinking away from the keyboard lower Activity even though real work is happening.
• Idle-time handling — how idle periods are saved or discarded changes the denominator.

How to read it

• Below 20% is low for roles that require regular computer interaction.
• 20–50% is typical and healthy for most jobs.
• Above 50% often signals deep focus — but it is hard for anyone to sustain all day.

As a rule of thumb, once Activity is above about 20–25%, things are generally on track. It is nearly impossible to reach 100%, so do not set that as an expectation.

A note on unusually high activity: Sustained activity near 90–100% for a full 8-hour day is, in practice, humanly very difficult — it would mean tapping the mouse or keyboard almost without pause. Persistently maxed-out activity can therefore be a sign that something other than a person is generating the input, such as an auto-clicker or a mouse mover (a "mouse jiggler"). If you see this pattern, it is worth a closer look — for example, opening the Chronicle to see what was actually happening during those periods.

Related

Workday, Productivity (which combines activity with tool usage), the Chronicle, and the Idle Time settings.