Give stats about how long a tedious task is taking and an estimate of when it will be finished.

whendone.py

#! /usr/bin/env python3

# MIT license
# Copyright 2019 Dan White
#
# Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
# of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
# in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
# to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
# copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
# furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
#
# The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
# all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
#
# THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
# IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
# FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
# AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
# LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
# OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
# SOFTWARE.

# runs under Python 2.7+
from __future__ import print_function

import datetime
import sys
import time

from datetime import datetime, timedelta

if sys.version[0] < '3':
    input = raw_input

usage = """usage:
python whendone.py 45

  press enter after finishing each paper

 #  last,   avg,   n, done time
 1 02:08, 02:08,  44, 12:25 AM
 2 01:03, 01:36,  43, 12:01 AM
 3 10:42, 04:38,  42, 02:12 AM
 4 06:33, 05:07,  41, 02:32 AM
 5 03:51, 04:51,  40, 02:22 AM
 6 05:57, 05:02,  39, 02:29 AM
 7 03:07, 04:46,  38, 02:18 AM
 8 07:01, 05:03,  37, 02:30 AM
 """



def mean(x):
    s = 0.0
    for i in x:
        s += i
    return s/len(x)



if len(sys.argv) < 2:
    print(usage)
    sys.exit()
else:
    N = int(sys.argv[1])



top = "  #  last,   avg, total,   n,  left, done time"
fmt = "%3i %5s, %5s, %5s, %3i, %5s, %s"



durations = []
tstart = datetime.now()
t0 = time.time()
for i in range(N):
    input()

    t1 = time.time()
    duration = t1 - t0
    durations.append(duration)
    lasttime = timedelta(seconds=duration)
    avgtime = timedelta(seconds=mean(durations))
    esttime = avgtime * N
    estdone = tstart + esttime
    togo = esttime - (avgtime * i)

    if i==0: print(top)
    print(fmt % (i+1,
                 time.strftime('%M:%S', time.gmtime(lasttime.total_seconds())),
                 time.strftime('%M:%S', time.gmtime(avgtime.total_seconds())),
                 time.strftime('%M:%S', time.gmtime(i*avgtime.total_seconds())),
                 N - (i + 1),
                 time.strftime('%H:%M', time.gmtime(togo.total_seconds())),
                 estdone.strftime('%I:%M %p')),
          end='', flush=True) #input() already adds a newline

    t0 = t1