# I Built a Time Tracker Because Every Existing One Was Either Ugly or Overcomplicated
A Technical PM's journey from frustration to shipping a solo Android app As a Technical Project Manager, I track time constantly. Client hours, project phases, billable work. It's part of the job. But every time tracker I tried left me frustrated. Toggl is powerful — too powerful. Every time I opened it, I had to navigate through workspaces, projects, tags, and integrations I'd never use. Clockify felt the same. Harvest was built for teams, not for someone who just wants to know where their day went. And don't get me started on the design. Most of these apps look like they were built in 2012 and never updated. So I did what any slightly obsessive PM would do: I built my own. The Problem I Was Actually Solving It wasn't that existing trackers lacked features. It was that they had too many. Every morning I'd open an app, get overwhelmed by options, and either spend 2 minutes setting up a timer correctly or just give up and track nothing. By the end of the week, I had no idea where my billable hours went — which meant I was probably undercharging clients. I wanted one thing: tap a button, start tracking. That's it. Building Tempo as a Non-Developer Here's the part that still surprises me: I built Tempo without writing a single line of code. As a Technical PM, I understand systems, workflows, and user experience — but I'm not a developer. I used AI tools to go from idea to a fully functional Android app in 2–3 months. The process wasn't always smooth. There were bugs, confusing UX decisions, and moments where I questioned whether I was building something anyone else would actually use. But I kept coming back to the same question: would I use this every day? And the answer was always yes. What Tempo Does (and Doesn't Do) Tempo is deliberately minimal: One tap to start tracking **— no setup, no forms, no friction **Billable vs non-billable toggle — know exactly what to invoice Daily & weekly reports — see where your time actually goes Custom projects with icons and colors