The journey to a polished product often starts with a beta phase, and we're thrilled to announce that WhatPulse Professional has officially graduated from beta! This milestone marks the beginning of an exciting chapter, made possible by the valuable feedback from our beta users.

Let's take a moment to reflect on what we've accomplished, share what's next, and extend a heartfelt thank-you to everyone who helped shape the future of WhatPulse Professional.

A heartfelt thank-you to our beta users​

We couldn't have done it without you. From the early adopters who dove into the beta version to those who shared detailed feedback and suggestions, your input has been instrumental in fine-tuning both the app and the web portal.

During the beta period, we received a wealth of ideas and reports that helped us build a stronger, more reliable tool tailored to the needs of professionals like you. To show our gratitude, we've sent a special offer to your inbox—be sure to check it out!

What we accomplished during the beta phase​

The beta period wasn't just about squashing bugs (though we did plenty of that); it was about crafting a product that delivers meaningful value. Here are some of the improvements and additions we made, thanks to your feedback:

• Enhanced stability: We tackled edge cases and improved performance to ensure WhatPulse Professional is ready for diverse use cases.
• Smarter analytics: Updates to the web portal now provide deeper insights, helping you see patterns and make informed decisions more easily.
• Refined user experience: We streamlined workflows to save you time and added customization options to adapt to different preferences.

This beta journey helped us align WhatPulse Professional with the needs of individuals and organizations looking for actionable data on productivity and effort.

This is WhatPulse Professional​

WhatPulse Professional is your gateway to understanding how effort translates into results. It provides:

• Comprehensive effort tracking: Monitor keyboard usage, mouse activity, and application focus to capture the full scope of your work.
• Application usage tracking: Identify time-eater apps and optimize your workflow by focusing on what matters most.
• Detailed network analytics: Manage bandwidth and identify data-heavy applications to optimize your connectivity.

For organizations, WhatPulse Professional offers transparency, helping teams understand their computer usage without compromising privacy. It's not about surveillance—it's about empowering individuals and teams with data to make better decisions.

Conclusion: Here's to the next chapter​

Graduating from beta is a milestone worth celebrating, but it's also a beginning. We're committed to continuous improvement, and your feedback will remain essential as we grow. Our goal is to help you work smarter, not harder, and we're excited to continue this journey with you, with new features and enhancements continuously on the horizon.

Thank you for being part of this journey. Whether you're diving into WhatPulse Professional for the first time or you've been with us from the start, we're excited to support you in making data-driven decisions and improving how you work.

If you're new to WhatPulse Professional, we invite you to start a free trial and experience the power of data-driven productivity firsthand.

Do you see those many posts on Linkedin from startup founders preaching their morning routine - that started at 4am and led to the most productive days of their life?

Do you know someone who earns a significant salary from their role in city banking, yet hasn't been at home to see their family for three days?

There will always be opportunities to work more hours, do more and push yourself physically and mentally. Rarely will your employer encourage you to work less.

However, whilst it can appear as if you are making short term gains, this level of over-working and lack of a work life balance can harm your long term productivity and relationships.

The common saying does tend to fall true. I know quite a few people who are considerably wealthy and compared to my "normal earning social circle", the high net worth individuals always tend to be less happy. More stressed, constant arguments in their marriage, small amount of time with their children and even extreme elements like increased drug usage.

Money is great, and in most cases this is what stems from the focus on work instead of other things. But it's really important to find that balance among all the other parts that make you happy and fulfilled as a person.

This article takes look at some of the things to consider and think about when it comes to prioritising work over something else that you could even consider to be wasting time.

Burnout​

You may find you have a real drive to complete productive work, and this streak of energy may even last weeks or months depending on how passionate you are, how driven you are or how much you enjoy what you do.

But this won't last forever. Eventually, without balance, everyone hits burnout.

You know you've hit it when lose focus or start working on something and no matter what you can't bring yourself to actually do that thing. Procrastination kicks in and you'll do anything except the actual thing you need to do.

Everyone has different points at which they reach their limits and you may find some people are able to push themselves for longer than others without consequence. These people also tend to be the ones who progress quickly within the workplace and find themselves in line for that promotion.

