How to record time for every action in Google Sheet

Question

I am new to Google Sheet, I have just started to use recently. So I am not familiar with.

In Google Sheet, I want to record my timing for every actions while I start and end an action.

For example, if I have three columns, A1 = Start time; A2 = End time; A3 = Time taken (A2-A1, this we can use it in formula)

But I want to make the time recording by automatically, e.g., Before I start my action, I wish to click on A1, the cell will automatically shows the current time and it should not change afterwards. Then, after I completed my work, I wish to click on A2 to record end time that means to record end time of my action to calculate actual time taken for my action.

Is it possible to get the current time by clicking the cell and it should not change afterwards?

Answer 1

Format A3 as Duration with formula:

=A2-A1

Then when you start select A1 and Ctrl+Shift+: and when you finish select A2 and Ctrl+Shift+:.

Answer 2

Simple, just enter a formula in your Column 3 that is the sum or difference of A2 minus A1!

Answer 3

Is it possible to get the current time by clicking the cell and it should not change afterwards?

Google Sheets doesn't include a feature to do this but you could add a couple of images, a custom menu, sidebar, etc. that on clicking on them will record the time on the active cell or even on the next available cell on a column.

A much simple approach is to use a keyboard shortcut but they don't work on all keyboard layouts.