GTD for Web Project Management Revisited – Tracks & GTDify
Author: thesambarnes | Filed under: Web Project ProductivityIn this article I’d like to simply let you know about the tool I’m currently using for my GTD system. It’s called GTDify – it rocks, and here’s why…
- iPhone app? No
- Stunning user interface? No
- Ten million options? No
- Auto-sync with PC or Mac? No
- Does exactly what I want from a GTD tool right now? Yes
But first, in case you’re new, haven’t heard of GTD, a quick refresh I think…
Quick GTD refresh
In an article I published back in April 2009, imaginatively entitled GTD For Web Project Management, I explained the very basics of David Allen’s amazing productivity methodology / cult called Getting Things Done, or as followers call it, GTD.
If you haven’t read that article yet, or heard of GTD, I suggest you do so, so that this one makes a little sense.
But if you can’t be bothered, essentially I just talked about the parts of the GTD I personally use to help me manage my workload, web projects and digital account management tasks:
- Next Actions
- Waiting For
- Someday
- Inbox Zero
Next Actions, Waiting For and Someday are simply categories, or ‘contexts’ as per GTD terminology, that I arrange all my workload tasks in so that I have absolutely everything I need to do in one central place.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a small internal task my MD asked me to do, a critical decision I’m waiting for from a client or a project schedule I need to put together – everything is immediately captured in the To Do list and the right context.
As I complete a task I will mark it as Completed and then perhaps add a Waiting For, for example, if I send a first version functional specification to Client Y, after hitting send I’ll create a Waiting For item called “Get feedback on first version of Functional Specification from Client Y”.
Many people are good at keeping To Do lists, but few keep track of things they’re waiting for. Instead they keep this information in their head, which means their mind is always working when it could be resting.
Inbox Zero simply means processing all e-mails in your Inbox so that you’ve deleted, stored or captured any actions you need to in order to have that magical number of zero e-mails in your Inbox.
A surreal take on Inbox Zero
Aside from the psychological benefits this brings, achieving Inbox Zero also means you have succeeded in getting your whole task list into one centralised place and can now process any new e-mails that arrive very quickly.
In essence, GTD is all about giving you a productive way to work that puts focus on getting all your tasks captured in one place, a system to get through those tasks and all while keeping you as stress free as possible by having nothing inside your head – a natural state for Jeremy Kyle addicts.
As I always state, I only use a very small portion of the full on GTD system, but it works for me.
However, last time I wrote about GTD I was using 37Signal’s excellent Backpack tool to implement GTD. It was awesome at some things; list ordering and ease and speed of use, but didn’t have a few things I felt were important in a GTD tool (not that it ever claimed to be a GTD tool)
Well, my search could be over.
My weapon of choice – Tracks & GTDify
Introduced to me by Branden Faulls of Clockwork Robot, I initially got a colleague to setup a version of Tracks, an open-source Ruby on Rails tool, on my VPS and began to use it – it was perfect, except for one thing, it kept crashing my VPS – my heart was broken.
But then suddenly, in a last act of desperation I Googled and found a free hosted Tracks solution called GTDify – my heart was mended and for the last six months I’ve been happily using GTDify – I’m so happy with it I thought it was worth sharing.
So why do I love GTDify and Tracks so much?
Tracks makes me happy
I love GTDify simply because it allows me to have a free hosted version of Tracks that never falls over on a n00b (me) VPS.
I love Tracks because it seems to cater for all the things my version of GTD requires:
- It’s free
- Web-based solution
- Add projects
- Add contexts
- Add tasks
- Set due dates for tasks
- Auto-sort priorities
- Very quick and easy to add and edit tasks
- Intuitive user interface
Reading that list I’m sure many of you are thinking of tools you know of that satisfy all these requirements, but I’d bet you a million squids that I’ve not only heard of them all, but tested each and every one. Please leave the names of tools you thought of in the comments!
They all seemed to do 70% of what I wanted, but never everything, and if they did most of what I wanted, the user experience was poor and managing tasks became a chore rather than the effortless exercise it should be.
It’s quite difficult to explain why I love using Tracks so much, but perhaps by showing you a few features it’ll become clear.
Getting started without vomiting
Unless you’re a Ruby freak and can download, install and configure a copy of Tracks on a server, get yourself over to GTDify and sign-up for a free account.
