The other day — well, actually it was yesterday — someone from RescueTime commented on a recent post about an automatic time tracking utility that I found which I am looking at to replace RescueTime.

The commenter essentially posted a rebuttal about some comments I made regarding RescueTime.  He was partly right

At the time, I simply assumed that whoever it was that had dropped by to make a comment was one of the marketing guys, or a PR guy, or maybe even a programmer.  When I had some more time, I did some clicking around, and it turns out it was the guy who founded the company.  His name is Tony Wright, and he has a blog.  (Actually, he has a couple.)

I started reading his blog at www.TonyWright.com.  I like it.  It’s like some of the other “bigger name” blogs from so-called serial entrepreneurs who start-up multiple companies, only it actually makes sense.  And it isn’t all about venture capital, which unless you are starting up a web-service business, you will almost certainly never need or use.

Two really great things about it are that it both has interesting stories and events to relate, and that he drops the names of a lot of cool services, companies, or people that I haven’t really come across before.

I’m always looking for new sources of business, start-up, and entrepreneur information that I can actually stomach reading.  (Sorry, but most of those guys are so self promotional that I can’t help but wonder if they’re one quiet month away from dumpster diving.)  So, it was nice to come across his blog.

I’ve been a fan of RescueTime for a while.  I like the way that it automatically logs what I’m doing, when I’m doing it.

I frequently finish writing up a great article or other project and look up the clock and wonder, “How long did that take me to write?”

The issue is that as a freelance writer, entrepreneur, and business owner, I multi-task, a lot.  Whenever I read some time management guru give advice about focusing on one thing I laugh out loud.  Anyone who has ever run their own start-up knows that breaking your day out into inviolable blocks of scheduled time during which you ignore other tasks and activities is a fantasy.

That means that sometimes, I start an article, and then get a phone call from an important client (Let it go to voicemail the “experts” say. Yeah, right.  The reason I’m their first phone call is because I not only answer the phone, I answer on the first ring.  You don’t get the high paying, emergency, super-short deadline project when it takes you 30 minutes or an hour to get back to them.  By then, they’ve already called six other firms.)

That phone call may lead to six other tasks I have to do, some quickly, and others later.  Some of those tasks may require waiting (like having a call returned) during which time I might work on the article.  The extra tasks may cause the time I am spending writing the article to run into an appointment that I have scheduled, so there is a pause while I go to the meeting, and so on and so forth.

In other words, an article that took from 1:30 PM until 4:20 PM in total, may have only taken me 45 minutes to write all together.  There is no way I would ever be able to find that out without an automated time tracker.

What I like about RescueTime is that it only counts the active application as using my time.  This means I don’t get fake counts because I have Word open in the background.  Also, it stops counting automatically when I stop using my computer so that those 4 minute phone calls don’t end up falsely adding an extra 16 minutes.

But there has always been one thing that really bugs me about RescueTime.  It’s a web enabled Internet application for no reason.  (After reading Tony’s comment below, I am retracting the no reason thing.  There are good reasons.  They just aren’t the ones I have use for.) Sure, if you are collaborating with a team, or if your boss is reviewing how you spend your time, the online thing is great, but if you are a single freelancer working out of your basement office, there is no reason to be sending all that data out into cyberspace.

Sure, they have a privacy policy, and yes, they have security, but as the recent Twitter thing reminded everyone, that isn’t enough.  Besides, it is yet another, no profit, tiny revenues, free-version with a pay-version, company that could go out of business at anytime or get bought out by someone else.  If that happens, all that data may just well be the most valuable asset the company has, and investors and founders looking to get the money back could sell it easily.

Unfortunately, there is no offline, no network, local install version of RescueTime.

Today, I found ManicTime, which is, for my purposes anyway, everything that RescueTime is without the online web-based part.  ManicTime installs locally, doesn’t make me register (and give out my email address), and doesn’t make me log in so that someone, somewhere could find out exactly what I was doing every day for a week, a month, a year, or longer.

I’m still testing, but so far, so good.  It looks like RescueTime will be out and ManicTime will be in.

So, I keep seeing people called Serial Entrepreneurs. A Serial Entrepreneur is someone who starts up a business, gets is going, sells it, or lets it run on auto-pilot and then starts a new business. I recently quit working for the man, and when I did I started a freelance writing business. Then, I started a personal finance web site, partially to help develop writing samples for the freelance writing business. Then, I started this site, and a parenting web site specifically for Dads on the same day. I also registered a domain name for my next business (still in development) on that day. While we were at it, I decided that I had a lot to offer the business community in the form of management and professional consulting and coaching. I have a list of domain names in a text file waiting for that one. Interestingly enough, while searching for those domain names, another business idea popped into my head that better fit one of the domain names than the original idea did. My frustration at finding good solid detailed information, and not just a couple of little keyword heavy articles with an offer to buy an ebook or whatever, led me to come up with an idea for a much better search engine that the ones we have today (watch out Google!).

Mind you, I haven’t built that first business up all the way yet. In my mind it still can be more than it is today and I’m going to get it there. However, I can’t wait on these other ideas. They rattle around in my brain begging for my attention. These are flights of fancy that fade with time, they are ideas that won’t go away, and as I start to work on them, the potential just seems bigger and better, and I want to pursue them more. So, what is the problem? Well, frankly, I’m out of hours in the day. Some day the answer will be to bring on partners or employees or whatever, but right now, it’s just me. Don’t get me wrong, I love it. The passion and energy is something that I’ve been missing during my “9 to 5″ years, and I am glad to have it. It’s just that I’m starting to think that Serial Entrepreneurs are wimps. No offense.

Long live the Explosive Entrepreneur. (Mental note, register explosiveentrepreneur.com and outline book for same…here we go again.)