Due to my busy schedule, I am constantly forgetting things. I tried using a calendar but it's usually more work and doesn't allow me to prioritize or categorize my thoughts. I also tried more archaic approaches like sticky notes and such but no matter what I did, I constantly forgot things. If I focused on work, I'd forget personal stuff and vice versa. So I looked around on Google and that is when I found Tracks.
Tracks is a web-based applications loosely incorporating David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology. While I've never read David's book and I've barely read the Wikipedia reference, I installed Tracks to give it a shot. (By the way, being a glutton for punishment I attempted to install Tracks on a shared GoDaddy hosting account and it actually worked. For a good reference as to how to do this, look here.)
Tracks installation is actually trivial when you have direct access to the box you're installing it on and once it's installed, it is so simple a caveman could use it. Within a few minutes I had setup a few projects, a few contexts and I was already adding tasks to Tracks. I was literally able to install, configure and use Tracks within minutes. Now, before I tell my person opinion of how Tracks helps me get things done, let me just shed some light on what makes Tracks so appealing.
Once you install Tracks and you login, you're welcomed with a very intuitive Web-2.0 user interface. Without reading a shred of documentation I was able to hit the ground running with Tracks. The UI itself is a feature I'd say since it has the ability to quickly add tasks and if your task references a project or context that doesn't exist yet, that's okay because Tracks will add one for you if your inputted project and/or context isn't already a predefined one. This has saved me a lot of time because in the short amount of time I had to configure Tracks initially, I didn't think of all necessary projects or contexts. You also have the ability to do inline editing of your tasks from your dashboard. Instead of being redirected to another page and losing visibility into your tasks, you are simply presented with a form to modify your task. With the Tracks Web-2.0 UI you also get other things like nice validation, field assistance, etc.
Now...what makes Tracks so important for me is the dashboard. It's the single most important page within Tracks. Not only does it display your tasks, broken down by context, but you seriously do not need to leave this page to use Tracks. From here you can view your tasks, your projects, your contexts and you can add/modify/delete your tasks from here without any redirections. Color coded statuses are in your face and you can filter your view to make things more palatable. Tracks even comes with RSS/iCal/Txt feeds that you can consume with other tools to put the dashboard, or filtered version of your dashboard, somewhere else like a Dashboard Widget, an iGoogle Widget or other consumer of said feeds. Want to know how you're doing? Click the Statistics tab and you're presented with nice graphs/charts of your Tracks usage. Tracks is a top notch system for managing your tasks.
Well, I've tried to give you a high-level overview of what Tracks brings to the table but nothing seems to provide real kudos like a user story so here it is. I've been using Tracks for a little over 2 weeks and I am glad that I found it. I have complete visibility to all of my tasks in a configurable way that makes me more productive. Not only has my productivity increased but I've also noticed that I'm more on time and I forget things less. I even have proof of this by looking at my statistics. Tracks has help my get my life in order and I appreciate the team's efforts.
P.S. - I'm working on a Tracks Dashboard Widget for OSX and iGoogle. If I get these done before someone else does, I'll let you know.
