Activity Level vs Productive Time: What’s the Difference

Activity Level and Productivity Monitoring are two separate features in WebWork, and they measure very different things.

This article explains what each metric actually measures, where to find it, and why a high activity level doesn’t automatically mean high productivity or vice versa.

What Is Activity Level?

Activity Level measures how actively a member is using their keyboard, mouse, and scroll wheel during tracked time. WebWork captures these input signals and calculates a percentage that reflects physical engagement with the computer within a session.

To view Activity Level reports, go to Reports > Activity Level.

From this report, you can:

• See the daily average activity level of each workspace member
• View the report by filters
• View data in charts (line, bar, pie, or calendar)
• Send, schedule, or export reports in CSV or XLSX

You can also customize activity level thresholds (low, medium, high) in Settings > Activity Level. For more on how the calculation works, see How does WebWork calculate activity levels?

What Is Productivity Monitoring?

Productivity Monitoring measures how tracked time is distributed across apps and websites, based on how those platforms are labeled by the admin. First, you mark each app or website as productive, neutral, or non-productive, or use the default marking. The Productivity Insights page then shows what percentage of a member’s tracked time falls into each category.

To view Productivity Monitoring data, go to Productivity > Productivity Insights.

From this page, you can see:

• Productivity percentages broken down by app and website usage
• Categories of platforms members spent time on
• Activity level overview alongside productivity data
• Data per member, per team, or for the whole workspace

Note: Productivity Monitoring depends on app and website labels being configured first. Go to Productivity > Apps & Websites to set these. Without labels, the data will not be meaningful. See How to label apps & websites as productive, neutral, or non-productive?

Key Differences at a Glance

Why They’re Easy to Confuse

Because both metrics relate to how members work, it’s possible to treat them as interchangeable.

Scenario A: High activity level, low productivity

A member has a 90% activity level as they’re typing and clicking constantly throughout the day. But their Productivity Monitoring data shows that most of that time is on platforms labeled non-productive. The high activity level doesn’t indicate productive work; it just means the computer was being used actively.

Scenario B: Low activity level, high productivity

A member has a 45% activity level which might look like disengagement. But their Productivity Monitoring data shows that nearly all of their tracked time is on productive platforms. They may be reading long documents, attending calls, or doing focused work, all of which generate little keyboard or mouse input but are clearly productive.

The takeaway: always look at both metrics together before drawing conclusions about a member’s performance.