Once you’ve got your account and logged into your hosted version of Tracks, start by avoiding the temptation to vomit and the laugh at me for having the nerve to suggest a tool to you that looks so basic – don’t be fooled!
The user interface isn’t stunning or glossy, but as you’ll learn if you give it a chance, it’s highly functional and intuitive, to the point where you don’t have to think when using it – perfect.
Tracks setup
In this section I’ll go through my typical Tracks / GTDify setup steps so you can get a feel for the app.
Preferences
Not the nicest preferences screen you’ll interact with, but it has the options I need and is generally a ‘visit once only’ part of Tracks and GTDify so screw it.
The GTDify Preferences screen, a mere blip.
Create Contexts
Next create the Contexts you want. Personally I go for only three.
Three Contexts that encapsulate my whole working life
GTD purists will probably use a more Contexts than me, including ones that allow them to process work by, well, ummm context, for example @E-mail, @Phone and @Office etc.
If it works for you, go for it.
Create Projects
Tracks and GTDify allows you to create Projects in two ways; using the Projects tab, or defining a new project when creating a Task – happy days.
The Rebels used GTD
Tracks has a lovely interface for managing your projects
So that’s it, a quick setup and you’re ready to start adding tasks.
Screenshot it! Your To Do list will never look this empty again
Adding tasks
To me, adding tasks, more importantly how quick and easy it is to add tasks is a critical success factor of any GTD tool; if it takes longer than a few seconds or requires any more than a couple of brain cells then chances are the tool won’t work.
Never buy droids from Pikeys or Jawas
As you can see from the screenshot, Tracks provides you with an intuitive live suggestion or UI element for each field, thus making adding a task a breeze.
Date pickers were all the rage on Tatooine
And that’s it, Next Action added.
An action you should keep secret from Uncle Own and Aunt Beru
Once you’ve added all your tasks you’ll begin to use Tracks as it was intended and the dashboard will be your new favourite screen.
Run web projects and bring down the Empire with GTD, easy
Other useful features
As well as the basic features you’d expect, Tracks also has a couple of other useful features, for example:
- In-line task editing
- Repeating To Do items (like Inbox Zero for weekdays)
- View tasks by Context or Project
- Subscribe using RSS, Plain Text Feed and / or iCal
Tracks and the iPhone
If there’s one thing, other than a little UI polish, that would make Tracks the ultimate solution in my opinion, it’s an iPhone App.
GTDify iPhone stylesheets are currently a little lame
Currently there is a mobile stylesheet, but as with most, it’s not great. It does allow you to review and manage your task list on the go, but its slow going and not something I use very often.
Tracks Reporting
Tracks also comes with a reporting system that is collecting data from the minute you start using it. Although I haven’t found much use for it, boy does it look cool!
I literally shit statistics with Tracks reporting
Hopefully, if like me you’re just looking for a nice web based GTD tool that does the simple things well, this review will encourage you to try Tracks and GTDify.
It works amazingly well for me and just maybe it will for you too. But I’m curious, what’s your To Do list tool of choice?
Related links:
Have you used intervals? http://Www.myintervals.com. It is what I use to run our agency and (mostly) worksfor us. I’d be interested to hear your review of it as a GTD tool.
I’d love to go back and re-read your original article with this new context but it seems your link somehow resolves to the new one. A WP glitch?
@Scott, I’ve heard of My Intervals but not tried it, I may take a closer look
@Luke, resolved now, thanks for the spot :)
Being a bit of a lover of GTD myself I have always been looking at different tools to help. Right now I run things on both my mac and iPhone to keep tasks in but it’s hard. I sometimes find myself once again using my Inbox as a task manager which is a bad sign of trouble. Some days I don’t open up Things and so they get lost and as an iPhone app it’s not the best either.
I’m going to give this one a go Sam and I’ll let you kow my thoughts on it. Far too many apps are overly complex for my needs and not very good at anything, this is looking good so far.
GTDify looks good – I’m a fan of GTD so I’ll have to check it out.
I’ve been using Thymer: http://www.thymer.com/
My GTD process currently involves an a4 note pad and a blue bic biro. Every morning I copy over tasks that were not completed the previous day. This refreshes the mind on want needs to be done and to certain extent the sub-conscious prioritises the list. However, on occasion (especially low priority tasks) it has let me down. If it is not on the list, it disappears into the PM ether. I am going to give GTDify a trial starting tomorrow morning. Very exciting it looks.
