Get your wedding party involved with Backpack

In HOW TO: Plan a DIY Wedding Using Social Media, a Mashable editor open sources his wedding planning work-flow and shares the tricks he's learned so far. One of his recommended tools: Backpack.

It should be clear by now: planning a wedding is a mammoth undertaking (and ours is relatively small at just over 100 guests). Keeping track of all the details can be difficult, but two tools are potentially invaluable for staying organized as the list of items you need to keep straight for the wedding grows larger. One of those resources is Backpack. Though initially designed for business use, Backpack is a single-page, wiki-style organizer that can be amazingly useful for keeping track of who is doing what, what is left to do, and what has already been accomplished. Because Backpack pages can be shared, you can also use the app to get your wedding party involved — dole out tasks to bridesmaids, groomsmen, and relatives and keep track of everyone’s progress.

Read the full piece for more recommended tools.

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

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.

Always remember with Backpack Reminders

Backpack can send reminders to you via email or as a Mobile SMS/text message. That means you won’t ever forget to attend a meeting, make a call, or any other task that you have to do. You can even set and schedule reminders for your co-workers too.

You can schedule reminders for you or your team by clicking on the Reminders tab in your Backpack account.

1. Give the reminder a name.
2. Choose a time for the reminder.
3. Select the people to notify.

Backpack will automatically send an email message or mobile text message to the people that you selected on the time and date you have chosen.

Watch a quick video on Reminders.

Convert password protected RSS feeds to emails with Feed My Inbox

Want to get your password protected RSS feeds (from Basecamp, Backpack, Highrise, or wherever) delivered via email? Benjamin Stangland, Operations Manager at Weber Marketing Group, offers this tip on converting password protected RSS feeds to emails.

I found a free solution that will convert password protected rss feeds to emails that I just wanted to share with you guys. Since this might help other 37signals customers.

Converting password protected rss feeds seems to be a challenge but www.feedmyinbox.com works.

You have to place your username and password into the feed line itself however.
https://[username]:[password]@[domain]/[path]

We use this all the time with Highrise and love it.

FYI: An email will be sent to you each time the feed is updated, but no more than every 24 hours (to cut down on inbox clutter). Whether there is 1 post or 10 posts to the feed in a 24 hour period, you receive them all in one email.

Have a good tip related to a 37signals product? Let us know.

View your Highrise tasks in your Backpack Calendar (or any other calendar that accepts iCal feeds)

Did you know you can view your Highrise tasks in your Backpack Calendar (or any other calendar that accepts the iCal format)? First, go to your Tasks page and scroll down to the bottom. You'll see a link that says, "Subscribe to your iCalendar task feed."

Copy this link and then add it to your calendar. If you're not sure how to add an iCal feed to your Backpack Calendar, follow the directions at this Backpack FAQ.

Tip: Use Backpack dividers to separate a page's items into alphabetical order

A creative use of Backpack dividers: Use them to separate a page's items into alphabetical order. Each dividing line gets a letter and you can use Backpack's nifty drag and drop options to move items where they belong.

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.

Create an emergency Backpack page

Is your business prepared for an emergency? A good idea: Set up a Backpack page that puts everyone on the same page about what to do when things go wrong.

Let's say you're a company that makes web apps. Set up a page that explains: What do you do when something goes wrong or your app is offline? Whom do you call? What are their numbers? Maybe you need to explain your policy for how to inform customers. For example: After 5 minutes you should update your status blog. After 15 minutes you should send out a note on Twitter. Maybe you need to update a product blog or customer forums or support emails. What are the URLs for all those places? What are the usernames and passwords your team should use? What are the names of your vendors? Who are your contacts there? How can you reach them? Etc.

Having all that info on one page and in one place can be a real lifesaver when things go wrong. Better to plan for it now. If you wait until you need it, it's already too late.

It's a good idea to print out this page or use the "Email me a copy" feature at the bottom of your Backpack pages. That way you'll have a local copy in case you're unable to get online.