Ask HN: Personal Dashboard?
What frameworks or services do you use for personal dashboards? Something to keep all of your tasks, goals, financials, etc in one place. Something with api integration for other services like Mint, Todoist, Evernote, etc. Does such a thing exist?
27 comments
I don't really need those things in one place because of the time scales involved.
For example, financial goals might be years away, while tasks might only be minutes away. I don't need to see my financials on the same screen -- they're not going to change drastically on a minute-to-minute (or even month-to-month) basis.
I've never thought about integrating long-term things like financials or goals into my task list before for that reason. Thinking about it now, I can't see any value for me personally, and it would actually decrease the value of my task list.
For example, financial goals might be years away, while tasks might only be minutes away. I don't need to see my financials on the same screen -- they're not going to change drastically on a minute-to-minute (or even month-to-month) basis.
I've never thought about integrating long-term things like financials or goals into my task list before for that reason. Thinking about it now, I can't see any value for me personally, and it would actually decrease the value of my task list.
I'm building it for myself, since I don't think anything will do exactly what I want it to. I wrote https://github.com/upvalue/meditations for this, but it's not nearly as powerful as I'd like and after thinking about this for a long time, I have a pretty solid idea of what I want to do for the next rewrite.
I expect to handle like 80% of what I want and the rest will just have to be bespoke code and other applications (e.g. I don't expect to handle finances -- I'll continue using YNAB but import from it using its API to display financial info in the same place as everything else).
I expect to handle like 80% of what I want and the rest will just have to be bespoke code and other applications (e.g. I don't expect to handle finances -- I'll continue using YNAB but import from it using its API to display financial info in the same place as everything else).
The devil is in the details. I've been working on something similar (looks very different, but similar goals), and I am on my 4th re-write :)
I've worked on some very complex software projects, but creating a simple task/habit tracker that is actually useful has been more difficult than I expected.
I've worked on some very complex software projects, but creating a simple task/habit tracker that is actually useful has been more difficult than I expected.
Yep, I think this is the fifth? I've lost track honestly. I do use it daily, but I know I can do a lot better. The next one probably will not have any noticeable Trello/kanban heritage.
I will say for those working on their own, I started to make breakthroughs on this when I stopped worrying about what other people might want for the eventual open-sourcing or SaaS and just made exactly what I wanted to.
I will say for those working on their own, I started to make breakthroughs on this when I stopped worrying about what other people might want for the eventual open-sourcing or SaaS and just made exactly what I wanted to.
I made one step lower: a collection of microservices that wrap up the APIs of services I use into a cohesive interface and authentication (JWT).
The intention of the project was less about the cohesive interface and more just making it easy for me to do automated data dumps.
https://gitlab.com/TheWatchers
It does feed back into a dashboard I wrote but the code is super simple and dumb. I don't even know if I have open-sourced it. Let me check. You'd have to go in and change stuff probably because it was never meant to be given out.
The intention of the project was less about the cohesive interface and more just making it easy for me to do automated data dumps.
https://gitlab.com/TheWatchers
It does feed back into a dashboard I wrote but the code is super simple and dumb. I don't even know if I have open-sourced it. Let me check. You'd have to go in and change stuff probably because it was never meant to be given out.
I don't think that a good one of these exists or can easily be made because the difficulty of integrating with third party services. Plus, those third parties may not look the same for everyone else.
This is a category of startup I would call "integration hell." For the most part, I would recommend to avoid these ideas if you're looking at pursuing it. However, it can be fruitful if done correctly - i.e Stripe.
This is a category of startup I would call "integration hell." For the most part, I would recommend to avoid these ideas if you're looking at pursuing it. However, it can be fruitful if done correctly - i.e Stripe.
Exist[0] is as close as I can think for this type of thing.
[0]https://exist.io
[0]https://exist.io
Looks like a cool service but sounds somewhat off-putting in that they will have all those data about my behavior. Maybe it would be cool to be able to self-host.
It's just a couple from Australia running it.
They're pretty cool and nice. If you send a support request, it will be one of the developers... who are also the owners.
They also have an option to destroy all the data they have on you.
They're pretty cool and nice. If you send a support request, it will be one of the developers... who are also the owners.
They also have an option to destroy all the data they have on you.
Thanks for sharing, I didn't know that.
Good to know that the owners are "pretty cool and nice" but that is orthogonal to the point.
> They also have an option to destroy all the data they have on you.
Unless open source, the users never know if the data is destroyed or not. Furthermore, it is impossible for the users to verify the checksum of software running on the server side. Therefore on-premise install could be a nice solution.
Good to know that the owners are "pretty cool and nice" but that is orthogonal to the point.
> They also have an option to destroy all the data they have on you.
Unless open source, the users never know if the data is destroyed or not. Furthermore, it is impossible for the users to verify the checksum of software running on the server side. Therefore on-premise install could be a nice solution.
Just use a text file. I once wasted one year creating some such thing: https://github.com/LibreTask/website/blob/master/public/imag...
Hi, fellow HN readers. My friend and I are building the same service where user can choose a widget of their choices (as mentioned in some comments, we think this idea is going to be bottlenecked by the # of integrations), drag and drop, and resize on the screen.
I'm curious how many people would want/benefit from a service like this?
I'm curious how many people would want/benefit from a service like this?
After trying just about everything, I've come full circle to...text files. Specifically, I use Emacs, with a mix of markdown and org-mode. I use a few techniques (Eisenhower matrix, GTD, etc.) to organize things.
Now, a few years in, I've got a fairly simple, light, extremely portable system.
Now, a few years in, I've got a fairly simple, light, extremely portable system.
Like others here, I am building something myself [1].
[1] https://dashboard.darekkay.com/docs/
[1] https://dashboard.darekkay.com/docs/
You might want to take a look at Netvibes[0]
[0]https://www.netvibes.com/en
[0]https://www.netvibes.com/en
Wow. I remember setting up a NetVibes dashboard back in college (circa 2006). I can't believe they're still around.
This service might do what you want https://tryshift.com/
Call me old school but Excel works well for me...
And here I am, thinking I'm the only fool who's rebuilt a private personal dashboard app 5 times in the past 10 years..
Guessing all of you suffer from over-generalization too. One time someone told me I was "too meta" and I thought it was a compliment.
Not that I know of, but I would be really cool. You thinking about building one?
I am. Lots of thoughts, not much action, so far though ...
I am building something that fits this need (https://www.aspen.cloud/owners). It lets you pull together all of your personal data into on database and build apps on top of it! Let me know if you want to contribute, have feedback, or want early access!
Any tool for this MUST be self hosted.
I use notion
A page of iframes would do it!
wtfutil