I’m currently attempting to implement some of the GTD principles in my life and I’m attempting to use a free hosted version of the Tracks software to do it. I have to say that it is rough round the edges so here are the 10 things I hate about tracks (as hosted at http://tracks.tra.in):
- There is no way to set a user timezone. This means that the UI thinks it is yesterday until the clock ticks over in the timezone where the server is hosted. Perversely the javascript date popups get it correct, probably basing it on my PC. Inconsistent and bad.
- There is no way to sort next actions by anything other than the data they are due. Sort order within that is always by the order they were entered. This means that there is no way to sort by project within that.
- There is no priority field. This means that you are ending up with an amorphous collection of actions, especially within large contexts like “Work”
- The UI often glitches up meaning that completed tasks often end up in the to do list meaning that you have to “complete” them all over again until the data gets saved correctly.
- There is no way to attach files like mind maps to projects, only text.
- Projects can’t have due dates so the UI can’t display them or check the next action’s due dates against them.
- The CSS has only been designed with Firefox in mind, there are significant errors in IE6.
- There is no support for the agenda functionality mentioned in the GTD book other than through setting up another context. If I need to talk to someone in the work context then I want that listed under work so I can see all of my work items together, not completely separately.
- There is no sort order on contexts, they appear in the order you enter them.
- Although there is some AJAX used there are a lot of screens that require a page refresh. The whole UI is poorly laid out and doesn’t look anything other than clunky.
All of these make tracks very difficult to work with but since there are no other alternatives at present I’m using it for now. I only wish that I had the time to write something myself. I have a whole bunch of ideas for features but I can’t see myself getting to any of them any time soon.
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on Monday, May 7th, 2007 at 1:27 pm and is filed under tech.
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I’m currently attempting to implement some of the GTD principles in my life and I’m attempting to use a free hosted version of the Tracks software to do it. I have to say that it is rough round the edges so here are the 10 things I hate about tracks (as hosted at http://tracks.tra.in):
- There is no way to set a user timezone. This means that the UI thinks it is yesterday until the clock ticks over in the timezone where the server is hosted. Perversely the javascript date popups get it correct, probably basing it on my PC. Inconsistent and bad.
- There is no way to sort next actions by anything other than the data they are due. Sort order within that is always by the order they were entered. This means that there is no way to sort by project within that.
- There is no priority field. This means that you are ending up with an amorphous collection of actions, especially within large contexts like “Work”
- The UI often glitches up meaning that completed tasks often end up in the to do list meaning that you have to “complete” them all over again until the data gets saved correctly.
- There is no way to attach files like mind maps to projects, only text.
- Projects can’t have due dates so the UI can’t display them or check the next action’s due dates against them.
- The CSS has only been designed with Firefox in mind, there are significant errors in IE6.
- There is no support for the agenda functionality mentioned in the GTD book other than through setting up another context. If I need to talk to someone in the work context then I want that listed under work so I can see all of my work items together, not completely separately.
- There is no sort order on contexts, they appear in the order you enter them.
- Although there is some AJAX used there are a lot of screens that require a page refresh. The whole UI is poorly laid out and doesn’t look anything other than clunky.
All of these make tracks very difficult to work with but since there are no other alternatives at present I’m using it for now. I only wish that I had the time to write something myself. I have a whole bunch of ideas for features but I can’t see myself getting to any of them any time soon.
This entry was posted
on Monday, May 7th, 2007 at 1:27 pm and is filed under tech.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