But if you don't make time to balance your personal life, have fun outside of work and limit the time and mental effort you put into your work, your brain will reach a point where it simply says "No".

If you are burnt out, it can take a lot of mental effort to get back on track and you can find that you go from being a top performing employee to being subject to a under-performance review!

Time with your family​

Too much focus on work can have a detrimental effect on the quality time you have with your immediate family. This could be your partner, wife, children or even your mom and dad that you live with.

In the short term, your family will understand if you need to stay late to meet a deadline or prepare for a big event. But prioritising your work over the quality time with your family over the long term is a big risk.

Eventually, that bond you have will begin to break. You may find yourself having more arguments at home and bickering during the limited time you do actually spend with each other. You may even decide to remove yourself from that argumentative situation and return to work to get away from it. When it course all this does is create a vicious cycle and exacerbate the situation.

A job is important and the money you bring home to support yourself and your family is important, but be careful to ensure it does not come at the cost of alienating the most important social connections that you have.

That job may not last forever but your marriage could.

Meaningful connections​

It's not just your immediate family who can be impacted by your workaholic tendencies.

There are many other people within your social circle who will lose contact with you a lot quicker if you don't put in the effort to maintain those relationships.

This includes your friends, your career coach and even the extended family.

By focusing all your time on work, even if you did manage to have some minimal quality family time, this may be the only social interactions you have each week, especially if you are working remotely.

It's important to make time to see your friends for a catch-up. It's great to stick to a regular time slot each month with your career coach so you can bounce off ideas and ensure you are looking more holistically at your professional growth rather than being too zoned in.

It's also important to keep in touch with those in your extended family who are important to you. Catching up at Christmas for a gift swap isn't quite enough to maintain those meaningful connections.

Pet guilt​

If you own a dog, a cat or other pet you'll notice they tend to be very accommodating when you need to knuckle down and work. This can be great for balancing those moments of intense workload with dedicated cuddles and tickles time with your best buddy.

But often I see a pet being almost forgotten due to it's obedience and quietness laying on the couch, waiting patiently for you to finish work so they can play tug and fetch with you.

At the end of the long working day you find yourself prioritising family time and apart from a quick walk around the block, the pet is pushed aside again. And then just before you go off to bed you give them a tickle with a sense of guilt and a promise to spend more time with them the next day, only to break that promise when something else comes up.

This is the immediate guilt but this adds up over time and I've met many pet owners who's beloved animals are now in ill health or passed away and they tell me how they wish they'd spent more time with them.

A dog is for life. Don't have that regret.

Holidays and vacations​

When you think back to some of the best memories in your life and think hard about what you are looking forward to most throughout the year, two main things tend to top the list.

The first being vacations to some awesome destinations around the world and the other being those quality family moments spent at Christmas when there is no work to think about.

Sometimes it can be difficult to switch off and focus on family time around the holiday period, and sometimes work is just too busy to book in that city break you always wanted to do with your wife.

The thing is, work will always be too busy for you to book that holiday. If you didn't book it and worked, you'd be busy after the week and if you did go on vacation and come back, you'd also be busy.

There will always be an excuse to postpone doing things away from work for yourself and your family, but if you don't make an effort to do it, you never will.

Not just that, but constantly I am barraged from Linkedin posts of being posting about their top b2b reads whilst chilling by the swimming pool in Ibiza. Put. The. Phone. Down.

Yes, there will be things to deal with when you return, but much like the company wouldn't fall to pieces if you were to leave for another role, everything will just tick along whilst you are away going down that waterslide for a week in the sun.

And when you do return, you'll probably have a day of feeling a bit of the 'holiday blues', but once this has subsided you'll tend to find you encounter a new sense of drive and productivity. This means ultimately you can get more productive work done over the span of that month, and you got a vacation and a happier family out of it too!

Downtime and thinking time​

Playing Xbox, watching football or UFC on the TV. Reading a new fantasy novel or simply touching grass and going for a long walk in the woods.

