Most people will call it a task manager, but Tracks is influenced by David Allen’s Getting Things Done. So it’s not a traditional task manager, but a way to track and manage your next actions (if you haven’t yet, go read the book).
GTD die-hards will love it for being true to the spirit of GTD. I’m not one of those GTD die-hards. I tried a lot of task managers, some which work best with a PDA, some which are “CRM light”. I tried the Web 2.0 darlings, the ones with the funny names and the ones with the hype, and eventually settled on Tracks.
It has the right combination of UI simplicity and ease of use. In fact, it’s a great example of where and how to use AJAX to improve useability without unnecessary fluff. Everything it does is on purpose, specifically the stuff it doesn’t do.
If you’re looking for an Outlook-like experience, you’ll be disappointed. Tracks is not “___ for the Web”, it’s about organizing your next actions the GTD way. Yet, it doesn’t impose any strict set of rules, it guides you gently towards a better way to organize stuff.
I’m really impressed by But She’s a Girl, the author of Tracks. She found the perfect balance of software that’s opinionated, but doesn’t get in your face. That embraces less is more, without being bare bones. If you’re a software developer, you can learn a lot form the design decisions behind it.
One caveat. Tracks is a Web-based application, it requires a Web server and used from your browser. But there’s no Tracks host I know of, so you’ll have to arrange your own. I installed it on my computer as a localhost service. It’s built with Rails, so installation is simple … if you’ve done it before.
If you’re running OS/X, read Jacken’s instructions here.
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