Productivity blogger calls Backpack "insanely easy"

Charles Gilkey writes Productive Flourishing, a blog devoted to "all things having to do with flourishing" (i.e. it covers creativity, time management, GTD, personal development, personal productivity, etc.). The site recently asked the question, "Is Backpack Worth the Time and Money?" The answer: Yes!

Backpack proved to be that integrated solution.

Calendar sharing is also a huge feature for me. I’m horrible at telling Angela what I’m doing, even though I often put it in a calendar. My old DotMac service automatically updated her computer when I made changes - so when I no longer had that feature, there was considerable tension as my shifting schedule changed and I didn’t tell her. Having your spouse cook a meal because it’s her turn only to tell her way too late that you’re going to stay late for work causes considerable frustration.

Backpack stepped in quite nicely there, as well. Now when I update my Backpack calendar, she gets an RSS notification that I’ve done so.

But I gained more than those two features. I also really started using the Reminder feature in Backpack, as well. I schedule reminders for important things to remember, and I can set it so that it reminds both of us or one of us. For instance, she had surgery last Thursday, and the doctor informed her that was not to take anti-inflammatory meds for one week prior to her surgery. Rather than try to remember that, I just programmed a reminder that emailed us one week prior indicating that from that she wasn’t supposed to take anti-inflammatory meds during that period. Simple and efficient.

I’ve also been continually using their Pages feature in many different ways. One time I used it to keep a rolling ToDo list for things I needed to do during Annual Training. Another time I used it to keep track of the wines that we like. Another use has been as a shared project tracker. It’s really so easy and modular that you can use it for about whatever you need.

Rarely have I used a product that was so easy, and I dare say fun, that it encouraged me to use it more. Backpack does that to me on a daily basis.

Mad Mimi uses Campfire for customer support and also digs the "Basecamp Vibe" (i.e. beauty, economy, and simplicity)

MadMimi.com is a Brooklyn-based startup providing "a uniquely simple, powerful email marketing service." They utilize Basecamp and Campfire for in-house collaboration on development projects and as their main platform for customer support. Gary Levitt, co-founder of Mad Mimi (that's him in the picture to the left, along with his wife, Leah, also a co-founder), tells us more below.

How we use Basecamp and why we like it
Well we must have referenced Basecamp a hundred times during the conception of Mad Mimi. So to say we like Basecamp is a bit of an understatement. Basecamp helps us handle project collaboration effortlessly. But our affinity goes deeper — Basecamp's simplicity was a muse for us, in that it triggered a shift in our mindset which lead to the creation of our product. Others can debate the logic of this, but to our minds, when you cross Basecamp simplicity with email promotion, you get a fresh, functional alternative to the bloated, template-based services that are currently leading the market. You look at all the reasons why industry leaders are predicting that Mad Mimi will topple the current dominating players in the email marketing industry, and many of those reasons can be credited to the influence of 37signals' products.

In terms of how we use Basecamp, it's interesting. Before our success in email marketing, we were just another New York music production company. At the time, Basecamp let us exchange music files in a cool way. As artists, we were taken in by what we all called the "Basecamp Vibe," which meant beauty, economy, simplicity. As a company, we had to promote ourselves with email, and we hated the web based apps we found — they were charging quite a lot for the pleasure of using the same tired, dated templates. So driven by necessity, and inspired by the "Basecamp Vibe", we put together (collaborating with Dave Hoover and his team at Obtiva Studio) a new way to design, send and track our own e-promos. The software was so effective it became our company's main focus, and that's when we brought in big guns like Tobie Langel to bring it to surprising new levels. What's interesting is that we used Basecamp for managing the collaboration of our team in Chicago, Utah, Switzerland, South Africa and New York in developing our software. In short, Basecamp is a muse...that we use.

Which features we like most
Some months it's one feature, some months it's another. It's a constant process of discovery. For a long time we stayed away from the To-Do lists, and favored only messages. But now To-Do's are a daily routine. There's a tremendous gratification in crossing off tasks and having that "wow, look at what I accomplished" feeling.