Thanks for the article Sam.
I’d like to know if you tested MonkeyGTD and your opinion about it, in a comparison with GTDify. I think it’s hard to find some simpler than that. Would you mind taking a look?
Tks
And I’d like to try GTDify but links to it are broken!!! Any tip?
Great review.
For implementing GTD you can also use this web-based application:
http://www.Gtdagenda.com
You can use it to manage your goals, projects and tasks, set next actions and contexts, use checklists, schedules and a calendar.
A mobile version is available too.
@Rob Smith, hope you’re still using Tracks Rob!
@Aaron, I’ve tried Thymer before. I found the interface a little clunky.
@Ben, defintely try to ditch the pen and paper in my opinion. It works, but there’s nothing like being able to access your list from anywhere. And I dont know about you, but my To Do list is pretty big!
@Geraldo, I’ve no heard of MonkeyGTD, will take a look! But the GTDify links seemed to be working when I tried them.
@Dan, I have tried GTDAgenda and thought it was ok. Very similar to Tracks / GTDify in places, but with a slightly less polished UI. However I did love the Checklists feature!
I finally found GTDify and I’m trying it, but still think MonkeyGTD is simpler. Although if there’s no MonkeyGTD I’d use GTDify for sure. It’s pretty good! It only fails to help on project’s next actions streams, that mGTD do so good. Try it!
THANK YOU! At last a proper tool to organise things. Beats using an ever-expanding, disorganised notepad doc. Keep up the awesome work Sam.
@Geraldo, I sure will take a look.
@Alamo, if it works for you, welcome to To Do list heaven :)
Hi Sam, Have you ever come across a tool that allows you to track tasks you have assigned to others? I find that I assign a lot of tasks to other members of the team and I want to see their progress without having to keep pestering them for updates. It would be great if GTDify had a team view!
@David, I havent no, the only thing I try to do is get others using GTD! When successful its nice to hear after Ive given out a task it moves from my @NextAction to @WaitingFor, and they create a @NextAction item.
Dude, v. impressed, trying it out now for my non-work stuff. I like your constant StarWars references, makes perfect sense especially for people like me, who watched StarWars every night until the tape heads wore the VHS out. Old school.
@Myles, hope it works as well for you as it does me! And Star Wars all the way, nothing else is worth referencing – but kudos for being specific about VHS… my era, true old school.
[...] Review by a GTD user [...]
This article was both informative and hilarious (Star Wars references are awesome)! I was in the airport one day waiting for a flight when I came across David Allen’s book and took a punt on it! It wasn’t a bad decision at all.
Much like yourself I take those elements from it that I feel work best for me and apply them to my daily routine as I see fit. Inbox Zero is a big priority of mine and the first portion of everyday is spent emptying it.
I stopped using ‘flavour of the month’ GTD apps a long time ago as I found them to be a constant nuisance to use – which goes against the core of GTD. However I am going to give GTDify a try this week to see how I get on.
Just out of curiosity how do you align your GTD stuff with your project management techniques? For example when you establish the requirements of your project during the discovery phase (or whatever phrase you use to describe this yourself) and build your Gantt chart do you then move to your GTD tool and start to track things solely using GTDify as you go?
I’m also curious about your inbox zero organisational structure. If you have folders for projects how then do you keep track of non project items for clients (such as your digital account management items)?
Thanks for writing this up. Gave me some good tips!
I’ve tried a few tools too but have now settled on Remember The Milk (http://www.rememberthemilk.com/). Don’t let the name mislead you. It’s a very powerful tool, and it has an iPhone app too :)
My main issue now is how to synch my personal todo list with todos on other systems that I share with other team members, like items in a Basecamp todo list for example.
Any tips?
Farez
@Farez, I have tried Remember the Milk and though the features were nice but the interfacem especially the web one, was a little ugly and not nice to use.
As for syncing To Dos… I’ve not heard of anything that does this natively but with all these systems having APIs it must be possible.
I’m still just replicating To Dos in my Tracks list, but not all of my project to dos, just what I have to do next, or maybe the next two.
Just started to use tracks and I found a very nice android app that syncs with tracks called shuffle.
http://code.google.com/p/android-shuffle/
@thesambarnes Thanks for the tip.
Youre welcome Farez! :)