Project Management Review: Neptune

Still working my way through my quest for the perfect project management app, and stumbled across this little app after taking my Google searches in a new directions.

Given that most of my requirements for a project management app have more to do with having an organized to-do list than document sharing and multi-user capabilities, I started searching for to-do list programs, and task managers. Out of the results popped Neptune, which intrigued me in the simplicity of what it offered.

Neptune is based on David Allen’s Getting Things Done concept, and is very easy to use, as it’s website promises. Here’s how it fared on my requirements:

• Easy to use – This app is definitely easy to use – registration was a snap, creating new projects and tasks is very intuitive. The only draw back is that if you wanted to be able to track time on a task, you had to toggle the check box, and once the task was created,  you couldn’t go back and change it. So, if you forgot the first time around, you have to delete and start over.
• Time-tracking per task, with start/stop/pause – Neptune only allows you to enter time spent, no start/stop/pause. So you still have to track beginning and ending times elsewhere – not as convenient as I was looking for.
• Attractive design – Yep, simple, clean interface, very intuitive design, without extraneous buttons and things to distract the user from the tasks(s) at hand.
• Multi-users – Neptune does support multi-users in its paid version (only $10/year at the time of this writing)
• Allow clients to email new task requests – tasks can be submitted via email, but mostly them come in without being attached to any specific project, so they still require manual categorizing on the site.

Some other features:

• Drag-and-drop interface makes ordering and reordering very easy
• Because it’s based on GTD principles, only the 1st task for each list is shown by default (GTD places the focus on what the next step is for any project, action or goal, and not necessarily the whole list, which can be overwhelming.)
• You can opt to receive a daily notification of tasks due that day, which can help you get your game-plan for the day set bright and early.

While I really liked the program, and found it to be easier to use than most that I have sampled so far, I’ve concluded that this isn’t the perfect project management app for me. Ultimately, it was the inability for start/stop and pause the timer that was the shortcoming that I couldn’t overcome. However, if you don’t need that capabilities, I’d highly recommend this to anyone that just needs basic project management assistance.

There is a 15 day free trial, so you can take some time to get your feet wet. After that, the paid version is only $10 per year. In the words of my three year old, “How cool is that?”

UPDATE – Sadly, it seems that Neptune is no more.

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• Quest for the perfect project management app
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