I just installed RescueTime – a free product which aims to provide users with a cold, impartial analysis of how you spend time on your computer – without data entry. RescueTime runs in the background and (basically speaking) tracks the focus of windows on your computer to compile a report which you can have emailed or published in an RSS feed.
You can even define productivity goals and measure your progress! So, if you have decided to spend 50% less time processing email, RescueTime will let you know if you are on track to achieve that goal.
There are obvious privacy concerns with any product that “tracks” activity on your computer. However, RescueTime does a good job of addressing these concerns by providing useful features to whitelist and suspend tracking for activity that you don’t want to include in reports:
What about my privacy?
We take privacy pretty seriously, and it was one of our biggest concerns when we built RescueTime. Our first line of privacy defense is to provide a prominent pause feature that allows you to suspend tracking. Second of all, you can delete any particular data. Finally, we ensure that the only thing we track is the names of the apps and sites you use and the times that you use them. We also offer a “Whitelist” feature that allows you to only track the web sites that you want to. For more details, check out our privacy policy.
RescueTime also offers a paid version that will track the productivity of a workgroup.. so it looks like the product is also aimed at small businesses who are serious about measuring the results of adopting alternative processes and workstyles. It may provide weary commuters everywhere with a great tool to convince management that it’s time to start adopting work-at-home options!
This may be a perfect way to measure once and for all how much time I really spend with email, eBay and celebrity gossip blogs. If my results aren’t too terribly embarrassing, I will post again in a month’s time to share the verdict. 
I rely on Mary for technical advice and assistance with my website updates. Although I consider myself savvy, sometimes I worry that I know just enough to be dangerous. It is those times that I call in Mary. What takes her 1/2 hour to complete, equates to 4 hours of my time. They say, "leave it to the experts," and I say that Mary is mine!