Why the Backpack Journal is "killer"

In this blog post, Sam Harrelson talks about why the Backpack Journal is "killer":

I'm going back to Backpack for workflow management. The web interface is fantastic (and familiar), I can easily email in material, create seperate pages, feel secure, integrate easily with GMail, Google Calendar and be completely web-based. 

However, the killer app Backpack has going for it is the Journal feature:

I'm using it for product management, status updates to myself and as a "private twitter" etc. It's like the anti-social bookmarketing site Pinboard for micro-messaging.

The article also raves about Satchel, which brings Backpack to your iPhone.

Yes, [Satchel] costs $10, but it's well worth the price. Satchel is speedy, works "offline" (whatever that means anymore), and intuitive. I can also easily update my Journal through Satchel. Plus, there are hacks and apps for getting Backpack to work well as a web app (like GMail) on the iPhone if preferred.

Read the full piece.

Web Worker Daily: A daily checklist in Backpack helps with marketing efforts

Tools and Techniques for Better Lead Generation [Web Worker Daily] argues that maintaining a consistent effort is key to marketing. The author says you need a reliable system so you can see exactly what you’ve done and when, as well as what’s left to be done — and Backpack is a great tool for this:

I have a page set up for each day of the workweek, and I evenly distribute the action tasks for all of my marketing tactics throughout the week.

On a given day, I simply click on that day’s page and get to work on the tasks, which are within a handy checklist (see image above along the left).

As I complete the items, I check them off. My goal is to get through the entire list on any given day. If I don’t get through the list for some reason, my rule is to get through all of the week’s tasks before the following Monday. This provides me with a little flexibility without letting me completely off the hook or allowing me to get too lax with my efforts (thus, adding consistency).

Each Monday, I un-check all the lists on every page, which helps me to stay accountable to my plans and goals for my business. I can clearly see what got done and what did not get done over the previous week. After un-checking the items, I’m ready to begin another week.

Steve Rubel discusses workstreaming with the Backpack Journal

Steve Rubel is SVP, Director of Insights for Edelman Digital, a division of Edelman - the world's largest independent PR firm. He recently posted: "Workstreaming in 140 Characters with Backpack."

Nowadays, status update boxes are everywhere: LinkedIn, Twitter, Friendfeed, Yammer, AIM, GTalk, Facebook and more. The stream is becoming a de facto way that we communicate with others. However, thinking in 140 characters is also changing how I work. I am now using status updates to workstream.

I have dusted off using Backpack as a tool for managing my life. It's improved a lot since I last used it a few years ago. One of their recent additions is the Backpack Journal, which I love. I can update it throughout the day to capture a running log of what I worked on, when. Right now this is just for my own use but Backpack works great in teams as well. Above is a screenshot from my Journal this am. I also update it from my iPhone using an app called Satchel and on the desktop use text expansion software to enter items more quickly. I use codes and phrases to track my time which I refer to when I enter my time reports.

Learn more about workstreaming (i.e. the publishing of work-related activities and events to your remote colleagues, usually via RSS but sometimes in other formats and ways).

Why The Strategic Incubator chooses Backpack for internal project management

Matthew Scott of The Strategic Incubator just wrote: "Internal Project Management: Backpack Is Our Choice."

Think of Backpack as your small business intranet where you share, store, secure, and discuss everything that is important for your team to accomplish a client engagement.

For example, we are currently working on multiple client engagements. We have an office located in Greater NYC area and one in Portland. Occasionally we have specialty contractors from different parts of country. We needed a shared system enabling each person to access, share, and store information vital to the client project success.

I’ll share a brief overview of how we use Backpack within minutes of partnering with a new client.

When Company-X partners with The Strategic Incubator, a process is set in motion:

• We establish a Backpack page of Company X. It takes us about 10 seconds and then we click one button to send an automatic email and text message notifying selected members of our team that we have a new project page.
• Each team member gets to work adding to the to-do list, notes section, and the writeboard section to brainstorm some preliminary creative ideas.

Before Backpack, we would pick-up the phone and receive a work status a few times a day.

Now, we just open our shared and secured Backpack URL site from any computer and in seconds I can see exactly what our individuals are doing.

The full post also includes lots of sharp ideas for how you can use Backpack for your business.

Backpack helps keep author's inbox cleaner by streamlining writing and editing process

In How Backpack Made Me Like Gmail More, Nate Burgos shares how Backpack has helped him keep his inbox cleaner by streamlining his writing and editing process.

When a web-based product (or any designed product or service) inspires this, it’s worth acquiring and using. My editor Silvia acknowledged during our initial use of the trial version that Backpack’s alleviation of multiple emails (not to mention multiple attachments) was a very good thing. Silvia’s comfort level, combined with mine, was upped.

Now my Gmail inbox is thankfully shallower, with fewer messages and files when it comes to my editorial process. Gmail offers high storage but it feels better to arrange, share and store project-based content and information in a systematic way with Backpack. This makes Gmail more breathable and fun.

Read the full article for an in-depth look at how Nate uses Backpack to collaborate with his editor on blog posts and some observations from the organizational move from Gmail to Backpack.

"Each Page serves as a central place to store the stuff pertaining to the topic of that Page, like this for a past topic for a blog entry."

How a business school student uses Highrise and Backpack to aid in his internship hunt

Neil Kelty is in business school and is using Highrise and Backpack to help him in his internship search. Details below.

