Search for a task tracker and you'll get software that wants you to update things. Percent complete, status, stage, owner, last touched.
All of that exists so somebody who isn't you can look at a screen and see how it's going. Which is a real need, it's just probably not yours.
Who the status is for
Think about who reads a status field. Not you, because you know whether you've started the thing. You'd have to type in "in progress" for a task you're actively doing, which is work you're doing for an audience.
That audience is real in a company. A manager with nine people can't ask each of them every day, so the software collects it instead. But when you're the only reader, keeping status current is a chore with nobody on the other end of it.
The report nobody reads
The reports have the same problem. Tasks completed this week, average time to close, a chart that goes up.
It looks like insight and it changes nothing, because you already know if last week was bad and you already know why. Nobody ever fixed a rough week by looking at a bar chart of it afterward. Meanwhile the tracking itself has quietly become a second job on top of the first one1.
The only tracking that helps you
Strip it back and there's exactly one kind of tracking that pays for itself, which is a task coming back to you on the day it matters.
You wrote down "call the roofer, thursday" and on Thursday it turns up, wherever you happen to be. That's the whole job of remembering, done. No status, no percent, no stage, because a task is either finished or it's still sitting there.
The one number worth watching
There is one thing worth watching over time, and it isn't tasks. It's a number you care about.
Miles run this month. Pounds. Money saved. Books finished. Those actually change slowly enough that seeing the line helps, and unlike a task, the number is the point rather than a record of your admin. That's why 42 Todo! keeps metrics next to your list: you log a number, it charts it, and the tasks that move that number sit right beside it.
Done is the record
And if you ever do need to show somebody what happened, the finished tasks already say it. They have dates on them. That's a record, and you got it without maintaining anything.
The best tracker is one you never had to update.
Frequently asked questions
What's a task tracker app?
- Usually a to-do list with reporting bolted on, sold to teams. The tracking part means statuses and charts so a manager can see where work stands. For one person, most of that is upkeep with no reader.
Do I need a task tracker if I already have a to-do list?
- Probably not. If the only person who reads your list is you, a plain list with dates gives you everything a tracker would, minus the updating. Look at a tracker when other people need to see the state of the work without asking you.
How do I track recurring tasks?
- Set the task to repeat and let it come back on its own. You don't need a streak counter for it. If you want to see how a habit is going over time, log it as a number instead, since that's what actually shows a trend.
What about tracking a team's work?
- That's the job of team software, and it's a fair thing to buy. Keep it separate from your own list, though. The board tells the team where things stand, and your list tells you what you owe next.
Footnotes
- Why a simple to-do list beats a fancy one the same trade, seen from the settings screen. ↩
- Task management software and a to-do list are different things when reporting on work is genuinely somebody else's need. ↩