What we used before switching to Basecamp
Before Basecamp it was an endless swarm of disorganized emails. I just remember a lot re:re:re:re. There were phone calls, conference calls, cell phone headaches, and the time-eating in-person meetings. Our feeling is face-to-face should be over a relaxing lunch, not over papers. Basecamp actually saved us time, and we were able to enjoy more of those lunches. We used Google Docs on occasion before we switched. Basecamp is more fun, easier, nicer to look at, and seemingly bug free. We still use Google Docs for various odd tasks, but coming back to Basecamp is like coming home to a comfy arm-chair or an old pair of jeans.

How Basecamp helped us out
Well, to begin with, Basecamp helped us out with EVERYTHING. We went from technological imbeciles to technology newbies in no time. Basecamp is much more than a simple app. It was our ENTIRE BUSINESS. Our offices, our conference room, our file cabinets, our calendars, our traffic department, our bulletin board, our lounge, everything. Our team was based in five different cities, so we have to credit Basecamp for taking Mad Mimi from infancy to the launch of a groundbreaking product.

Learn how Mad Mimi uses Campfire for customer service after the jump.

Video: Backpack tips for dragging

This video shows you how to use the Home/End and Page Up/Down keys for dragging items around a Backpack page quickly. Also, you'll see how easy it is to drag an item to a page in the sidebar.

Dashboard widget for Backpack Journal

The latest addition to Backpack: The Journal. And now, if you're a Mac user, you can post your status and create new journal entries right from your Dashboard thanks to Roobasoft.com's Dashboard widget.

Recently, 37signals added a Journal feature to Backpack. I wrote a little dashboard widget that uses their API and can post your status and create new journal entries.

Download BackpackJournal.wdgt

To use this, you’ll need your Backpack API Key. To get that, go to ‘my info’ and click the ‘Show your API key’

After that, enter your text in whichever field you want and hit enter. Only the field you changed will be submitted.

Developers, you can use Backpack's API to create your own add-ons for Backpack.

How eduFire operates as a virtual company using Basecamp, Campfire, and Highrise

eduFire.com has a simple (but not easy) mission: Revolution education. The site says, "Our goal is to create a platform to allow live learning to take place over the Internet anytime from anywhere." Below, Jon Bischke, CEO/Founder of eduFire, tells us how the company uses Basecamp, Campfire, and Highrise to manage a number of aspects of our business.

A virtual company
eduFire is a fully virtual company at this stage with employers and contractors spread across a number of states. We're an early-stage start-up and so two things are important to us: the ability to move quickly and keeping costs low.

We use Basecamp, Campfire and Highrise to manage a number of aspects of our business. While our Campfire usage is pretty standard, we've used Basecamp and Highrise in ways that I think would qualify as pretty unique.

Using Basecamp for new hires
At eduFire we have a team of part-time, work-from-home contractors who help us with everything from guerrilla marketing to welcoming new users to the site. We don't have a very extensive hiring process. Rather we bring them on, set them up with a Basecamp account and assign them an "Intro Level" project. If they do a good job we now give them access to a "Level One" project (something a little more advanced and more mission-critical). If they prove themselves there then we graduate them to a "Level Two" project . It's incredibly important to us to have a piece of software that we can get new users up to speed very quickly with minimal training. I can't think of any other piece of software that would work for this other than Basecamp.

Introducing the Backpack Journal

A few weeks ago we gave everyone a peek at in/out, our internal app for keeping track of who's doing what and what everyone's recently completed.

We mentioned that we were considering building it into Backpack. Today we're pleased to announce that the Journal is now part of Backpack. Just log into your Backpack account and click the Journal tab. The Journal is available on all plans -- from free to Max.

The Journal eliminates the need to constantly ask each other "What are you working on right now?" and "What did you do today?"

Watch a video

A full-size video is also available.

An API too!

As part of the Journal launch, we've updated the Backpack API to include journal entries and status listings. We're excited to see what people build with the journal API.

We hope you find the Journal useful

The Backpack Journal has become an integral part of our work day. We're checking it all the time to see what everyone is busy with and what's been finished. We don't have to bother each other to find out what everyone is up to. It's a huge interruption saver (and we know how interruption is the enemy of productivity).

Washington Post: Highrise "does nearly everything a personal secretary might do except go out for coffee and pick up our dry cleaning"

In 5 Ways to Build Your Virtual Office [Washington Post], author Dan Tynan says, "Running a virtual business is easier (and cheaper) than ever, if you have the right tools." And those right tools include Highrise and Basecamp.