I'm a freshman at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business studying Economic Consulting & Public Policy Analysis, and I'm in the hunt for an internship this summer.
My search process actually started in Backpack where I created a page with a list of all the internships I had found after scouring the Internet and reaching out to personal contacts. Using that list I was able to narrow my search down to 10-15 organizations that I feel would offer me the best possible fit and experience.

This is where Highrise comes in, because it allows me to mange the organizations offering internships, store all the required documents, track my progress using tags, and keep myself on target with tasks. One of the biggest helps has been the ability to customize the task categories. I've been able to create individual labels for applications, cover Letters, essays, and reference letter requests. Additionally, the "Dates to Remember" field allows me to enter the due date for each application and then Highrise automatically generates a task on my to-do list a week before I must submit the application.

Without Highrise, I'd still be sputtering along with a series of file and folders on my Mac. That process would dramatically slow me down, as I'd have to keep paper to do lists all over the place (and paper doesn't send you an email reminding you to get on the ball, but Highrise does).

Above: Custom Task categories in Highrise.

Above: Using Cases in Highrise.

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Squidoo lens offers tips on using Backpack and GTD and says "Backpack is the way to do GTD"

Sonia Simone created a Squidoo lens called Use 37signals Backpack to manage GTD (Getting Things Done). It talks about how to use Backpack to create "a seamless, easy-to-use GTD implementation that will follow you anywhere you have an Internet connection."

Backpack is a deceptively simple set of tools that can be combined to produce a true blackbelt GTD implementation for hardly any money and in hardly any time...

Far more flexible than the Davidco Outlook add-on, hipper than a hipster PDA, accessible from anywhere you've got a Web connection, cheap, insanely easy to learn, and faster than a speeding bullet. Backpack is the way to do GTD.

If you're trying to get organized and your system is giving you more pain than productivity, give Backpack a shot.

Here's the section on NAs ("next actions"):

"NAs" are "next actions," and they're organized by what David Allen calls context A context is just a situation you find yourself in where you can get something useful done. "Running errands" is a context. So is "working at my home computer."

Some projects are also a GTD context. For example, when I'm in the mood to work on my Squidoo lenses, I want all of my next actions right on the Squidoo project page.

Other contexts are independent of any particular project. "Errands" are a free-floating context, as are "at my computer" and "phone calls." I find that it's easiest to group these together in logical order. I keep an "in the office" next action list on the same page as a "phone calls" list.

Backpack has a simple list functionality that lets you either delete a completed item or simply mark it checked, which moves it to a grayed "completed" area. Keeping the completed NAs around for a few days makes the act of completing them a little more satisfying.

Lists can be dragged from page to page, so if you find that a list doesn't work in a particular context, just drag it somewhere new. You can also drag NAs from one list to another.

There are a lot more specific tips at the lens page.

"A guide to personal productivity" that uses Backpack to stay organized

Russell Quinn's "A guide to personal productivity" details how he uses Backpack to stay organized.

Backpack - This is the cornerstone of everything. A super simple, web-based organisation tool that is so flexible it can accommodate almost any work flow you can think of. Although it has recently grown into a group-based, ‘intranet’ system, it still scales-down to support the lone user.

My tasks are essentially organised into a series of to-do lists that are in turn grouped into a number of pages. My page setup looks like this:

• 0. Dropbox - This is my task inbox. Anything that I have on my mind initially ends up in here, whether it’s a quick admin chore, an idea for a new project, or a life goal - the dropbox gets everything out of my head and stored safely into my system. Backpack even supports emailing text and files directly into this page. It also contains my today/urgent list (more on that later).
• 1. Tasks - General to-dos and things that have a definite goal are grouped together here: ‘buy X a birthday present’, ‘pay electricity bill’ and ‘pump up bicycle tyres’ are all examples of short, succinct tasks. Within this page I have five lists titled General, People, Administration, Finances and Technology, which is what I can categorise most of my tasks into. I often make location-based task lists too. These are groups of tasks that I need to do the next time I’m at at a certain place, like the post office or train station.
• 2. Projects - As I’ve already mentioned, all of my company/team-related projects are in another system entirely. This page is for my solo, non-client projects. The definition of a project, as opposed to a task, is something that has a long term, abstract goal with an ongoing series of tasks to reach it. Examples of projects are Writing, Creative, Learning German and Chess Club. Each project has its own list on the page and always contains the next atomic tasks I need to complete in order to move that project forward.
• 3. Waiting For - A record of everything that I’m waiting for other people to complete. This page is grouped up into Orders (goods that I’ve purchased online and am waiting to arrive in the mail), Administration (usually questions about some legal or taxation issue) and Financial (people who owe me money :)
• 4. To Buy - A simple list of things that I need to buy, grouped by the general locations where I can get them from.
• 5. Someday - This is the daydreaming list. ‘Write a film’, ‘fly to the stars’ and ’save the whale’ are all things I (maybe) want to do at some point in my life, but there’s no way of breaking them down into concrete, atomic tasks at the moment, so they end up here where they’re safe and organised.
• @PAGES - I have a lot of information pages where I just group together thoughts and supporting documents about things I’m working on. I prefix all of these with @’s.
• §PAGES - Finally, I lied slightly about this being a totally personal system. My girlfriend Lucy and I share some pages and these are prefixed with §’s. The examples above are to store films we’d both like to see and who last did the grocery shopping.

The final type of task is the recurring task. These are the things that come around on a regular basis, like visiting the dentist, paying taxes or watering the plants. Backpack supports these too with its ‘reminders’ feature. Simply add the task to receive an email (and optionally an SMS) at the defined interval. Reminders are also great for single items that have a specific deadline - this really helps to keep tasks out of your calendar.

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