These can all seem like things that "waste time". To someone who considers themself a bit of a workaholic, they may think "Why don't I spend this time better, be more productive and simply do more work instead? I'll make more money and be happier."

Please may I refer back to part one of this article: burnout. If you focus on work 100% of the time and refuse to give yourself any "you" time, it'll eventually have a negative effect on your overall productivity and ultimately your mental wellbeing.

Giving yourself a few hours doing nothing but slashing and dashing round a video game can help you go into work the next day more cheerful and with a sense of fulfilment and less feeling of being overwhelmed by the job.

Overall, finding balance across everything in your life including work, your family life, your hobbies and your downtime helps to create the best version of yourself. That in turn can have a bigger effect on how you progress at work and additionally support all the other areas of your life.

Whether you're a remote worker, consultant, or content creator, the patterns in your daily computer usage hold valuable insights that can help you work smarter. It’s easy to think you know your habits, but many of the finer details go unnoticed. This is where WhatPulse Professional comes in, offering a clear lens on the digital habits that define your day. By tracking everything from keystrokes to mouse clicks, app usage, and network traffic, WhatPulse enables you to understand and adjust your routines for better productivity and balance.

Tracking effort: moving beyond time spent​

Most productivity tools focus only on time-tracking, but WhatPulse goes deeper, capturing effort itself. Each keystroke and mouse click can add up to a powerful dataset, revealing where you’re putting the most effort and where you might be overextending yourself. With WhatPulse, you’re not just seeing hours pass by—you’re measuring the energy you’re investing in different tasks.

Cross-device monitoring: A holistic view of your workday​

If you’re someone who works across multiple devices, like a laptop and desktop, WhatPulse's cross-device functionality offers unique advantages. By synchronizing usage metrics across your devices, it gives you a complete picture of your digital habits. Instead of fragmenting your data, WhatPulse unifies it, making it easy to identify patterns and tendencies regardless of which device you’re using.

Discovering the “time-eaters”: Identifying application usage​

It’s easy to lose track of how much time goes to various applications. With WhatPulse, users can identify “time-eater” applications that quietly chip away at productivity. Whether it’s a chat app or social media that you didn’t realize was interrupting your flow, WhatPulse highlights where your time goes, allowing you to make small, strategic adjustments for big productivity gains. A small reduction in time spent on distracting apps can free up hours each week, letting you focus on what truly matters.

Managing network usage: Efficiency beyond the desktop​

With remote work on the rise, network usage is more crucial than ever. WhatPulse’s network monitoring feature reveals which applications consume the most bandwidth, helping you manage data usage, reduce slowdowns, and avoid unnecessary network congestion. This insight is especially useful for remote workers who depend on stable internet for video calls and large file transfers, helping ensure that your connectivity remains optimized and reliable throughout the day.

Small changes, big gains: How to turn insights into action​

WhatPulse is not just about understanding your habits—it’s about empowering you to act on them. Noticing that your mouse usage is exceptionally high? Consider tweaking your workspace to reduce strain. Seeing more keystrokes in one app than expected? It might be worth exploring automation options. These micro-adjustments can add up, making your workday feel less burdensome and more productive.

Conclusion: The power of knowing yourself better​

Understanding your digital habits isn’t just interesting—it’s transformative. With WhatPulse Professional, you can connect the dots between data and action, reshaping your workday in ways that align with your goals. By tracking effort, device usage, and network data, WhatPulse helps you stay in control and make informed adjustments that keep you moving forward efficiently and effectively. Whether you’re aiming for higher productivity, improved work-life balance, or simply deeper insight, the data WhatPulse provides is the first step toward meaningful change.

Tracking digital productivity can feel like a science experiment, with traditional time-tracking tools giving us only part of the picture. For many knowledge workers, remote professionals, and content creators, time spent on a task doesn’t capture the full reality of effort invested in digital work. Effort tracking—monitoring keystrokes and clicks alongside time—can provide a more nuanced, data-driven view of productivity, one that aligns better with the unique workflows of today’s digital professionals.

