Importance Categories

Every application and website detected by Intelogos is assigned an importance category. These categories directly affect how Engagement and Productivity are calculated, making them one of the most impactful settings you can configure. This guide explains what each category means, why proper setup matters, and how to adjust it.

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What Are Importance Categories?

Every tool (application or website) tracked by Intelogos falls into one of four importance categories:

Primary

Primary tools are where a user is expected to spend the majority of their work time. These are the core tools for someone's role — the applications they open first and use most throughout the day.

Examples by role:

• Developers: VS Code, IntelliJ, PyCharm
• Designers: Figma, Adobe XD, Sketch
• Sales teams: CRM systems (Salesforce, HubSpot)
• Analysts: Excel, Google Sheets, BI tools

Best practice: Only 1–3 tools should be marked as Primary per role. Being selective keeps the metric meaningful.

Secondary

Secondary tools are work-related but supporting. Users need them to do their jobs, but they are not where the core work happens.

Examples:

• Communication tools: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Email
• Meeting software: Zoom, Google Meet
• Documentation: Notion, Confluence, Google Docs
• Project management: Jira, Asana, Monday.com

Distracting

Distracting tools are not related to work and should be minimized. Time spent here does not contribute to achieving work goals.

Examples:

• Social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok
• Entertainment: Netflix, YouTube (for non-media roles), gaming sites
• Personal shopping sites

Neutral

Neutral is the default state for any tool that has not yet been categorized. Neutral tools are effectively uncategorized — Intelogos makes no judgment about whether they help or hinder work.

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Why Importance Categories Matter

Work Tools = Primary + Secondary

The combination of Primary and Secondary tools is what Intelogos considers "work tools." This distinction is critical because two of the most important KPIs are calculated based on it:

• Engagement — The portion of total tracked time spent in Primary and Secondary tools. A user with 70% Engagement spends 70% of their tracked time in work tools.
• Productivity — The portion of active work minutes spent in Primary and Secondary tools, relative to expected work time. This factors in both time and activity to measure how effectively someone is using their work hours.

If important work tools are left as Neutral, time spent in them will not count toward Engagement or Productivity, making those metrics artificially low. Conversely, if personal tools are mistakenly categorized as Primary or Secondary, the metrics will be inflated.

Getting It Right

Accurate importance categories mean:

• KPIs reflect reality — Engagement and Productivity numbers you can trust
• Dashboard comparisons are fair — departments and individuals are evaluated on the same basis
• Trends are meaningful — changes in metrics reflect actual behavior changes, not categorization gaps

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Default Categorization

When a new Intelogos account is created, it already comes with a default categorization for many common tools. Intelogos maintains a database of thousands of applications and websites, and popular tools will be pre-categorized based on their typical use.

This means you will not be starting from scratch. However, the defaults are general-purpose and may not match how your specific organization uses certain tools. For example, YouTube might be defaulted to Distracting, but for a marketing or media team it may be Secondary.

Reviewing and adjusting the defaults for your team is an important step in getting accurate data.

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How to Adjust Importance Categories

There are two main places to manage importance categories: directly from the Dashboard for quick edits, and in Settings → Tools for comprehensive management.

Method 1: Quick Edit from the Dashboard

This is the fastest way to recategorize tools while reviewing your Dashboard.

1. Navigate to the Dashboard.
2. Locate the Primary tools or Secondary tools card. A pencil icon appears in the top-right corner of these two cards (it is not available on the Distracting/Neutral card).
3. Click the pencil icon. A popup opens that works the same way as the tool categorization in Settings — it shows the four category boxes (Primary, Secondary, Distracting, Neutral) where you can add or move tools between categories.
4. Use the department dropdown to choose which department the changes apply to (e.g., All users, Engineering, Design).
5. Add tools to categories, move tools between categories, or remove them as needed.
6. Click Save changes to apply.

