Widgets
NowDoing ships four WidgetKit widgets you can place in macOS Notification Center, on the lock screen, or — since macOS Sonoma — directly on the desktop. All widgets read from an AppGroup container inside the app sandbox: they always show current data and never need a network connection.
Add a widget
Section titled “Add a widget”- Right-click the desktop (or click the date in the top-right) → Edit widgets…
- Search for “NowDoing”.
- Pick a size and drag it where you want it.
You can place the same widget multiple times — e.g. a Now Tracking strip in Notification Center plus a Heatmap block on the desktop.
The four widgets
Section titled “The four widgets”Today Total (small)
Section titled “Today Total (small)”Shows today’s total tracked time as a large number. Updates hourly and after every completed entry.
Good for: a quick daily glance without opening the popover.
Now Tracking (small)
Section titled “Now Tracking (small)”Shows the current activity and elapsed time as a live timeline. Refreshes every 60 seconds while an entry is running.
Tip: clicking the widget opens NowDoing directly with the popover.
Quick Log (medium)
Section titled “Quick Log (medium)”Shows your five pinned activities as tap buttons. A tap logs the activity immediately — the app is not brought to the foreground. Implemented via App Intents (see App Intents & Services).
Which activities appear is controlled the same way as everywhere else, through pinned quick-picks.
Heatmap (large)
Section titled “Heatmap (large)”Shows a month calendar with colour-coded days — intensity matches tracked hours, days that hit the daily target are highlighted in green, public holidays carry an orange tint.
Clicking a day opens its detail view in the timesheet.
Refresh cadence
Section titled “Refresh cadence”| Widget | Refresh |
|---|---|
| Today Total | Hourly + push after every entry |
| Now Tracking | Every second while an entry is running |
| Quick Log | On activity or pin changes |
| Heatmap | Several times a day + after logging |
macOS may throttle further if your Mac is on low-power mode or the widget has been off-screen for a while — that is a system policy, not NowDoing behaviour.
Data & privacy
Section titled “Data & privacy”Widgets only read from the shared AppGroup container (group.com.mattes.nowdoing). No network requests are made, no telemetry is sent, no third-party services are involved. With iCloud sync enabled, data is read unchanged from the already-synced file.