Effort tracking: Beyond the stopwatch​

While time-tracking has its place, it often misses the mark on capturing actual effort. WhatPulse Professional introduces a method that doesn’t just count hours but also tallies keystrokes, mouse clicks, and application usage. These metrics go beyond simple presence and begin to reveal how and where digital energy is actually spent. For content creators and knowledge workers who rely on accuracy and consistency, understanding every click and keystroke provides a realistic way to measure productivity.

Understanding digital effort for knowledge workers and creatives​

For knowledge workers, consultants, and creatives, the journey to completion often involves extensive research, drafting, editing, and iterating—processes that aren’t fully captured by time alone. Here, keystrokes and clicks tell a more meaningful story. A day filled with few keystrokes and mouse clicks might indicate less productivity, while a surge in these metrics could reflect peak effort and focus. By embracing WhatPulse's multi-dimensional data, professionals can track their true productivity, gaining insights that are far more actionable than a mere timestamp.

The science of keystrokes and clicks: What they reveal​

Keystrokes and clicks serve as indicators of not just presence but of engaged, hands-on activity. They reveal which tasks required intense focus or repetitive work, helping users identify areas for optimization. For instance, recognizing high click volumes in certain applications may prompt workflow adjustments or reveal areas where tools could streamline tasks. The correlation between clicks, keystrokes, and project completion is an invaluable data point for anyone invested in refining their productivity.

The competitive edge: Multi-dimensional tracking​

With WhatPulse, users can view their efforts across multiple devices, compiling this data into a comprehensive profile of their digital habits. It’s more than just tracking; it’s understanding and leveraging insights across devices for a cohesive look at one’s digital life. From tracking network bandwidth to seeing how much time each application consumes, WhatPulse turns metrics into motivation and supports better decisions about device and application use.

From data to actionable insights​

While effort data is useful on its own, it becomes truly valuable when used to make adjustments. With WhatPulse’s analytics, users can pinpoint where they’re spending too much time, find ways to cut down on unnecessary clicks, or shift their workflow to maintain better work-life balance. Having these insights means taking data out of the abstract and making it work in practical, everyday terms.

Conclusion: Building a productivity habit with WhatPulse​

Understanding productivity isn’t just about counting hours—it’s about knowing where and how effort is applied. WhatPulse Professional brings clarity to this process, turning what might seem like routine actions into a deeper understanding of one’s digital habits. Whether you’re seeking to boost productivity, achieve work-life balance, or just satisfy a curiosity about your computer habits, WhatPulse offers a multi-dimensional view that allows you to make informed, data-driven decisions.

Hi there,

I'm thrilled to bring you the very first edition of our quarterly updates. We've been working hard on enhancements that improve how you track, manage, and get insights from your data. In this issue, I’ll share some key updates.

A new, easier way to create users​

Involving the end-users in the statistics has been at the forefront, and will remain there to ensure everyone benefits from the WhatPulse data. But the initial onboarding could be tedious.

So, gone are the days of waiting for user invites to be accepted before being able to activate a computer with new users. With this update, admins can now create a user and immediately activate a computer under their account.

You’ll still have the option to send them a welcome email with a link to set up their password, but the big change here is instant activation—perfect for faster onboarding and smoother team management.

Find out when and which applications were used​

We’ve introduced a new time frame selection in the applications table on both user and computer dashboards. Instead of showing all accumulative application data, you can now filter to see stats for the specific time period you’re interested in. Whether you’re reviewing last week’s app usage or diving deep into trends over the past month, this new feature will give you more focused insights.

Enhancing your experience​

We’ve also made some small but meaningful tweaks to improve your overall experience:

• Now, hitting “Escape” in search boxes works just as you’d expect and clear input.
• We’ve fixed an issue with the metric vs. imperial charts (they were defaulting to imperial—sorry about that!).
• Finally, if there’s no data available yet, we’ve improved how it’s displayed so that it’s clearer when information is missing or simply hasn't been gathered yet.

These changes are all about making WhatPulse Professional more intuitive and user-friendly, so you can focus on what matters most—analyzing and improving your team's productivity.

Thanks for being part of the WhatPulse Professional community. We’ve got plenty more exciting updates in store, and I can’t wait to share them with you.