
Show HN: Progress Dashboard – A dashboard to stay productive with progress bars - mubaris
https://progressdash.xyz
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mubaris
Hi HN

Creator of Progress Dashboard here. I've been working on Progress Dashboard
for almost a year now. This is a simple chrome extension to replace boring new
tab with a useful dashboard. With Progress Dashboard you can access progress
bars for year, month, week, day and hour. You can also create one for specific
tasks with start and end time. You can select a background from image,
gradient or Trianglify. Progress Dashboard comes with a Distraction Free Mode
to stay productive. This mode is very minimal and it's dark mode

~~~
FromThePast
> I've been working on Progress Dashboard for almost a year now

Which part of it took you a year to write?

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mubaris
It's a side project. I work on it when I have free time

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CoffeePython
Some feedback:

You should put an example of a use case for some of the task bars in your
website photos. "Task Progress" doesn't really convey any type of value to me.
Maybe a specific example like "Gym sessions attended" would help show new
users what the app can be used for.

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mubaris
Thanks for the feedback! Just updated the site

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stunt
Maybe too direct, But why is it paid?

I don't mean it shouldn't be or whatever. I'm just interested to know what is
your thought behind "Support the Indie Maker Movement" you've mentioned.

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gzeus
It's only 1$.

You cant make something like this in 8.2 mins considering minimum wage is 7.5$
in USA. Why make things for free anyway, people rarely appreciate things they
get for free.

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stunt
That really wasn’t the question. I’m not asking why it is not free!

But off topic, > people rarely appreciate things they get for free

If people wouldn’t appreciate it, so many people wouldn’t create so many free
software/plugin/tool/book/content.

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bizzleDawg
I did try "momentum" as a new tab for a while, but I've always found these
kinds of things distracting - when you hit ctrl+T I'm not (and I suspect most
are not) looking for inspiration, but I'm looking to find something. Maybe I'm
alone in this view?

If anything, I'd be tempted to make a completely blank new tab page - for me
that would avoid the normal routine of seeing all my favourite favicons

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r3bl
I find it hard to believe that tech-savvy people click on something on a new
tab page instead of doing Ctrl+T -> first two letters -> enter.

Since there's a whole lot of space to fill in while doing that, it might as
well show you a pretty picture and some task or something.

I would consider a completely white page as a waste of screen estate.

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bizzleDawg
Spliting hairs here, but it's not about clicking something, it's about
changing what those first 2 letters typed are.

Call me a minimalist (or whatever else you'd like), but "might as well" isn't
a good enough reason to add distractions for me.

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cybervegan
So... what's this for? I mean, I know what _progress bars_ are for _per se_
but I can't see any mention of a way to tie the meter to something concrete
other than time - and we already have clocks and calendars for that. I must be
missing something...

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spectramax
It is just for time. I find this sort of thing along with motivation posters
and the like - to be superfluous and for people who lack discipline. You
shouldn't have to motivate yourself by looking at a poster - if that's the
case then you're fixing the symptom and not the deeper mental root cause.
Don't get me wrong, if this dashboard plugged into a task list or something
concrete with goal, it would be useful.

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stronglikedan
I lack discipline, and this sort of stuff doesn't help me at all, so it's not
for people who lack discipline. It _is_ for people who are motivated by this
sort of stuff, whether they are disciplined or not. Whatever works, works.

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mrhappyunhappy
I tried a new tab extension that lets you create to do lists and got lazy with
it after a few days. Somehow these tools are not very helpful to me. I’m
curious if anyone uses these things consistently day to day month to month?

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twodave
I've found that most organizational/motivational tools aren't sticky. I
suspect for me it's in part because I just don't care enough about being
organized typically and don't lack in motivation as much as I do in free time
(4 kids, 2 jobs).

In fact, the only organizational tool that has remained a constant for me has
been Trello, and only for specific projects. As an example, when I moved mid-
last year, I set up a Trello board and filled it up with everything we needed
to get done, Kanban style. This was super helpful because it helped manage a
sense of being _completely overwhelmed_ by the volume of work needed.

And that's where I basically draw the line now. I tend to not live in a way
where I let myself be overwhelmed by things, and when I need an organizational
tool to help cope with the busy times, I know where to find one that works for
most workflows I could come up with.

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ljoshua
Nicely done. I recently made a progress dashboard for myself that tracked my
billable hours (I consult) for the week/month in a Google Sheet, and have it
pulling the data automatically from Harvest, my time tracker.

Then I have the sheet automatically emailed to myself as a PDF each morning so
I can keep track of where I'm at for the week based on my budgetary needs. It
visually breaks down how close I am to achieving my goals, and shows on a per-
expense basis how much I've filled up the meter for the week (think "The
average citizen spends the first 3 months of the year working to pay for their
healthcare" type of thing).

It's been a great tool for keeping myself on target, and automatically seeing
it every day has been key to its success for me.

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supermw
I highly recommend that everyone make a life progress bar, and look at it
everyday.

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abelgvidal
how would you do it? what would you track?

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supermw
The amount of years you've been alive divided by the life expectancy of your
country.

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dragonwriter
What do you mean “the life expectancy of your country”? Do you mean “the total
(current + remaining) life expectancy for someone of your age in your
country”? Or do you mean “the life expectancy at birth in your birth year in
your country”? Or something else?

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fajarsiddiq
Congratulations Mubaris on the launch. This is awesome product. Much love from
Singapore

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izzydata
A progress bar for a generic period of time that has no real significance like
a month is kind of depressing. It makes me extrapolate a progress bar for
"life" and that I am 35% completed.

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rvn1045
there is another similar one that i use:
[https://www.progressbarosx.com/](https://www.progressbarosx.com/)

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JNRowe
I came to this story hoping for a version of that app for non-MacOS users. For
fellow Linux users with that feeling, I wrote up a _10 minute hack_ ¹ to
emulate it poorly.

1\.
[http://jnrowe.github.io/articles/march_toward_death.html](http://jnrowe.github.io/articles/march_toward_death.html)

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jkesselring
Would it be possible to show some UI for what configurations/options are
available when creating a progress bar or updating an existing one?

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tacone
It would be nice to have for Firefox as well.

~~~
mubaris
Working on it

