Tracks is a web-based application to help you implement David Allen’s Getting Things Done™ methodology. It was built using Ruby on Rails, and comes with a built-in webserver (WEBrick), so that you can run it on your own computer if you like. It can be run on any platform on which Ruby can be installed, including Mac OS X, Windows XP and Linux. Tracks is Open Source, free and licensed under the GNU GPL.

Flexible views of your actions

The main page shows all your actions sorted by context, but you can also view pages showing just the actions in one context (for when you want to focus on your office tasks, email or errands), or just the actions in one project. You can add as many contexts and projects as you like, and drag them around on the page to change the sort order, so that your more commonly used contexts and projects are at the top of the page. Projects can have attached notes, as can individual actions.

Quick and easy adding of new actions

The main editing functions in Tracks use Ajax, which—if you’re not into the terminology—means that you see nearly instant changes to the page without having to refresh the page. A form on the main page lets you add actions to any context or project, whereas forms on context and project pages automatically assign the current context or project to the new next action.

Getting yourself organised

Actions can have due dates (which are optional), which are displayed in your preferred format. The due date is displayed with a coloured background, depending on how far away the date is. If it’s due today, or overdue, the background is red. If it’s due tomorrow it’s dark orange, if due in the next 7 days, it’s orange, otherwise it’s green. It’s basically a traffic light code. The last five completed items are shown at the bottom of the main page, with the most recently completed item last. But you can see all your completed items on the completed page.

Getting everyone organised

Tracks is multi-user: each user has his or her own contexts, projects and next actions, and their own preferences for things like date formatting. As the admin user, you set your own account up and then you can add additional users. Non-admin users can’t create new accounts, which prevents someone finding your page and signing themselves up. A login page keeps everyone’s actions private. Get your family, friends and co-workers sorted out!

Getting informed

Tracks has numerous feeds (both text and RSS), so you can subscribe to your list of next actions to see all of your stuff, or just the urgent things due in the next seven days. Do you need to provide your employer or clients with a report of your work during the week? Then just subscribe to the completed actions feed, and the job is nearly done.

Tracks can either be downloaded as a .zip file (see the download link in the sidebar), or you can get the latest tagged release using Subversion. The Subversion URL is listed on the Downloads page, and you need to use the username and password ‘guest’:

svn co --username=guest SVN_URL tracks-local/

Development

If you want to report a bug, request a feature, or help out with development, visit the development site

Keeping in touch

There’s a mailing-list for Tracks which you can join either by visiting the information page and following the instructions, or by sending an email to tracks – discuss – join [at] lists [dot] rousette [dot] org [dot] uk. Once you’ve joined up, emails sent to tracks – discuss [at] lists [dot] rousette [dot] org [dot] uk will get distributed to the list. Otherwise, please feel free to email me at butshesagirl [at] rousette [dot] org [dot] uk.

The origins of this application are here and here. The name Tracks was suggested by Timothy Martens, and the tag-line ‘Doing Things Properly’ came from a comment by Pete here. I rather liked it.

If you want to know more about me, you can read the about page for my weblog.