Sam Brown

Remindness - Twitter-like Project Status Tracking

#319 5th August 2008 at 4am Article 13 Comments

Remindness is an application I wrote in 24 hours to solve an inherent problem I was having; finding a quick and easy way to keep track of all of my projects in one place. Now, granted this is no project management or todo list application, Basecamp and Things do both of these perfectly, this little app I am about to show you helps keep me on top of my workload.

Do note…

Before you read on, let me just state that you may not like this app, you may not even have a need for it and that is great news that you are on top of everything. I am not 100% sure I want to release another app that I would have to manage and support, please bare that in mind.

Remindness Dashboard

What is it?

As you can see Remindness has a simple Twitter-like essence about it which allows me to quickly and easily post short notes about all of the projects I am currently working on. I use it like a “clocking in and out” system, I check it at the beginning of the day and at the end of the day or week I can post a short note of where I am, what has been done and what is next.

I do use it alongside Basecamp for big projects and Things for smaller simple todo list type jobs, but I have found it invaluable day to day, week to week for keeping on top of my ever expanding list of active jobs.

Remindness Project

Drilling down

Above is an active project page, allowing me to open a project and see exactly what has been done in the past like a diary of events. Here I can also complete a project which removes them from the main list on the dashboard into a smaller secondary completed list.

The design is by no means complete, it is simply what I managed to create in the short time I allowed myself to build this application. There are a few things I would quite like to build into Remindness, things like API integration with other systems like Basecamp and in the short term a multiple user account system that would allow project collaborators access to post their updates to the project also.

Your thoughts?

I would love to hear what you think about Remindness, if you would use something like this or if you have another method of staying on top of your work.

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Comments

Sam Hardacre 5 August 2008, 05:34 #1

I like this : ) At work we use BaseCamp so I’m not sure how well it would work for us professionally but I reckon I’d be able to find a use for it personally.

You’ve probably thought of these already but what I’d find useful would be a feature to flag importance/due date and reorder accordingly. Also if clients were allowed access to the information, the ability to add notes would be cool So you as the developer could allocate a task as a reminder for yourself (eg Must as “client” a question about this problem…) and the client could see that and attach an answer, without you needing to prompt them.

These features exist in BaseCamp, but would be useful for people like myself who would benefit from a simple online task app.

Good work my friend! : )

Mike Robinson 5 August 2008, 07:59 #2

Looks pretty handy. There is something like this in Backpack, though it’s more focused on team status rather than attaching it to projects. Cool idea :)

Cameron 5 August 2008, 09:07 #3

That looks really useful, I would probably use it (if only to keep track of my hobby projects).

Chris 5 August 2008, 12:47 #4

Looks useful. When can we give it a whirl?

Danny 5 August 2008, 21:58 #5

Wow! We need this app! It is exactly the Twitter-like simplicity that will make people actually use it. Just jotting down a few words in between small tasks without actually losing focus or being distracted by more complicated interfaces. I hope you realease Remindness to the larger public soon. Thanks!

Sam Brown 6 August 2008, 05:25 #6

@Sam: While I think those features have a place, I don’t think Remindness is it. I’m not looking to replace Basecamp in any way, more complement it with a very very simple and basic tool to manage project status’.

@Mike, Cameron, Chris & Danny: Thanks! I’m glad you guys like it and would consider using it. Perhaps building this for others to use would be a an avenue worth pursuing after all. :)

Max 7 August 2008, 16:23 #7

That would be awesome if you could share your source code! Very nice work, definitely useful. I’d use it.

Evan Walsh 8 August 2008, 17:53 #8

I would love to have this for my own use. I would definitely use this all the time. Please, oh please, make this public.

Tom Graham 8 August 2008, 23:25 #9

Interestingly I knocked something similar up for work. It started out as a little twitter style application for “what are you working on?” notifications. But has since turned into a simple timesheet application for estimating the amount of time spent on projects/tasks.

I had fun developing it one night using the Zend Framework and integrating with other internal software to feed off of our tasks and projects data.

I found it useful to look back and see what I did on 1 day and how I’m spending my time.

Brooke 9 August 2008, 11:54 #10

I absolutely LOVE this idea. Simple, and clean, I would love something like this, easily add reminders and ideas for projects from my iPod Touch too!
I say keep it as simple as possible. The only thing I would love to see is the ability to email something to it, like you can with evernote. but the only reason i say that is because you cant copy/paste on the iPod Touch, and thats really the only way to send URLs to yourself. I’m always sending myself useful blog posts i find regarding an issue im having with a project.

But really, Its awesome as-is, i would love for you to release it :)

Viking KARWUR 9 August 2008, 21:20 #11

Hi Sam, Let me know when launch ok ? Thanks

Sarah 12 August 2008, 13:00 #12

The new app looks excellent. I find it to be very useful. ^ Me too! Let me know if available for download.

Somer 13 August 2008, 15:00 #13

Looks awesome. When do you think we can get a chance to play with it?

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Hi, I'm a UI designer developer based in Edinburgh Scotland working as lead web designer at foursquare in NY.

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