We can't afford to hire an administrative assistant, which is why we use Highrise. Nominally an online CRM tool, 37signals' clever Web app does nearly everything a personal secretary might do except go out for coffee and pick up our dry cleaning.

Of course, the last thing you need is yet another address book to populate. Fortunately, Highrise makes the job easy: Just bcc e-mail messages to a special 'dropbox' address, and your recipient's address joins your contacts database automatically. You can then copy and paste their phone number, physical address, and other info at your leisure. (You can also upload V-cards or import whole address books from Outlook and other contact managers.)

But Highrise is really more about organizing your work life and keeping you on track. You can create a "case" for each project, associate contacts with each case, add notes and upload documents, share the case with colleagues, and add tasks for each person to perform. Highrise is free for two users and up to 250 contacts; paid plans that allow multiple users to swap files, collaborate on cases, and share thousands of contacts range from $24 to $99 a month.

When we need full-on project management, we also use 37signals' Basecamp, which lets us create milestones, view them on a calendar, track successive versions of the same document, and do a whole lot more. You can manage one project with unlimited users for free; for multiple projects, prices start at $24 a month.

Read the rest of 5 Ways to Build Your Virtual Office to learn more about the other recommended tools.

New Basecamp tour videos: 1) Colors & Logos and 2) Comments on Messages

Recently added to the Basecamp videos page: Audio/video tours of 1) Colors & Logos and 2) Comments on Messages.

Colors & Logos
Watch an audio/video tour of colors & logos
Customize your colors and upload your logo to make your Basecamp account yours.

Comments on Messages
Watch an audio/video tour of comments
Communicate back and forth on a given message. Like email but simpler and centralized.

More videos here.

New Highrise Feature: Bulk Tagging

By popular demand, today we formally introduce bulk tagging to Highrise.

You can now tag multiple people at once. You can also tag people you've imported.

Here's a video to show you how it works. We hope you like it and thanks again for your continued support.

Web marketing strategist uses 37signals products to replace spreadsheets, email, an address book, folders and sticky notes

Essential Keystrokes recently published "4 Great Tools to Help You Organize Your Business and Projects from 37signals":

How do you keep track of your contacts, project notes, files, status updates, and sign-offs? For many years I relied on a combination of tools such as an Excel spreadsheet, my email, an address book, folders and sticky notes. As my business has grown and become more mobile (meaning some days I work from Panera Bread, some days from the patio, and others in my main office) I have found these tools just aren’t working for me anymore.

I have looked high and low for a solution that would fit my needs (here are some I tested) and after talking with Leah from Working Solo, I have finally found my answer - Highrise and BackPack from 37signals.

The team at 37signals has created a series of web-based products that help you and your organization stay, well, organized! Each of their products serves a slightly different purpose and a slightly different audience, allowing you to get only the functionality you need in a lightweight, web-based application.

I use Basecamp with some clients when managing a large project that requires input, file sharing and deadlines with more than one person. Basecamp is perfect because all the communication is done in one place, thus eliminating the lost emails, constant forwarding and CC-ing that frequently happen with larger projects. You don’t have to worry about missing anything - Basecamp emails you when someone adds anything to the project.

The product I am hooked on that really works for me as a freelance designer is Highrise. Highrise works as a contact management package with a kick. Not only can I keep track of my client contact information, but I can add notes for each one, create my to do list (and get email updates on what is due or past due), and use the dropbox as a back up feature too. When you pull up a client’s name, you get all of their information and notes all at once which is such a nice feature.

Backpack is a great way for your organization to stay on the same page or for you to keep all your notes and files organized. It is a beefed up calendar, file cabinet and white board all in one place. Use it for one person or the whole organization. Get your reminders sent to your phone or email - so you have no excuses.

Campfire is a great way for organizations to stay on the same page even when you are working from multiple locations. Think of it as your own private group IM. The look and feel is no nonsense, elegant and easy to use.

37signals has other products that make collaboration and organization work for you - it is just a matter of checking each of them out and seeing which one fits you best. For me, the answer is Highrise with a bit of Backpack on the side. Each of the 37 Signals products comes with a free trial and depending on the size of your organization and project needs, some of the solutions are free. You just have to give them a try.

Do you use a 37signals product in an interesting or noteworthy way? Let us know.