Described herein are systems and methods for capturing an amount of effort expended in working on a document. One or more periods of time during which a document is an active document within an active window on a user interface may be determined. Further, one or more periods of time during which a window in which the document is displayed is a most forward window may be determined. For one or more determined periods of time, one or more temporal intervals may be determined during which it is inferred that effort was not being expended on the document. A total amount of time expended in working on the document may be determined based, at least in part, on the determined one or more periods and the determined one or more temporal intervals. An effort report may be generated including an indication corresponding to the determined total amount of time expended.