quickchores.py — Windows‑style Stopwatch (Tkinter)

A Windows‑style stopwatch with laps, per‑lap reset on the main display, fastest/slowest indicators, running averages, an optional always‑on‑top mini widget, and automatic text logging.

Features

• Start / Pause, ⌨ Lap, ↺ Reset (buttons only; no keyboard shortcuts).

• Per‑lap reset: when you press Lap, the large timer resets to 00:00:00.00 for the next lap.

• Laps table: # | Lap | Total | Avg.

  • “Fastest” and “Slowest” appear inside the Lap cell and are color‑tinted (green/red).
  • Total is the cumulative time at that lap.
  • Avg is the average up to that row.

• Session average label updates every minute and also on Lap/Reset.

• Always on top toggle.

• Compact widget (borderless, draggable, stays on top) with Play/Pause, Lap, Reset.

• Automatic logging to a text file in the same folder as the script or EXE.

Requirements

• Windows with Python 3.8+ installed.
• Uses only the Python standard library (tkinter, time, etc.). No extra packages.

User manual for installation (Windows 10/11)

1. Install Python from Microsoft Store

   • Press Windows key, type python, then press Enter. Windows opens the Microsoft Store page for Python.
   • Click Get/Install and wait for completion.
   • If python is not recognized later, open Settings → Apps → App execution aliases and ensure python.exe and python3.exe are On.

2. Put the script in a folder

   • Example folder: C:/Users/tomsw/Downloads/good sales.
   • Save the file as quickchores.py in that folder.

3. Open Command Prompt in that folder

   • Open the folder in File Explorer.
   • Click the address bar, type cmd, and press Enter. A Command Prompt opens already set to that folder.
   • You can also type powershell instead of cmd if you prefer PowerShell.

4. Verify Python is available

   python --version

   • If that fails, try:

   py --version

Run

1. Save the file as quickchores.py.

2. Open PowerShell in the folder that contains the file.

3. Run:

   python quickchores.py

Controls

• Start / Pause: large circular play/pause button.
• Lap: circular ⌨ button.
• Reset: circular ↺ button.
• Widget On/Off: shows or hides the floating mini widget.
• Always on top: keeps the main window above other windows.

Logging

• A file named stopwatch_log.txt is created in the same folder as the script or bundled EXE.

• On first Start it writes [SESSION START] <timestamp>.

• Each Lap appends:

  LAP NN | lap=HH:MM:SS.hh | total=HH:MM:SS.hh | avg=HH:MM:SS.hh
  

• On Reset or window close it writes [SESSION END] with totals and a blank line.

• The file is flushed on each write.

To change the log filename, edit the line that sets self.log_path near the top of the class.

Troubleshooting

• No window appears: ensure you are using Python 3.8+ and that tkinter is installed (on Windows it is included).
• Colors/labels not tinted: the Treeview uses the “clam” theme when available. It will still show the text tags even without tint.
• Widget not draggable: click and drag anywhere inside the widget body.

Notes

• There are no keyboard shortcuts by design, so you can type in other applications while the stopwatch is running.
• The widget opens in the top‑right by default and is movable.

License

Use, modify, and distribute in your project as needed.