A side project tracker that tells you which ones are actually moving
Most trackers are built for one thing done by a team. A side project tracker has the opposite job: many things, one person, and the honest question of which of them are still alive.
The tools people reach for when they have a few things on the go were built for one piece of work done by several people. That shape is fine for an office. It is the wrong shape for one person with nine ideas, because the question an office asks is "what is everyone doing today" and the question you ask is "which of these is still alive". Those need different tools, and the second one barely exists.
What a team tool gets wrong for one person
A board with columns assumes each item is moving left to right on a schedule. Yours are not. Three are moving this month, four have not been touched since spring, and two you have quietly decided against without ever saying so. A column board shows all nine as equally live, so the four quiet ones sit there looking like debt, and the two dead ones look like debt too. After a while you stop opening it, because opening it feels like being told off.
The other failure is the opposite one. A notes app will hold anything, so it holds everything, and a year later the idea you were most excited about is a heading somewhere under a grocery list. Nothing in a notes app knows that one entry is something you started and another is something you wrote down.
What the tracker needs to know
Four things, and most tools track none of them.
When did this last actually move? Not when you last opened it or renamed it. When did you finish a step, decide the next one, or change your mind about where it stands. That is the number that separates alive from quiet, and it has to be one you cannot nudge by tidying.
What is the next step? One, written down. A thing with no next step is not waiting on time, it is waiting on a decision, and the tracker should be able to tell you which of your things are in that state.
What stage is it at? A spark you have not touched is not the same as something half built, and neither is the same as something you shipped and are now keeping alive. Six words are enough: spark, shaping, building, live, parked, dropped.
If you stopped, why? This is the one nobody keeps. The reason you parked something in March is exactly what you need in September when the idea comes back, and it is the thing a delete button throws away.
How Brassdeck does it
One canvas, one card per thing you started. Each card carries its steps, its next step, its stage and how long since it moved. The clock only moves when something real happens; you can rename, drag and reorder all afternoon and it will not budge. Cards that have gone quiet fade a little rather than turning red, so the board tells you the truth without shouting it. Parking something keeps it on the board with the date; dropping it keeps it with the reason.
On a phone the same cards become a deck you can read and tick from. If you use Claude or ChatGPT, a connector lets it read the board and tell you what is moving, which is a surprisingly good way to start a Monday.
When you should use something else
If there are five of you and the work is one thing with deadlines, use Linear or a column board and do not look back. If what you have is reference material rather than things you started, Notion is better at holding it. Brassdeck is for the pile of things that are yours, and for being honest about which of them are moving.
What it costs
Free is 4 cards with 20 steps each, and it stays free. Every new workspace gets two weeks of the paid tier with no card asked for, and when that ends nothing is deleted or locked. See pricing for the rest, or read the manual first; it is public and there is a PDF.