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User style: Sortd

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Sortd gave me inner peace. I'm not exaggerating. Sortd is beautiful. Sortd is genius. Sortd is what's missing in Gmail. Its logo is a squirrel, but its software is so smart, it could just as well have been the owl of Minerva.

Sortd currently works in Gmail only. For Outlook users this has to be the best reason yet to change to the bright side!

I'm usually not the most organized person. And email doesn't help. Even Google's greatest invention, labels, won't change that. So, I've always looked for ways to keep me organized. Not anymore: Sortd has made it its mission to get me organized. Did it succeed? The answer is a resounding 'yes'!

Sortd

Sortd is an extension for your browser that adds functionality, in this case to Gmail. To understand what Sortd is all about, it's best to go to their website and view their short video explanation. In a nutshell though: Sortd turns Gmail into a to do list, Kanban-style. According to Wikipedia, Kanban (signboard or billboard in Japanese) is a scheduling system for lean manufacturing and just-in-time manufacturing (Wikipedia). It is also used in Scrum, which is a method for managing projects.
In software this works by putting tasks into columns such as To do, Doing, Researching, Done, etcetera. You can drag your tasks between columns and assign them to team members. It's a way to get things done faster, smarter and often better. Sortd even includes reminders and email tracking.

It's Christmas time!

Sortd can also be used privately, which is how I currently use it.

I like how individual tasks can be colour coded. This offers a handy overview of the types of tasks waiting to be done.

'Inbox zero' used to be a far away dream. But not anymore: at the end of last week my inbox was literally empty. Thanks mostly to Sortd!

What I don't like so much about the way colour styles have been implemented, is how your browser will start to lighten up like a Christmas tree once you start applying colours to tasks:

Screenshot: Sortd by SortdScreenshot: Sortd and its default color codes

Sortd before Stylus

Introducing Stylus! Since Stylus allows you to write and apply your own CSS styles, this is exactly what I used to dim the Christmas tree. And, admittedly, some more while I was at it:

  • I didn't like the column headers in all caps, so now they show both uppercase and lowercase,
  • by default the colour picker doesn't give visual feedback on which colour you are picking; now it shows a 1px black border on mouse hover,
  • the follow-up icon didn't really stand-out, which I think is what a follow-up icon should do.
This is what Sortd looks like after applying the new enhanced user style:

Screenshot: Sortd and its brand new color codes from Stylus

Sortd after Stylus

I also created a separate style sheet to activate a 'secret mode' for those that don't like the subject of their email threads to be displayed on their screen. If it finds two or more mail attachments to a task it will display a push-pin instead:

Screenshot: Sortd hiding mail thread details

Sortd in 'secret mode'

I hope you will check out these styles. Both can be downloaded by clicking on the image links below. Have fun using Sortd and Stylus. And please let me know what you think by leaving a comment below!

Enhanced user style for Sortd:
'Secret mode' user style for Sortd:

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