I’m writing this post as a brief explanation of the way that I use “backpack”:http://backpackit.com. I’m not going to bother reviewing the service as there are heaps of reviews out there already - besides, you can always decide for yourself by giving it a try.

Backpack is a nifty web application by “37signals”:http://www.37signals.com/ which lets you:

bq. Gather your ideas, to-dos, notes, photos and files online. Set email and mobile reminders so you don’t forget the little things. Easily collaborate with others.

I use backpack to manage my to-do’s and a whole bunch of other information to boot…

As a non-paying user, I can’t store files or pictures, and I’m only able to create a limited number of pages to work with. This isn’t a problem for me as I’ve developed a nice little system using just lists:

My Backpack has three pages at the moment:

* *Home* - My to-do lists.
* *Lists* - Other lists I keep.
* *Projects* - My to-do lists and ideas for the various projects that I am working on.

h3. My *Home* page

This is my “front page” and I use it to keep my various to-do lists. I update this throughout the day and use Damien Tanner’s “Color my Backpack”:http://www.iamrice.org/2006/1/7/color-my-backpack greasemonkey script to tie my to-dos in with Dave Seah’s “Printable CEO”:http://davidseah.com/the-printable-ceo-series/ CGT.

My Home page contains a brief explanation of it’s purpose at the top and has four separate lists:

* *Today at Work* is my list of jobs to do whilst at my day-job. It’s dead simple, and I update it with the next day’s jobs before I go home every evening. As my memory is so terrible it’s a great help to come in every morning and see exactly what I have to do during the day. And of course it’s very satisfying to look at an empty list when six o’clock comes round.
* *Today* contains all the little things I simply _have_ to do in the day. Things like “Phone Dave” or “Draft article - Backpack” or “Get hair cut” go in here, I make sure that by the end of the day I’ve completed everything on the list and updated it with things to do tomorrow.
* *This Week* is a list of things which I’m aiming to get done in the week. I think of it as a mid-term to-do list, where I can put anything that isn’t time-critical. Everything on this list will, at some point, be moved onto my *Today* list so that I can action it.
* Anything which isn’t on these lists goes on my *Long Term* list. This contains things that I really ought to do, but it doesn’t matter when. Some of the to-dos will remain on this for months, while others will quickly move to the weekly list for completion. Every time I check this list I prioritize the items on it and move any that I think are worthy enough to my This Week list.

In general, the only way for an item to get out of the Today list is for it to get done, I do tend to shift items between the weekly and long-term lists as I re-prioratize my tasks. Occasionally items jump from my Today list onto my Weekly or long-term list as other, more important things come up.

I must admit that I derive *great satisfaction* from looking at my weekly list on Sunday night and thinking “Yes! It’s empty!”. A similar feeling sweeps over me every evening when I see that both my today and work lists are empty.

h3. My list of *Lists*

This page contains, at the moment, two lists. I used to keep these in a “writley”:http://www.writley.com document but decided to move them to my backpack a few weeks ago.

* My list of *Things to Blog about* is pretty self-explanatory. When I think of a good subject for an article, It goes in here. Once I have drafted the post, I set the item to ‘done’. this gives me an accessible record of all the articles I’ve published and let’s me prioratize the articles to publish next. I’ve *Seven entries* in this list at them moment. My objective is to empty the list as quickly as possible.

My list of *Things to Buy* is, again, pretty self-explanatory. This lists all the cool little things I need/want to buy when I have the money. At the moment I have “MacBook” in bold at entry number 1.

By keeping these lists handy, whenever I have some spare cash, or whenever I need a new subject to write about, I can just fire up the browser and take a look.

h3. My wonderful *Projects*

This page contains one list, and one notes section for each project I’m working on. I make brief design notes and explanations in the notes section and maintain my to-do’s in the list. A few of the items on my project specific lists can find their way into my main to-do lists, but at least for the most part, I address these items when I have some free time to work on them.

h3. To Summarize

* Backpack is great for keeping multiple to-do lists.
* Backpack is also useful for keeping other lists and information.
* You get an immense sense of satisfaction on completing all the tasks in a list.
* Backpack allows easy switching of items within the lists on a page.

Go and give it a try if you haven’t already.


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