Method 2: Comprehensive Management in Settings

For bulk changes, applying presets, and managing categories across departments, use the Settings page.

1. Navigate to Settings from the left sidebar.
2. Click the Tools tab (/settings/tools).
3. You will see four category boxes: Primary tools, Secondary tools, Distracting tools, and Neutral tools.
4. Each box has an + Add button to add tools to that category.
5. Use the + Department dropdown at the top-right to filter and apply categorizations per department or for all users.
6. Make your changes across categories as needed.
7. Click Save changes at the bottom of the page.

Using Presets:

1. On the Settings → Tools page, click the + Add presets button in the card header.
2. A presets drawer opens with recommended tool sets for common job roles.
3. Select a preset to quickly apply a baseline categorization.
4. Adjust individual tools as needed after applying the preset.

Method 3: From the Tools Page

You can also edit importance categories from the dedicated Tools page.

1. Navigate to Tools from the left sidebar.
2. In the table, hover over any tool's Importance category cell — a pencil icon appears.
3. Click the pencil icon to open the "Edit importance by department" modal.
4. For each department listed, select Primary, Secondary, Distracting, or Neutral from the dropdown.
5. Changes save immediately.

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Setting Categories for All Users vs. Per Department

Start with "All Users"

When you first set up importance categories, the simplest approach is to configure them for All users. This applies the same categorization across your entire organization and gives you a solid baseline.

Steps in Settings → Tools:

1. Make sure the department dropdown at the top-right shows All users (this is the default).
2. Add tools to Primary, Secondary, and Distracting as appropriate for most of your team.
3. Save changes.

This is the recommended starting point because it is faster to set up and ensures every user has some categorization from day one.

Then Refine Per Department

Once the baseline is in place, you can override the "All users" setting for specific departments where tool usage differs. For example:

• Slack might be Secondary for most teams but Primary for a Support department that lives in Slack all day.
• Figma might be Primary for Design but Neutral for Engineering (if engineers rarely use it).
• YouTube might be Distracting for most teams but Secondary for a Marketing team that produces video content.

Steps in Settings → Tools:

1. Use the + Department dropdown to select a specific department (e.g., "Design").
2. Adjust the categorization for tools that differ from the "All users" default.
3. Save changes.

Department-specific settings override the "All users" default for users in that department. Tools that are not specifically overridden for a department keep the "All users" setting.

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Tools That Are Not in the Database

Intelogos maintains a database of thousands of commonly used applications and websites. Tools in this database:

• Appear with their logo and name already recognized
• Can be searched and categorized right away in any of the categorization interfaces

However, your team may use internal tools, niche software, or custom web applications that are not yet in the Intelogos database. Here is what happens with those:

1. Detection: As soon as someone on your team spends time using an unrecognized tool, Intelogos detects it and adds it to the system.
2. Default state: The new tool appears as a Neutral tool — uncategorized by default.
3. Categorization: Once the tool appears in the Neutral category (on the Dashboard, in Settings → Tools, or on the Tools page), you can assign it to the appropriate importance category just like any other tool.

Best practice: Periodically review the Neutral tools list — on the Dashboard, in Settings → Tools, or on the Tools page — to catch newly detected tools and categorize them. This keeps your Engagement and Productivity metrics accurate over time.

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Best Practices

• Start with presets, then customize. Apply a preset that roughly matches your team's roles, then fine-tune individual tools.
• Be selective with Primary. Only the 1–3 most important tools for a role should be Primary. Everything else work-related is Secondary.
• Review Neutral tools regularly. Aim to categorize new tools within a week of first detection. High Neutral time makes Engagement and Productivity less accurate.
• Use department-specific categories when needed. The same tool can have different importance for different teams — set it accordingly.
• Revisit quarterly. Workflows change, new tools get adopted, old tools get replaced. Review and update categories every few months.
• Don't overthink Distracting. Small amounts of time in Distracting tools (5–10%) is normal for breaks. The goal is visibility, not elimination.